Éthiopiques is back! Armenian-born composer, arranger and instructor Nerses Nalbandian was the key pioneer of modern Ethiopian music. He laid the foundations for Swinging Addis and for ethio-jazz. This volume revives Nalbandian’s forgotten legacy, recorded live by the Either/Orchestra & Ethiopian Guests.

“Ethiopian jazzmen are the best musicians that we have seen so far in Africa. They really are promising handlers of jazz instruments.”    -Wilbur De Paris  (1959, after a concert in Addis Ababa)

አዲስ፡ዘመን። Addis zèmèn A new era.
The time is the mid-1950s and early 1960s, just before "Swinging Addis" bloomed – or rather boomed – onto the scene. Brass instruments are still dominant, but the advent of the electric guitar, and the very first electronic organs, are just around the corner. Rock’n'Roll, R’n’B, Soul and the Twist have not yet barged their way in. Addis Ababa is steeped in the big band atmosphere of the post-war era, with Glenn Miller's In the Mood as its world-wide theme song, neck and neck with the Latin craze that was in vogue at the same period. 
Two generations of Nalbandian musicians:
Nersès Nalbandian belonged to a family of Armenian exiles, who had moved to Ethiopia in the mid-1920s. The uncle Kevork arrived along with the fabled "Arba Lidjotch", the "40 Kids", young Armenian orphans and musicians that the Ras Tafari had recruited when he visited Jerusalem in 1924, intending to turn their brass band into the official imperial band. If Kevork Nalbandian was the one who first opened the way of modernism, pushing innovation so far as to invent musical theatre, it was his nephew Nersès who would go on to become, from the 1940s and until his death in 1977, a pivotal figure of modern Ethiopian music and of the heights it. And it is Nersès Nalbandian who is largely to thank for the brassy colours that so greatly contributed to the international renown of Ethiopian groove.

• Label: Heavenly Sweetness – HS277VL
• Title: ETHIOPIQUES 32: NALBANDIAN THE ETHIOPIAN: EITHER/ORCHESTRA & ETHIOPIAN GUESTS
• Format: 2xLP, Stereo
• Origin: France
• Released: 2025
• Track Listing:
  1. 1. Amhara Rumba
     2. Mot Lèhulum Ekul Nèw
     3. Yèné hassab
        1. 1. Hulèt Wèddo Ayhonem
           2. Eyéyé
           3. Tebèb Nèw Tèqami
           4. Afriqa [O.A.U Anthem]
     4. Ambassel
     5. Lebé Men Atèfa
     6. Enegènagnalèn
     7. Qèlèméwa
        1. 1. Mambo - Aznalènu Selanté
           2. Yètezeta Roro
           3. Adèrètch Arada