Ayi'Shalehu by the late Legend Dereje Makonnen

The words

enough said...
if the song has moved you then please share
Constructive Criticism only please.

The strings arrangements / and the chord changes are DJ style (that is for those who know his work)
1Love

Amelay by the late Legend Dereje Makonnen

One of the greatest arrangement to date ...
This is with Aster Aweke and great saxophonist from Ethiopia Tilaye Gebre (https://www.facebook.com/tilaye.gebre?fref=ts)
Great Lyrics that you can so vividly imagine and become your own director
This is also one of the first recording using the Roland CompuRhythm CR-5000 (the first in the Ethiopian Music Circuit)
Enjoy

Goblahlay - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

Song:               Feh’Qir Anesseh’gn
Vocals:             Aster Aweke
Arrangement:    The Makonnens
Produced by:     The Makonnens
Performed by:    The Makonnens
__________________________________
The MAKONNENs:
Teddy MAK:   Keyboards
Dereje MAK:   Keyboards/Drum Machine/Guitars
Abiy MAK:      Bass
__________________________________
Special guest Star:
Tilaye Gebre:  Saxophone
__________________________________
Do you know this song? I am confident you do… but are you sure? 

You may have heard it so many times how it was re-recorded when Aster went to the UK to have it pressed on vinyl with two great musicians that Dereje MAK mentored: Abegasu S. & Henock T.  But this song goes way beyond what the young people know. This song marked the dawn of a new era in Ethiopian Music.  Prior to this revolutionary movement, your countrymen and women were forced to listen to a marching band in the state-run television studios or were regaled by the sounds of Ethiopian string instruments {ie: kirar, masinqo & begena}. Modern music was on its way but was narrowed down to the sounds of electric bass and guitars.  Many arrangements were sufficiently done if they consisted of the normal wind instruments, the sound of drums to which any sound over/under the frequency of the snare/hi-hats was muted or the recording never picked it up.

You have to understand that what you are about to hear is an arrangement that still to this day will be hard to emulate. Listen to the song attentively. You will automatically, right from the first bar, may recognize the sound of a ROLAND CR-5000 Rhythm machine that coincidentally happened to make its debut into the Ethiopian Music scene on this album. Then you get to hear the tight arrangement of the {Intro} for the song which might ring a bell since on the re-recording major parts of it were used but unlike what you are about to hear. 

The beauty of it though is, for the listeners who are set on their headphones, nothing ever repeats except for the {Intro}. From the bass line on {Chiferra1 to 2 and 3} it was meticulously done to excite the listener to discover the difference between the first movement and the last bar you just heard. The sound of the {Effect} was just a stroke of genius for the simple fact that it has never been done before. By taking a chance you create a world of new sound, new way of arranging and a new way of captivating the audience. At the time when this album came out, the crowd may have not been ready for this sort of music but even to this day when you play the original arrangement for this song, people are baffled by it. “It was a complex production that was made easy since the ones creating and performing it were sending soundwaves in-between themselves”: remembers the guest star: Tilaye Gebre. 

When we caught up with Tilaye G. in Washington DC, where he resides, he said:”You brothers did something NEW… this type of arrangement hasn’t been done yet. It had yet to come from the future. Everytime I approached the microphone to play {Intro/Chiferra/Outro} parts, I was over-joyed to be able to share recording times with them”. “What was it?”, he added, “Yeah, I think there was a strong connection that people like me can’t see but can atune to by sharing the stage and studio time”.

I am one of their brothers. But I am also looking in from the outside when it comes to this production. I believe there were the original 8 to maybe 9 cuts on this album. Listen to the strings arrangement by Dereje MAK on this song. Are you able to discern the different sets @02:39 @03:38 @04:58 and @05:34 on the timer?  

Song uploaded at http://4epeople.tumblr.com for your listening pleasure.

Intro1:::::::::00:00 to 00:33
Chiferra1::::::00:34 to 00:50
Verse 1::::::::00:51 to 01:08
Lead-in::::::::01:09 to 01:24
Effect::::::::::01:25 to 01:28
Chorus:::::::::01:29 to 01:53
Verse 2::::::::01:54 to 02:36
Intro2::::::::::02:37 to 02:51
Verse 1*:::::::02:52 to 03:09
Chiferra2:::::::03:10 to 03:24
Effect::::::::::03:25 to 03:28
Chorus:::::::::03:29 to 03:57
Verse 3::::::::03:58 to 04:15
Chiferra3:::::::04:16 to 04:39
Intro3::::::::::04:40 to 04:55
Verse1:::::::::04:56 to 05:12
Lead-in::::::::05:13 to 05:29
Effect:::::::::05:30 to 05:33
Chorus::::::::05:34 to 06:02
Verse4::::::::06:03 to 06:45
Outro:::::::::06:46 to 07:02
End.

Feh'Qehr Anesegn - Arrangement by the Makonnens

Tribute to DerejeMakonnen 
Play the music and know the Legend
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Yene Wolela - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

Yené wolela -  - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

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Play it to the world.
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Addis Abeba - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

Addis Abeba -  - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

Tribute to DerejeMakonnen 
Play it to the world.
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Segno leteh  - - Arrangment by the late legend Dereje Makonnen

The Man 
The Legend
The 1
always lives on.

Simply one of the best musician you will ever get to meet.

To most of his adoring fans that got close to knowing him by first name, he was just simply known to them as “DJ” and more importantly to his own family and ours, we called him Dereje. The 5th one down from a family of eleven (also his favorite chord progression…) and in my humble opinion: the most gifted keyboard player there is among Ethiopian Musicians. GO ahead and ask any well-established musician in the Ethiopian Music circuit… they all know him as just simply “DJ”. His composition style and rhythm arrangement has mentored many of the up-and-coming musicians in our own communities. Dereje “DJ” Makonnen was not one to drop names nor pre-occupy his time and energy with whom he has worked with and/or help bring them to stardom, he wanted to play music since he can actually see the blueprint of what the song should be each time the singer/artist bring the lyrics and the “Zema” (pronounced Zay_MAH: a word in amharic which means melody). The lyrics of a song always send the message across to the listening audience but it is the song that carry the tune into everybody’s ear and make them remember it each time they hear the first few bars of the song. After few years of tenure with the Dallol Band in Chicago, IL whom during the last heydays of the band they were touring with Ziggy & the Melody Makers on both Conscious Party (1988) and One Bright Day (1989) albums. It was right after the tour that DJ along with Ruphael, Bryan “Rocket”, Asrat and Kahali Makonnen who was later replaced by Clem Julien formed Gizzae in 1991. Gizzae soon became a fan favorite in the Chicago and Midwest reggae scene. Every Sunday night, if you were a reggae music lover, you were at the Wild Hare waiting for Gizzae to take the stage. Dereje Makonnen was one of the key element in revolutionizing modern Ethiopian Music (meaning using non-traditional musical instruments) He was always playing the guitar [his favorite instrument] the keys and also the bass at the forefront of trying new sounds and arrangement styles that no one was attempting. Many of the current Ethiopian musicians refer to him as a mentor.

Here are some of his works: Gigi’s first album called One Ethiopia. It was produced by the ONE: Dereje (DJ) Makonnen who was the keyboard player for The Ibex Band back in the 1970’s. As you probably know The Ibex Band backed Mahmoud Ahmed on three albums Ethiopiques 6, 7 and 19. Later, he was a founding member of the Dallol Band, a reggae band based in Chicago. Dallol backed Ziggy Marley in his two Grammy winning albums, “Tomorrow People” and “One Bright Day” ZIGGY MARLEY AND THE MELODY MAKERS. LP ‘Conscious Party’ (Virgin 208930-630). Recorded 15.10.87 in New York, Sigma Sound Studios. Producers: Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. Sound engineer:Glenn Rosenstein. Incl.- Lee And Molly (Ziggy Marley) -album version Line-up: KR (gtr)/Ziggy Marley (voc)/Steve Marley (voc)/Cedella Marley and Sharon Pendergast (bvoc)/Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith (sax, gtrs)/Mulu Gessesse (gtr)/Zeleke Gessesse (bass)/Asrat Aemro Selassie (tamb, jawbone)/Ruphael W’Mariam (dr, timbali)/Lenny Pickett (sax, contrabass sarrusophone)/Franklyn Waul, Melaku Retter and Dereje Makonnen (keyb) 

I cannot begin to tell you how much good it does to my heart whenever I hear the “then” up-n-coming and some of the NEW generation musicians speak about how DJ introduced them to a whole new level of arranging music. 1Love to All of you. I will be uploading most of his work on his myspace and also at his new soundcloud.com profile ~ People need to hear his music and dissect his lyrics - you need to know the message behind the music, the celebration, the unknown chord changes that still to this day people cannot believe how he came about to arrange the song the way he did. Yes, he is my brother but some of us looked at him in amazement… still do. Listen to the strings arrangements on Gigi 1st album One Ethiopia … Love2All

Tribute to DerejeMakonnen

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