Debo Band

Debo Band
Debo Band, playing Philadelphia in 2016
Background information
Also known as	Debo
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Genres	Ethiojazz Ethiopian music
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Sub Pop FPE Records
Associated acts	Fendika Qwanqwa Devil Music Ensemble Stick and Rag Village Orchestra Fat Day
Website	www.deboband.com

Debo Band (also known simply as Debo) are a Boston-based Ethiopian music ensemble led by saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by vocalist Bruck Tesfaye. Ranging from 10–12 members playing horns, guitars, violins, percussion, and accordion, their sound incorporates Ethiojazz, folk, and pop styles from the Horn of Africa infused with tinges of motifs from Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as punk, experimental, and psychedelic rock.Rolling Stone described Debo's sound as, "guitar solos, massed vocals, violin and brass [that] rush in like a Red Bulled marching band...Dance at your own risk."

Sudanese-born saxophone player Danny Mekonnen had grown up in Texas listening to his parents' home taped Ethiopian pop cassettes. In middle school he became obsessed with American jazz of the 1950s and 1960s, pouring over records by John Coltrane and Miles Davis and went on to study and play jazz at the University of Texas. In the early 2000s he moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and being gigging in Boston's diverse music scene. In wanting to musically connect to his Ethiopian-American heritage, Mekonnen assembled a trio with vocalist Bruck Tesfaye to learn a few Ethioian pop songs. They sought to expand the group and recruited members of Boston's recently defunct Stick and Rag Village Orchestra, a group of self-taught musicians who'd played old-time circus tunes, as well as klezmer and Balkan brass standards as part of the burgeoning radical street band movement. They worked out several tunes from the canon of Ethio-pop and jazz heard on the Éthiopiques compact disc series and recruited local members of the Ethiopian community to sing. "These were amazing people who had completely internalized the rhythms and melodies that we were struggling to learn," Mekonnen told The Boston Phoenix. "You couldn't say, 'Come in after four bars.' They didn't know what a bar was. It was an adventure for everyone." After many performances for the Ethiopian community, Bruck Tesfaye stayed on as the band's permanent singer, and the group took on the name "Debo" meaning "communal labor."