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Meklit Hadero's sound is a unique blend of jazz, Ethiopia, artsy San Francisco and visceral poetry. Her first musical performance was only five years ago, and her debut album, On a Day Like This..., is now on music stands.
ALLISON KEYES, host:
nd now we have another treat for you. Today, we revisit our conversation with Ethiopian-born guitarist Meklit Hadero. Her sound is a unique blend. It's an infusion of jazz, rich Ethiopian culture and that artsy San Francisco flavor. It's also got a spicy dash of visceral poetry that paints pictures in your head as you listen.
Hadero's first musical performance was just five years ago. In her first show, she sang songs that were written by other artists. But now she's writing her own music. Her debut album is called "On a Day Like This." Back in March, Meklit joined me to talk about her journey, and we started out by playing her song "Float and Fall."
(Soundbite of song, "Float and Fall")
Ms. MEKLIT HADERO (Musician): (Singing) Well, the sound of your step reminded me of a snow, that winter before I left for good. And the knock that you knocked had an accidental rhythm. Yeah.
KEYES: Oh, my God, it sounded like being in love. It reminded me, anyway, what that was like. Is that what you were writing about?
Ms. HADERO: Actually, I was writing about Brooklyn. Yay. Yay, Brooklyn. I grew up there. I spent my childhood years there, but left when I was 12 years old. And I returned in 2008, and it was just this it was this very romantic experience with the city, with the borough, really, you know, walking down the street and having all these memories just be so alive and having - so many things have changed. And - but yet so many institutions there, the same, my elementary school and all of these stores that were the same.
And so there was this kind of sense of falling through time, you know. Someone could've said, oh, it's 1986 or it's 1992 or it's 2008, and time was just all mixed up in there. But yet it was like this feeling of a very present nostalgia and, like, a loving memory. So that's what that song is about.
(Soundbite of song, "Float and Fall")
Ms. HADERO: (Singing) When in a moment of dark, a moment of light, oh, will memory dance so strange and slow. A moment of darkness and of light. I alive, you alive, we drift and we float and we fall.
KEYES: It's so interesting that you said time, because I was talking before about the lyrics that you write. And one of them in that song was the wrinkles when you smile are like the rings upon a tree. You reminded me of plane rides, baby. And I'm listening, going, yeah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
KEYES: I think it's interesting, 'cause you started out not being in music. You were a political science major, right?
Ms. HADERO: That's right. Mm-hmm.
ALLISON KEYES, host:
And now we have another treat for you. Today, we revisit our conversation with Ethiopian-born guitarist Meklit Hadero. Her sound is a unique blend. It's an infusion of jazz, rich Ethiopian culture and that artsy San Francisco flavor. It's also got a spicy dash of visceral poetry that paints pictures in your head as you listen.
Hadero's first musical performance was just five years ago. In her first show, she sang songs that were written by other artists. But now she's writing her own music. Her debut album is called "On a Day Like This." Back in March, Meklit joined me to talk about her journey, and we started out by playing her song "Float and Fall."
(Soundbite of song, "Float and Fall")
Ms. MEKLIT HADERO (Musician): (Singing) Well, the sound of your step reminded me of a snow, that winter before I left for good. And the knock that you knocked had an accidental rhythm. Yeah.
KEYES: Oh, my God, it sounded like being in love. It reminded me, anyway, what that was like. Is that what you were writing about?
Ms. HADERO: Actually, I was writing about Brooklyn. Yay. Yay, Brooklyn. I grew up there. I spent my childhood years there, but left when I was 12 years old. And I returned in 2008, and it was just this it was this very romantic experience with the city, with the borough, really, you know, walking down the street and having all these memories just be so alive and having - so many things have changed. And - but yet so many institutions there, the same, my elementary school and all of these stores that were the same.
And so there was this kind of sense of falling through time, you know. Someone could've said, oh, it's 1986 or it's 1992 or it's 2008, and time was just all mixed up in there. But yet it was like this feeling of a very present nostalgia and, like, a loving memory. So that's what that song is about.
(Soundbite of song, "Float and Fall")
Ms. HADERO: (Singing) When in a moment of dark, a moment of light, oh, will memory dance so strange and slow. A moment of darkness and of light. I alive, you alive, we drift and we float and we fall.
KEYES: It's so interesting that you said time, because I was talking before about the lyrics that you write. And one of them in that song was the wrinkles when you smile are like the rings upon a tree. You reminded me of plane rides, baby. And I'm listening, going, yeah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
KEYES: I think it's interesting, 'cause you started out not being in music. You were a political science major, right?
Ms. HADERO: That's right. Mm-hmm.
KEYES: How'd you make that very cool left turn into artsy?
Ms. HADERO: Well, it's hard to not get a little bit artsy when you move to San Francisco, you know.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. HADERO: There are so many things that point to it here. But I moved to San Francisco in 2004 and, really, with the intention of beginning to take music more seriously. I didn't really know what that meant. I started taking voice lessons and started doing some songwriting. And kind of the return on it was just huge. It was like every step I took in that direction was just - that effort and energy was returned a hundredfold.
And so I became really imbedded in an arts community here in San Francisco in the Mission District. I began curating for a street-level arts festival and then began running an interdisciplinary arts and performance space called the Red Poppy Art House. And once all that happened, you know, my friends were artists and they were really deep in their craft. And it was so inspiring, and that kind of momentum carried me along.
KEYES: When you say you didn't know what that meant, do you mean the actual thing of being, okay, I am artist, I am a singer, I am supporting myself and therefore you have a different, say, mission, than you would've had as a political scientist?
Ms. HADERO: I feel like there aren't very many role models that we have of people who are artists who are in the world in a kind of real way, right? Because once people become successful, there's kind of this fantasy element that comes in. And so it's like when you're trying to plan your life and you're thinking, you know, what is my life going to be like, it doesn't feel real.
And, again, that's where my community really came in, because I did have those people around me. And I also had a real partnership with, I think, the ideas that I was working with in political science, which were all about social justice and community engagement and really being able to merge the two. Like, for example, on my card, you know, when I give people my card, it says singer/musician/cultural activist. And I do a lot of work...
KEYES: That is so cool.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. HADERO: I like that term. And I do a lot of work with arts and culture, using music and culture to bring people together and to be able to dialogue across boundaries and borders.
KEYES: I know - or at least I've heard a rumor that you brought your guitar with you. So perhaps we can get you to play - and I may mispronounce this, "Abbay Mado?"
Ms. HADERO: "Abbay Mado."
KEYES: Mado. It's a traditional Ethiopian song.
Ms. HADERO: Mm-hmm. It is. Yeah. I could play that, sure.
KEYES: Okay.
(Soundbite of song, "Abbay Mado")
Ms. HADERO: (Singing in foreign language)
KEYES: That was gorgeous. Tell us what it means.
Complete on http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127217862&ft=1&f=1039
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