When Traditional Food Morphs into a Neo-Soul Music

When Traditional Food Morphs into a Neo-Soul Music

Tedros Markos

A colleague of mine was telling me the other day of an amazingly impressive incident he observed at the Fourth National Eri-Youth Festival 2010. It is common knowledge that EriAm Sisters and Eri-Artists from the diaspora were among the prominent cultural troupes that staged marvelous musical shows. With an improvised rendition of a very well-known piece of music, Saba Tewelde took control of the podium owing to her exciting vocals that resonates Astyni May Tsemaeko–Offer Me a Drink of Water–from the main stage.

Surprisingly, a plastic bottle of mineral water flung judged well from amidst a multitude of vibrantly dancing spectators towards the platform. I was imagining of an act characterized by modern concept of developmental drama in a theatre, where the actors would interact with the audience in an attempt to effect slight improvisation in the course of the live performance. Without the least bearing on her performance, however, she got hold of the bottle of water with careful sports womanship.

My colleague recounts, I deverbalize. I hungered after an excellent photograph of this wonderful episode, which I could not find, rather than her symbolic quest to satiate her appetite. But who is Saba Tewelde, the artist imploring for a thirst-quenching drink of water?

Born in Eritrea, Saba moved with her family to Germany during the protracted war against colonial Ethiopia. Having earned her diploma in business and language studies, she began to work in a bank in Germany. Ever since age nine, she felt that music would play a major role in her life. Without any formal education in music, she learned through experience pulling a dedicated crowd of fans. Music makes me feel complete and sharpens my emotions, she says. Saba discovered the variety and beauty within the many different styles of music listening to Jazz, R&B, hip-hop, Fusion-World music and more. She made her debut with an international musical group The Gospel Tribe–Magica–a mix of Afro-Gospel-Dance.

“My voice was always eager to find challenges in different languages and styles,” she says. “My first professional journey in music was when I joined an International musical group the “Gospel Tribe”, interesting mix of Afro-Spirituals- Dance, with whom I toured for a while and learned a lot because of the diversity of the cast. My musical highlight so far was performing in Senegal AFRICA with the project “African Conscience” based in Paris.

She toured for a couple of years with this crew of diverse artists staging different shows. In 2004, Saba teamed up with local musicians in Frankfurt to work on songs in her mother tongue Tigrinya, which eventually gave rise to Injera Soul. Injera Soul band played in festivals and a number of venues in Germany followed by a successful concert in New York. Injera Soul was nominated for the German World Music Award “Creole” as the best new corner. Also, in 2009, Injera Soul received the Shanet Award Golden Mic in Stockholm from the Eritrean festival committee.

She also took part in the UNESCO World Conference for Education 2009 that was held in Germany in which Ministers of Education from all over the world participated.

Saba calls her music Injera Soul, after the traditional Eritrean dish. We diaspora Eritreans were raised on it, a constant reminder of a home far away. I hope that my music is just as nourishing to the soul.” She describes Injera as the soul food that gets people to sit round a large communal tray set on a low table. Injera is a rather sour soft, fluffy oven loaf made from flour of cereal grains fermented in water. With talent in diverse musical venues, she travelled last summer to perform in the 4th Sawa Festival 2010 along with other artists from USA, Europe, and Middle East. In the tour, Saba was among the talented group known as Eri-Artists. The biannual Eri-Youth Festival, which is held in Sawa, gathers tens of thousands of Eritrean youth taking part from inside the country and abroad. Sawa Festival is intended to gather many talents from every corner of the world, thereby fostering friendship, creativity, as well as ties to their Eritrean roots.

“How blessed I felt to be able to sing in the motherland!” Saba explains. Back from the Fourth Eri- Youth 2010 in Sawa, Saba had a hand in the inaugural ceremony of CECAFA 2010, an eventful soccer tournament that ran on August 14 through 28. The artist, who expresses herself as a world citizen, is currently in London recording her album. Her part-time career is now working for a bank so that she would manage to finance her passion: music. Saba’s MySpace webpage reads that Injera Soul is an Afro-Soul music inspired by ethno jazz: ranging from blue notes to groovy percussion rhythms.

“Injera Soul soulfully unites different moods in their music. The lyrics are mainly sung in Tigrinya and English. “We formed Injera Soul at the beginning of 2004. They say, once tasted you don’t want to miss Injera anymore...truth that! To me Injera is not simply something to eat. Injera is culture! It keeps your body and soul intact! Excuse me?? You didn’t try it yet?? Well you know what to do next,” she writes.

Music has always been a covenant she entered into since her early school years. Injera Soul Band is composed of Saba Tewelde vocal, Nina Hacker Bass, Guitar Christoph Maurer Drums, Andreas Neuwirth Piano, as well as Gunnar J. Ãrgens violin. Saba is best known for Soul and/or Afro-beat music. You can find considerable hits of her performances on the Internet including “Tesfa Kabana”, a CD featuring 20 hot tracks, 20 Eritrean young talents from across the world.

“I went to school at an early age in Frankfurt. I was interested in music already at school. I loved singing and wanted to be a singer. My parents were not able to afford my music classes financially. I wanted to learn to play piano but financial difficulties debarred me from taking piano lessons. I was not discouraged. I did not like the regular school curriculum and I had difficulties with some of the subjects. I knew I had to deal with the difficulties.

“I dealt with them and overcame them. Going through the difficulties and overcoming them made me stronger. I was determined to get into the music business and become a music artist. I started looking for contacts in the music scene and finally got the chance to perform in a musical in Frankfurt. I was learning to sing by doing. With more practice, I improved. Later, I started receiving offers as a background vocalist from different music groups. I traveled around Europe performing with Reggae, hip-hop and African music troupes. I gained a lot of experience, which motivated me to start thinking about developing my own style of music. I wanted to do rhythms with lyrics in my mother tongue, Tigrinya. I have a great deal of resources I could draw from and integrate in my music,” Saba states.

Relying on the experiences she has gained thus far, her unyielding efforts yonder the prospects beyond the current reality. “Apart from the Afro-Reggae, hip-hop, Soul and African ballad influences, my participating in the musical “Gospel Tribe” gave me valuable vocal and stage performance experiences.

I am now in a position to combine all my experiences. I like to incorporate diverse styles into my music compositions. Creativity is very important to me. I want to be flexible and be able to do different types of music. My music should be globally acceptable; a sort of world music. After experimenting and mixing different flavors, I have come up with my own music and formed my own band–Injera Soul.

“I wish that more people of African descent would attend all- African concerts or events such as the Black Media Congress, as well as the May Ayim Award. I attended both events. Although I went to the events without any specific expectation, somehow I wished I could meet people who are active in the media sector and the music business. I was hoping to meet music artists, discuss, exchange views and probably find a way of working together. The events were good but more interesting programs could be included in the May Ayim Award to make it more attractive. Including more artists and music shows for instance, would be very interesting to me personally. In terms of literature, I love to read biographical essays or stories. I like reading about how people achieve their goals. I hope to continue learning and progressing steadily until I achieve my goal as an acclaimed artist in the music industry.

Saba hopes that her music would help develop and put Eritrean music and vibrant culture at the forefront of the international music scene. Mathieu Karsenti a.k.a SoulEm, a London UK based music producer witnesses that together, they have explored many musical directions fusing jazz, soundtrack, R&B, Soul, Neo-Soul, funk and Ethnic influences. “What attracted me to this project was firstly Saba’s voice: a fascinating mix of influences, different voice qualities ranging from child to mature woman, her range and warm tone. Secondly, Saba’s openness and creativity allowed me to express different moods, mix different genres (all steeped in Soul though!) and create a tapestry or arrangements to complement her artistry.”

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