The Ethiopian-born, Oakland-based artist Meklit will perform at Rickshaw Stop on May 6th!
Combining Ethiopian jazz influences with soul and pop, Meklit’s music melds complex rhythms with vibrant melodies. Her new album When the People Move, the Music Moves Too will be released on June 23rd through Six Degrees Records, and was produced by multi-grammy winning artist Dan Wilson of Semisonic (Adele, John Legend) and features Andrew Bird as well as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band horns on several tracks.
When the People Move, the Music Moves Too is the result of a fateful encounter Meklit experienced in Addis Ababa with the legendary vibraphonist/composer Mulatu Astatke, who helped spark Ethiopia’s 1960s musical renaissance. She was deeply engaged with his music at the time, but he pushed her to think about how to bring her own experiences into her songs – “He was very pointed with me, saying several times ‘You keep innovating!’” she recalls. “He took me to task and he tasked me. It took me a while to digest that. It’s a big thing to have someone like that say that to you. I sat with it for a couple of years.”