Either / Orchestra & Ethiopian Guests - Nalbandian The Ethiopian - 2x 180g Vinyl LPs

2026

The prestigious Ethiopiques series returns! Before "Swinging Addis" took over the world, there was Moussie Nerses Nalbandian - the Armenian-born composer who shaped modern Ethiopian music. Mentor, arranger, and pioneer, he laid the foundations of Ethio-jazz. This Ethiopiques volume revives his forgotten legacy, recorded live with the Either/Orchestra. First issue ever with new, exclusive photos!

Ethiopiques 32: Nalbandian the Ethiopian & Either/Orchestra brings to life music by Nerses Nalbandian, an Armenian refugee who moved to Ethiopia in 1938 and rose to become the favourite musician of Emperor Haile Selassie. An eclectic musician with a great love for American music, he was essential in the creation of Ethiopian jazz, leading the Orchestra of the National Theater, configured as a jazz big band and featuring many of the future solo stars of Ethiopia.

Nalbandian's music has seldom been played after Haile Selassie was deposed by the Derg dictatorship in 1974. In 2004, when the Either/Orchestra first played in Ethiopia, Nalbandian's children heard the E/O and - together with Ethiopiques curator Francis Falceto - proposed that the E/O revive Nerses's music. Bandleader Gershon reconstructed and rearranged the music from scores and recordings, and the band returned to Addis Ababa in 2011 to perform the music with Ethiopian guests.

Now, at last, live and studio recordings of the Nalbandian music will be given proper release on Ethiopiques, considered among the best world music recording series ever made.