Meklit Hadero

A few years ago, Meklit Hadero was doing a 9-to-5 administrative gig at the Haas Foundation here and taking private vocal lessons on the side. The sweet-voiced, Ethiopian-born Yale graduate wasn't figuring on a singing career. But after an unforgettable night at the funky little Red Poppy Art House on Folsom Street, music became her life and the day job tapered away.

Walking into the little Mission District room for the first time, she found two guitar players in opposite corners, a drummer in a third and a guy playing the oud, an ancient North African lute, up in the tiny loft. "It was an incredible experience. You were surrounded by the music," Hadero says. "They were playing a groove, and everyone was kind of bopping, then suddenly this guy Fernando started signing a call-and-response, and everything just sparked. The whole room became like one. It's very rare to feel that connected to one person, let alone a whole room full of people. I thought, 'Wow, what is this place?' "

Smitten, she eventually started singing at the multidisciplinary art house, where you can learn to draw or dance flamenco, and where some of the most creative young musicians in town play for receptive crowds. It's now home base for Hadero, an artist in residence, who's cropping up in a number of interesting settings these days, playing solo dates here, around the Northwest and elsewhere, and with Nefasha Ayer, a cross-cultural band that riffs on dancing grooves and floating melodies.
Simple tunes

Tonight at Epic Arts in Berkeley, Hadero performs the simple tunes on her first CD, "Eight Songs," on a triple bill with two other "black women and their guitars," as she jokingly puts it: Cristina Orbe and Akosua. On Sunday, Nefasha Ayer gets down at Amnesia on Valencia Street.

A few Saturdays ago, the band, whose name means "the wind that travels" in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, stirred up the crowd packed into the Red Poppy. A loose-limbed group that stitches ragas and reggae, Ethiopian jazz and Congolese grooves, the band was formed by Hadero and guitarist Todd Brown, a painter who started the art house in 2003 with tango dancer Alexander Allende and now directs the nonprofit with Hadero. The music aims to explore the longing of people caught between countries and cultures, "the space of in-between," where the sounds of Africa, India and the Americas connect. The players include classical Indian and jazz saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan, master Afro-Peruvian percussionist Lalo Izquierdo on the box drum called the cajón, bassist Miles Jay, Abdi Jibril from Kenya on congas and maracas, and Keenan Webster playing the West African marimba called the balafon and the lute-like kora.

"What was so joyous that night was that we were all from different cultural backgrounds. But we were expressing it with the music, without having to say a thing," says Hadero, 27, who was born in Addis Ababa but grew up in Iowa and Brooklyn. Her parents are both doctors who left Ethiopia in the violent years following the 1974 revolution, going first to East Germany, then, after making it across to West Berlin, to the United States, with the help of Catholic Charities. They landed in Iowa, where they had a friend. Her father got a residency in New York, where the family lived for many years. (Now divorced, her father lives in Florida, her mother in Seattle, where Hadero's cousin, noted rapper Gabriel Teodros, also lives.) A bright, soft-spoken woman who wears flowing clothes and a flower in her hair, Hadero sings in English and Amharic. She projects an inner glow as her gentle voice moves in and out of the sound like a jazz instrumentalist - and her hands do a few Hindu-like waves - rather than calling attention to itself.
Flowers in her hair

"I always wanted to be a singer, I just didn't know if I could do it," says Hadero, sitting on a stool at the Red Poppy, sipping coffee from a mug bearing van Gogh's "Starry Night." She's wearing an orange sundress and a white silk orchid in her hair. She's been wearing a flower, real and fake, since college and can't seem to shake it. "It expresses some very basic part of who I am," she says, smiling. "It's pretty direct."

Hadero sang in choirs in grade school - she was 12 when a piano teacher turned her on to Billie Holiday - and in high school, and occasionally sang a tune a cappella in a performance series she started at Yale, where she studied political science. After moving here, she studied voice with David Babich and other local teachers and took songwriting, musicianship and guitar classes at Blue Bear School of Music. She took the leap after Brown urged her to sing at one of the shows the Mission Arts & Performance Project puts on at the Red Poppy and other neighborhood spots. Brown had never heard her, but sensed she had something. She sang an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "Waiting in Vain" and Brown was sold.

"I did it on a leap of faith," says Brown, who paints and teaches wor - San Francisco Chronicle

A few years ago, Meklit Hadero was doing a 9-to-5 administrative gig at the Haas Foundation here and taking private vocal lessons on the side. The sweet-voiced, Ethiopian-born Yale graduate wasn't figuring on a singing career. But after an unforgettable night at the funky little Red Poppy Art House on Folsom Street, music became her life and the day job tapered away.

Walking into the little Mission District room for the first time, she found two guitar players in opposite corners, a drummer in a third and a guy playing the oud, an ancient North African lute, up in the tiny loft. "It was an incredible experience. You were surrounded by the music," Hadero says. "They were playing a groove, and everyone was kind of bopping, then suddenly this guy Fernando started signing a call-and-response, and everything just sparked. The whole room became like one. It's very rare to feel that connected to one person, let alone a whole room full of people. I thought, 'Wow, what is this place?' "

Smitten, she eventually started singing at the multidisciplinary art house, where you can learn to draw or dance flamenco, and where some of the most creative young musicians in town play for receptive crowds. It's now home base for Hadero, an artist in residence, who's cropping up in a number of interesting settings these days, playing solo dates here, around the Northwest and elsewhere, and with Nefasha Ayer, a cross-cultural band that riffs on dancing grooves and floating melodies.
Simple tunes

Tonight at Epic Arts in Berkeley, Hadero performs the simple tunes on her first CD, "Eight Songs," on a triple bill with two other "black women and their guitars," as she jokingly puts it: Cristina Orbe and Akosua. On Sunday, Nefasha Ayer gets down at Amnesia on Valencia Street.

A few Saturdays ago, the band, whose name means "the wind that travels" in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, stirred up the crowd packed into the Red Poppy. A loose-limbed group that stitches ragas and reggae, Ethiopian jazz and Congolese grooves, the band was formed by Hadero and guitarist Todd Brown, a painter who started the art house in 2003 with tango dancer Alexander Allende and now directs the nonprofit with Hadero. The music aims to explore the longing of people caught between countries and cultures, "the space of in-between," where the sounds of Africa, India and the Americas connect. The players include classical Indian and jazz saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan, master Afro-Peruvian percussionist Lalo Izquierdo on the box drum called the cajón, bassist Miles Jay, Abdi Jibril from Kenya on congas and maracas, and Keenan Webster playing the West African marimba called the balafon and the lute-like kora.

"What was so joyous that night was that we were all from different cultural backgrounds. But we were expressing it with the music, without having to say a thing," says Hadero, 27, who was born in Addis Ababa but grew up in Iowa and Brooklyn. Her parents are both doctors who left Ethiopia in the violent years following the 1974 revolution, going first to East Germany, then, after making it across to West Berlin, to the United States, with the help of Catholic Charities. They landed in Iowa, where they had a friend. Her father got a residency in New York, where the family lived for many years. (Now divorced, her father lives in Florida, her mother in Seattle, where Hadero's cousin, noted rapper Gabriel Teodros, also lives.) A bright, soft-spoken woman who wears flowing clothes and a flower in her hair, Hadero sings in English and Amharic. She projects an inner glow as her gentle voice moves in and out of the sound like a jazz instrumentalist - and her hands do a few Hindu-like waves - rather than calling attention to itself.
Flowers in her hair

"I always wanted to be a singer, I just didn't know if I could do it," says Hadero, sitting on a stool at the Red Poppy, sipping coffee from a mug bearing van Gogh's "Starry Night." She's wearing an orange sundress and a white silk orchid in her hair. She's been wearing a flower, real and fake, since college and can't seem to shake it. "It expresses some very basic part of who I am," she says, smiling. "It's pretty direct."

Hadero sang in choirs in grade school - she was 12 when a piano teacher turned her on to Billie Holiday - and in high school, and occasionally sang a tune a cappella in a performance series she started at Yale, where she studied political science. After moving here, she studied voice with David Babich and other local teachers and took songwriting, musicianship and guitar classes at Blue Bear School of Music. She took the leap after Brown urged her to sing at one of the shows the Mission Arts & Performance Project puts on at the Red Poppy and other neighborhood spots. Brown had never heard her, but sensed she had something. She sang an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "Waiting in Vain" and Brown was sold.

"I did it on a leap of faith," says Brown, who paints and teaches wor - San Francisco Chronicle

Honestly, I couldn’t think of better music for a Saturday afternoon. You know, it’s that time when we’re either preparing to go out for a night of festivities, getting some unfinished work done around the house, or catching up on some “me” time. We need some laid back, groovy tunes. Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about, I know you do.

In that vein comes Meklit Hadero, an Ethiopian born but American raised female singer/songwriter. Currently residing in the diverse arts scene of San Fransisco, Hadero blends elements of smoky jazz and soul with modern pop to create a unique, delectable sound. While the diversity of the sound is welcoming in and of itself, it’s Hadero’s voice that lends the ultimate strength to the music. At once warm and enticing with a sonorous delivery, it can soften even the hardest-skinned folk.

Meklit Hadero – “Walk Up” [MP3]

Her debut album, On A Day Like This…, drops April 20 on Porto Franco Records.

- http://www.knoxroad.com/

Meklit Hadero has led an impressively nomadic life. Born in Ethiopia, she then moved on to Germany, D.C., Iowa, Brooklyn, Connecticut, Florida, Miami, London, and Seattle, until finally landing in San Francisco–for now, anyway. It was in the Bay Area that Hadero transformed from a wandering gypsy into a singer/songwriter. Her impressive debut, On A Day Like This… [Porto Franco Records], is influenced by the many places she has called home, combining N.Y. jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by Hadero’s beguiling voice, which is part sunshine and part cloudy day. The songs range from the elevational anthem “Walk Up” to the shake-what-your-Mama-gave-you rhythmic swing of “Soleil Soleil” and the smoky, soothing ballad “Walls.”

Hadero chatted over lunch with FILTER during a recent tour stop in the nation’s capital about the first album she ever memorized, the inspirational power of art and what she learned from covering “Feeling Good.”





Was Ethiopian music a part of your childhood or was that something that you had to connect with later in life?

My parents would play Ethiopian music and my mom’s a great singer, but I was more into listening to the radio. By the time I was four, I knew all the words to Thriller.



What does your family make of your career as a musician?

It was tough for them at first. Immigrants come to this country so their children can be financially successful, but I chose a career that pretty much promises poverty. It was definitely a scary thing for them at first, but in the last couple of years they’ve become enormously supportive, which is so awesome. It’s so, so wonderful. My dad was just at my CD release party and I brought him up on stage to dance to [the traditional Ethiopian song] “Abbay Mado,” which was a beautiful moment. And I have to say that the whole Ethiopian community is so supportive. Every time any press comes out about me, I get waves of e-mails from everywhere, “You’re representing us in a way that we have never been represented before. We’re proud of you. Keep doing what you’re doing.”



So when did you begin your career as a songwriter?

When I started organizing shows for the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) in San Francisco, I suddenly met so many artists who were so deep into what they were doing. Then I started running shows at the MAPP’s the Red Poppy Art House, where I’d see even more great musicians every week from all different traditions.



But how did you make the leap from being the girl who sang to the radio and was organizing the shows to the young woman who picks up the guitar and is writing her own songs?

When you’re immersed in a huge community of artists, the wave carries you along. Since everybody’s doing it around you, you get caught up in their momentum. I started taking singing lessons in 2004 and I found that every single bit of effort that I put towards music was giving me huge returns. I found all these new sounds and textures that I could make vocally, and I realized that I actually had a really big range. About six months after I started taking lessons, I just randomly found this young musicians scholarship program at the Blue Bear School of Music, which I got, so they gave me money to take classes there for a year. Inmid-2006 I started playing the guitar and a month later, I wrote my first song on it, which was “Walls” and that ended up on A Day Like This...



You wrote the opening song to On A Day Like This…, “Walk Up,” during an artistic residency at the de Young Museum in 2009. What inspired you there?

The song was inspired by a sculpture there by James Turrell. He’s from LA, but spends half his year in this crater in Arizona called the Roden Crater, where he’s carving all these different chambers that are related to observing the stars and their movement, and the seasons. But he also has this sculpture at the de Young that’s a sky-scape, but if you look at it from the outside it looks just like a hill. You go through this tunnel and inside of that hill is a room opened to the sky. It has amazing acoustics, so I would give spontaneous acoustic concerts there. You can just sit watching the sky, the birds, the clouds, and the fog. I would sit in there and watch people change, as they would come into this space. They would just settle in – really sink down – and you would start to see this sense of wonder and openness come over them. “Walk Up” is about watching that wonder unfold.



So many people have covered “Feeling Good” since it was first written, so what do you feel that you brought to it that hadn’t been done before?

When we were recording it, I was absolutely not committed to having it on the album at all. Because if you don’t contribute to the song, just don’t do it. But ultimately, I felt that the album needed a song that had a darker feel to pivot around. And when I’m singing a cover, I can let go of what I’m trying to communicat - Filter Magazine

Meklit Hadero is a singer/ songwriter born in Ethiopia, raised in US and lives in San Francisco for the last several years. I shouldnt talk about her, just let you watch and listen to this extremely gifted artist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0nysgEaJTA

For those of you that want to purchase her album, her entrancing debut full-length recording, “On a Day Like This…”, it will be released on the San Francisco-based Porto Franco Records on April 20, 2010. - http://lofiles.org/blog.php/?p=5744

One of our favorite new releases of 2010 so far is On a Day Like This (Porto Franco Records), a winsome little indie charmer from San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Meklit Hadero.

Hadero's airy, sweet-and-sourdough vocals and viscerally poetic lyrics have garnered her comparisons to everyone from Joni Mitchell to Nina Simone. Yet Hadero's experience as a first-generation immigrant from Ethiopia informs her music, making her sound and sensibility entirely her own.

We caught up with Hadero recently, while she was preparing for her current East Coast tour and she told us all about herself and her music, including her musical apprenticeship at San Francisco's Red Poppy Art House, her experiences as an Ethiopian artist living in America, and her recent TED Global fellowship.

Nat Geo Music: So tell me a little bit about yourself - you were born in Ethiopia, right? How old were you when you emigrated and what impact did that have on you?

Meklit Hadeo: That's right. I was born in Addis Ababa, but left when I was only a year and a half old. My family went to Germany first, then came to the U.S. We lived all over - D.C., Iowa, Brooklyn, Connecticut... Leaving your home country is a really dramatic experience. But my parents always taught us that you have to embrace the opportunity and take advantage of everything this country has to offer.

How did you get into making music?

I didn't actually start performing and writing music until I was an adult. I always knew that I wanted to sing, but I had to overcome that immigrant mindset where you internalize the drive to become a doctor or a professional or an academic and treat the arts as a hobby. My parents are both physicians, so there was a lot of encouragement to pursue the sciences when I was growing up - I still love science today and I definitely got that from my parents.

What do your parents think of your music career?

Oh, my mom is my biggest supporter. They definitely came around once they saw I wasn't starving to death! I think that, like most immigrant communities in the U.S., Ethiopians place a lot of weight on education. Learning was definitely my focus growing up. But after I finished my degree in Political Science, I came to live in San Francisco in 2004, and that's where I really began to get involved in the arts.

The Bay area has a large Ethiopian community, is that what drew you there?

Not really. Most of the Ethiopian community in the Bay Area is in the East Bay, Oakland and a small contingent in the Filmore district. But the Mission District became my creative home, and I sort of situate myself more in an international group of folks, people from all over.

That was with the Red Poppy Art House, right? Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement with that and what it meant to you as an artist?

Right... Well, in San Francisco, the Mission District is a real creative crossroads for people from all over the world, and the Red Poppy Art House is kind of the hub of the artistic community there.

I literally stumbled across The Red Poppy one day and really fell in love with what they were doing. I started volunteering and running shows, meeting musicians from all over the world. I ended up as the director there for two years, and it gave me an intimate connection to the arts community and ecology of the whole city.

Is that where you first started singing?

Actually, I first started singing at a place called the Blue Bear School in San Francisco. I won a scholarship there and got to learn all the basics of making music - which is something most people learn when they're much younger. I was 25 at the time and my scholarship was for people ranging in age from 12 - 25. I looked like the lead singer for a children's band! [laughs]

But I did start performing later at The Red Poppy. It was a really nurturing environment and just kind of encouraged me to grow into the artist I always wanted to be. I started singing just by myself, totally a cappella - which I don't know if I would be brave enough to do again now! [laughs]

Then in 2007 we got a grant from the city, and we used the money to form Nefasha Ayer - which is a musical collective put together by my great friend Todd Brown, who founded the Red Poppy - and I began singing with them in a more disciplined way.

Tell me a little about Nefasha Ayer?

Nefasha Ayer was kind of this loose collective of Bay Area musicians and poets that we liked to work with, who came from very different ethnic and musical backgrounds. The name is Amharic and means "The wind that travels". For me, it was such a learning experience, to play with these really amazing and encouraging musicians, who had enough trust in me to let me sing and write new material. As a collective, it was all about exploring hybridity and bringing together different musical cultures and finding a common musical language. And I want that multiplicity to be at the basis for my understanding of everyth - National Geographic World Music

San Francisco-resident and Ethiopian-native, Meklit (pron. muh-kleet) Hadero, is a groovy, sultry, and poetic vocalist that transcends traditional genre borders. The entire album is poignant, laid-back, and inspirational. Meklit composes eight original songs on this album. One cover song, "Feeling Good", by Anthony Newley and Bricusse is included. The only other cover song is a traditional Ethiopian song, and the only song sung in Amharic, celebrates the rural life. It is originally written by Ethiopia's legendary musician, Mahmoud Ahmed. Meklit's voice and acoustic guitar playing are joined by upright bass, oboe, clarinet, sax, piano, viola, ney flute, cello, and other assorted instruments. The music is perfect for lounging and takes on an almost Brazilian/samba sound in parts. A Sade-like vocalist, Meklit creates a new form of music that borrows classic big band elements, R&B, jazz, folk, and easy listening influences. On A Day Like This... is highly recommended any day of the year. ~ Matthew Forss - http://insideworldmusic.blogspot.com/2010/03/cd-review-ethiopias-meklit-hadero.html

One of our favorite new releases of 2010 so far is On a Day Like This (Porto Franco Records), a winsome little indie charmer from San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Meklit Hadero.

Hadero's airy, sweet-and-sourdough vocals and viscerally poetic lyrics have garnered her comparisons to everyone from Joni Mitchell to Nina Simone. Yet Hadero's experience as a first-generation immigrant from Ethiopia informs her music, making her sound and sensibility entirely her own.

We caught up with Hadero recently, while she was preparing for her current East Coast tour and she told us all about herself and her music, including her musical apprenticeship at San Francisco's Red Poppy Art House, her experiences as an Ethiopian artist living in America, and her recent TED Global fellowship.

Nat Geo Music: So tell me a little bit about yourself - you were born in Ethiopia, right? How old were you when you emigrated and what impact did that have on you?

Meklit Hadeo: That's right. I was born in Addis Ababa, but left when I was only a year and a half old. My family went to Germany first, then came to the U.S. We lived all over - D.C., Iowa, Brooklyn, Connecticut... Leaving your home country is a really dramatic experience. But my parents always taught us that you have to embrace the opportunity and take advantage of everything this country has to offer.

How did you get into making music?

I didn't actually start performing and writing music until I was an adult. I always knew that I wanted to sing, but I had to overcome that immigrant mindset where you internalize the drive to become a doctor or a professional or an academic and treat the arts as a hobby. My parents are both physicians, so there was a lot of encouragement to pursue the sciences when I was growing up - I still love science today and I definitely got that from my parents.

What do your parents think of your music career?

Oh, my mom is my biggest supporter. They definitely came around once they saw I wasn't starving to death! I think that, like most immigrant communities in the U.S., Ethiopians place a lot of weight on education. Learning was definitely my focus growing up. But after I finished my degree in Political Science, I came to live in San Francisco in 2004, and that's where I really began to get involved in the arts.

The Bay area has a large Ethiopian community, is that what drew you there?

Not really. Most of the Ethiopian community in the Bay Area is in the East Bay, Oakland and a small contingent in the Filmore district. But the Mission District became my creative home, and I sort of situate myself more in an international group of folks, people from all over.

That was with the Red Poppy Art House, right? Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement with that and what it meant to you as an artist?

Right... Well, in San Francisco, the Mission District is a real creative crossroads for people from all over the world, and the Red Poppy Art House is kind of the hub of the artistic community there.

I literally stumbled across The Red Poppy one day and really fell in love with what they were doing. I started volunteering and running shows, meeting musicians from all over the world. I ended up as the director there for two years, and it gave me an intimate connection to the arts community and ecology of the whole city.

Is that where you first started singing?

Actually, I first started singing at a place called the Blue Bear School in San Francisco. I won a scholarship there and got to learn all the basics of making music - which is something most people learn when they're much younger. I was 25 at the time and my scholarship was for people ranging in age from 12 - 25. I looked like the lead singer for a children's band! [laughs]

But I did start performing later at The Red Poppy. It was a really nurturing environment and just kind of encouraged me to grow into the artist I always wanted to be. I started singing just by myself, totally a cappella - which I don't know if I would be brave enough to do again now! [laughs]

Then in 2007 we got a grant from the city, and we used the money to form Nefasha Ayer - which is a musical collective put together by my great friend Todd Brown, who founded the Red Poppy - and I began singing with them in a more disciplined way.

Tell me a little about Nefasha Ayer?

Nefasha Ayer was kind of this loose collective of Bay Area musicians and poets that we liked to work with, who came from very different ethnic and musical backgrounds. The name is Amharic and means "The wind that travels". For me, it was such a learning experience, to play with these really amazing and encouraging musicians, who had enough trust in me to let me sing and write new material. As a collective, it was all about exploring hybridity and bringing together different musical cultures and finding a common musical language. And I want that multiplicity to be at the basis for my understanding of everyth - National Geographic World Music

While the media focuses on the music industry fallout, the fortunate side of the debacle is that music itself is doing fine. In fact, music is doing wonderfully. In over sixteen years of journalism, I have never received so many incredible albums as over the past year. It is said that great art appears during times of struggle, and if the demise of the corporate structure of record labels is helping produce such fine music, all the better. Of course, it's never one isolated incident. Factor in ever more accessible and affordable technologies and distribution networks, and much is in favor of the artist (or small label) doing it for the love of music.

I retract that parenthetical remark. The following labels are "large" for their love.

Within a day of posting a link to the website of singer Meklit Hadero on Facebook, emails from Bay Area friends poured in, telling me they either know her or have seen her perform. She'd be a hard figure to miss, as she helped run an important arts center in the Mission for over three years. In more recent times she has gigged non-stop in West Coast universities, Kenyan hotels, and Ethiopian clubs. On her debut album, On A Day Like This... (Porto Franco), Hadero pay homage to her homeland by flipping an Ethiopian folk song, "Abbay Mado," previously made famous by the silken voice of Mahmoud Ahmed. Hadero's version is more stripped down yet equally upbeat, not as dancey but equally moving.

Hadero dances her acoustic guitar playing with gorgeous vocals, flipping another incredible song, "Feeling Good" (made famous by Nina Simone), using fellow Bay Area musician Eliyahu Sills on ney before injecting a melancholic tinge to her slow rendition. By the time the record closes with the heartbreaking "Under," the first thing you do is return to "Walk Up" and begin again. This album has been on constant rotation, with every spin revealing something fresh and addictive.

Brooklyn-based Si*Se has dropped two albums with two labels since 2001. For the band's new EP, Gold, the members launched on their own independent path. Led by vocalist Carol C and producer U.F. Low, the band has never been one to cave to creative demands. They've always unapologetically created their music with love, and Gold is no exception. The first single, "This Love," is familiar territory, with C's poetic yearnings textured inside of a tightly woven blend of midtempo beats, a wandering trumpet, and distal keys. "Buscaré" is reminiscent of "Cuando," with its sharp edge and demanding kick drum. The spacious "Goes On" relies on a quirky, almost analog electronic temperament that works beautifully under the bouncing melody, while "Dónde Está?" returns the listener to the band's signature cuts like "Mariposa en Havana" and "More Shine." When the EP closes with a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," C invokes Nicks step by step, not by pantomime but through her own melodic confidence and indisputable style. The video, which features band members traveling to Coney Island filming on iPhones, captures the vibe of both the group and the city beautifully. Gold is a great primer for their next full-length, due out later this year.

One-hundred-and-eighty degrees from Si*Se's throbbing rhythms is fellow Brooklynites Las Rubia Del Norte, the brainchild of two disenchanted NY Choral Society members who left to pursue their love of Mexican folk tunes. Allyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst linked with (Park Slope club) Barbès owner Olivier Conan and created this strange and beautiful album, Ziguala (Barbès). It is the band's third, and anyone familiar with Conan's work in the equally intoxicating Chicha Libre, a band producing reinterpreted '70s Peruvian folk-rock with a psychedelic tinge, will appreciate this outrageously inventive music. While Mexico brought them together, the band does not stay confined there. On Ziguala they tackle rembetika, French opera, Spanish folk, and even Bollywood on an incredible version of RD Burman's "Mana Janab Ne Pukara Nahin." I predict it early one that this album will sit near the top of my 2010 Top 10 list. There's simply nothing else like this around.

Syrian native Gaida moved to New York to pursue her goal of globalizing Levantine music. Previously featured singing in the rehearsal dinner scene in Rachel Getting Married, she's using the push for her exquisite debut, Levantine Indulgence (Palmyra). You can hear the Oum Kalthoum influence on the darbuka-drenched "Ammar," and the oud drive of "Indulgence" is breathy and spacious. Of all nine songs on this excellent first step, only her attempt at Arabicizing bossa nova falls short. Otherwise, "Ghayeb," her interpretation of a poem given her by Maroon Karam, not to mention the upbeat pounce of "Bint Elbalad," are well worth giving your time to.

Tzadik, a label founded by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995, has been the musician's conduit for an eclectic range of predominantly, though not exclusively Jewish artists. He's releas - The Huffington Post - March 15, 2010

Meklit Hadero's voice exudes music. A casual conversation over morning coffee can feel like an impromptu personal performance by the San Francisco jazz musician, because even her speaking voice has rhythm.

Assured with the spoken word, Hadero pauses at all the right times, naturally crafting an underlying melodic or poetic content to her dialogue. The intonation floats up and down like a line from one of her songs, as the buzz of the bean grinder, the clanking ceramic cups, and pings of a cash register replace traditional percussion. Opening and closing her eyes between thoughts, she carefully constructs each sentence.

"There is an art to not saying things too quickly," she blushes when I call her out on this distinct way of speaking. "You have to be open to letting the words come. If there's too much conversation in your head, the poetry runs away."

Hadero is all about feeling out the right tempo. And whether it's in regard to speech or daily duties, she's established a beat. But as her musical career has grown in the past couple years due to residencies at both the Red Poppy Art House and the de Young Museum, her to-do list has simultaneously matured into a demanding beast, distracting her creative process and throwing off her internal metronome. When she does get a day off, it's all about coffee and taking time to breathe.



"I'll sleep in, enjoy the view from my apartment, and trick myself into not using my computer — I hide it in my car. Well, just kidding ... but maybe I should do that."

It's on these days that Hadero is able to create music. Soul-filled vocals dance with jazzy, playful bass for a sound that references Nina Simone and suggests a more vibrant Norah Jones. This week she releases her debut album, On A Day Like This ... (Porto Franco), a collection of plush, bright songs woven from the world of influences Hadero's been collecting throughout her 30 years of life.

Hadero was born in Ethiopia, spent her childhood in Brooklyn, and has since lived in a dozen other places, including Germany; Washington, D.C.; Iowa City; Seattle; Miami; and New Haven, Conn., where she earned a degree from Yale. While she's most comfortable in "nomad mode," if there's anywhere that's home for her in this country, it's here, Hadero says.

"The artistic community here is not something to take for granted. I'm coming on six years here in San Francisco — that's the longest I've spent anywhere," she pauses to reflect on this realization. "I will always be a person with multiple homes — because for me, home isn't a physical place."

For Hadero, home is made up of the people who inhabit a space and the rich exchanges that happen among them. It's the diversity. The mountains. The water. The coffee shops and the music. On A Day Like This ... is her ode to California.

"All the songs were written in San Francisco — they're a culmination of my first period here. My Mission community of artists are all on this album, all the people I've been working and playing with for years. These are my moments in the Mission." - San Francisco Bay Guardian

For the full interview, please go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125120472

You may not have heard Meklit Hadero's music before, but once you do, it'll be tough to forget. Hadero's sound is a unique blend of jazz, Ethiopia, the San Francisco art scene and visceral poetry; it paints pictures in your head as you listen. Her first musical performance was only five years ago, when she spent 20 minutes covering other artists' music. Now, she's set to release her debut album, On a Day Like This..., in April.

The Ethiopian-born Hadero spent the majority of her childhood in Brooklyn before moving away when she was 12. After relocating to San Francisco, she left college, where she was studying political science, and began focusing more seriously on music. She says it wasn't hard to make that transition.

"My friends were artists, and they were really deep in their craft," Hadero says. "It was so inspiring, and that kind of momentum carried me along."

As an artist, Hadero combines her passion for music with social justice and community engagement. Her business card reads, "Singer, musician and cultural activist."

"I do a lot of work with arts and culture, using music and culture to bring people together," she says.

Despite Hadero's passion for her work, her parents had their doubts. As immigrants who sought economic opportunity for their family, they questioned her decision to pursue a financially challenging career. Ultimately, though, they've been supportive. Hadero says her dad gives a standing ovation at every show.

Hadero's voice has been compared to Nina Simone's. She says she considers Simone an idol and covers her song "Feeling Good" on the new record.

"For years and years and years, she was one of the first albums that I would play when I would get home at the end of the day," Hadero says. "She's been an enormous influence on me." - National Public Radio

Listen to all your favorite jazz artists — old and new — whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. If you don't have one, click here to sign up for a free trial and see what we’re all about.

Nikki Yanofsky has everything going for her to become a star in our modern age: she has vocal talent to burn and she's so young that she has received the kind of TV exposure that old jazz hands can only dream of. She is also Canadian, which is suddenly an OK thing to be.

But Yanofsky, born in 1994 (!!!), has a special love for jazz — the kind of mainstream supper-club jazz that is on the wane, at least in the States.

On her Decca debut, Nikki Yanofsky proves she is good at a whole lot. The opener is an Ella Fitzgerald-style gallop through "Take the A Train" (a brave selection for a teenager born and raised in Quebec). The second track is a complete stylistic turnaround — "Never Make It on Time" plays like Norah Jones finding Joss Stone's powerful R&B pipes.

The album continues trading off in this fashion all the way through, though Yanofsky actually brings her jazz and pop sides together on a rousing old-school R&B take of Lady Day's "God Bless the Child." She even mashes Led Zep's "Fool in the Rain" up with the Depression-era tune "The Sunny Side of the Street." The credit sheet says that the album was co-produced by old guard master Phil Ramone and Jesse Harris (of Norah Jones fame; he also helped write many of the original tunes here) but it feels more like they helmed alternate tracks. And instead of famous jazz soloists as guests, the star collaborators here are Feist (who contributes the strutting "Try, Try, Try") and Ron Sexsmith.

Things turn out well for the album, but it feels like a business decision: jazz has not handled the demise of the traditional record store well. There are a surprising number of young (North) American jazz talents out there who seem to be doing better in Europe than their homeland.

Take Melody Gardot, for instance.

Read Gardot's bio here and you'll see that she has got more fascinating backstory than an entire season of Mad Men. Her debut album was good enough to win her a special award from my fellow Rhapsody editors; her follow-up, My One and Only Thrill, stands tall as one of the finest original albums of the past decade (in any style). The album was so good that it made Gardot a star ... in France, Britain and the rest of Europe. Not America. This probably explains why the Philly girl has moved to Paris.

It looks like another American, Stacey Kent, is following Gardot to the City of Light. Breakfast on the Morning Tram, Kent's first album for Blue Note, sold so many copies in France that Kent's upcoming release for the label will be sung in French. Hate the French? Why not buy some American jazz and get our artists back??? Kyle Eastwood (son of Clint) also lives in Paris and literally tops the jazz charts over there. He comes back home to score American movies.

Both Gardot and Kent are the kind of mainstream jazz vocalists who became crossover giants in America not that long ago — think Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson and Harry Connick, Jr. Even Norah Jones. These were the kind of successful artists that bankrolled entire jazz labels.

A Roman deity could not create a finer new jazz artist than Esperanza Spalding. The bassist, bandleader and vocalist combines a luminously positive vibe with a complex bop-goes-Brazil vocabulary. She is also beautiful enough to make you ask "Alicia Keys who??" Oh yeah — she's barely past 25. How good is she? Well, take a look at her appearance on Late Night With David Letterman — she so knocked him and Paul Schaefer out that the normally taciturn Hoosier jumped up and exclaimed that Esperenza Spalding was "the coolest person we've ever had on the show!" Spalding has played at the White House and on late night — how about playing her on the radio?

Like Spalding, Sachal Vasandani lets his audience know that he grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music. The vocalist is as comfortable covering Iron and Wine's "Naked As We Came" as he is the old Sinatra single "I Could Have Told You" or writing his own material.

Meklit Hadero plays almost like a folkier version of Spalding. Maybe it's the mix of styles and musical influences that percolate in and out of her songs. Her debut, On a Day Like This, has real emotional power, yet it comes on like a summer breeze instead of Melody Gardot's autumnal downpour. Mixed in with Hadero's originals is a cover of the show tune "Feeling Good" that is now associated with the great Nina Simone, one of the pioneering jazz-meets-folk artists. But Hadero does not share Simone's tart tone or unvarnished anger — I can't wait for the San Francisco fog to clear so I can play Hadero in the sunshine.

Like the other artists on this list, she deserves to have some major Stateside love come her way.

You can check out all the above young jazz artists on Rhapsody an - Rhapsody Music Blog

The perfect triangle of influences comes together on this unforgettable debut. Born in Ethiopia, Meklit Hadero has the lilting grace of African music in everything she sings, and there is the timelessness of that ancient land in the way Hadero puts deep beauty in these songs. Moving to Brooklyn with her family as a child, she found the urban energy of that city, which added an edge to the rhythms of originals like "Float and Fall" and "Walls," and moved her sound closer to the United States. Then it was on to the boho playground of San Francisco, and all the eclectic playfulness of that city. An ethereal vibration came into the mix that completed the picture, and Meklit Hadero now emerges as a new valued voice in the world of possibilities awaiting her. What really makes On A Day Like This... so arresting is the precious balance between her vision and the way she mixes all the eclecticism from a rich past, and makes both come together right on time. An extra bonus is an uplifting cover of "Feeling Good," from "The Roar of the Geasepaint...the Smell of the Crowd." From Anthony Newley to Nina Simone to Hadero, the classic is a fine test of a vocalist's abilities to express their emotions full-tilt. All three make their mark in different ways. And Meklit Hadero is now carrying the flame into the future. - SonicBoomers - April 1, 2010

After spending a few years behind the scenes, curating performances at the Red Poppy Art House and the Mission Arts and Performance Project, Meklit Hadero is taking center stage. The San Francisco–based singer recently released her debut album, On a Day Like This ..., on Porto Franco Records, the eclectic, Mission-based label. While her disc may get slotted in the jazz section on iTunes, her music defies categorization with a global sound blazing with positive vibrations.

Born in Ethiopia but raised in Iowa and New York, Hadero brings a one-world ethos to her songwriting. She sings mostly in English, but also in Amharic (and nominally in French); her vocals float among world, pop, jazz, and folk. Her delivery compels close listening, especially when she stutter-steps single syllables into multiple ones, each imbued with distinct character. It's a magical feat, derived from Ethiopian tradition, and when combined with a mighty vibrato, these lines flow with emotional depth. Hadero echoes a range of kindred, unclassifiable singers like soul-jazz-blues-gospel queen Nina Simone and Zap Mama's Euro-African lingual acrobat Marie Daulne.

Hadero understands the rich community-building possibilities of this moment in history, when technological advances make intercultural exchange the norm rather than the exception. She first explored what she calls artistic "in-between-ness" a couple of years back with Nefasha Ayer, an eight-piece band whose members hailed from Peru, India, the U.S., and various African countries. Last year, she reached across disciplines into theater (via a Brava Theater commission to compose music for Brian Thorstenson's Over the Mountain) and visual arts (thanks to an artist-in-residence award from the de Young Museum). Then she received a Global Fellowship from the prestigious TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) organization for her work with Arba Minch, an artists' collective from the Ethiopian diaspora whose members returned to their native land for cross-cultural collaboration.

All of this activity fed Hadero's vision for On a Day Like This ... . The instrumental palette alone is wonderfully diverse, including vibrant string, horn, and percussion arrangements by top Bay Area players from the fields of jazz (bassist Marcus Shelby, trumpeter Darren Johnston) and classical (violist Charith Premawardhana, cellist Adam Young). The sound of the ensemble often evokes the nuanced beauty of a film soundtrack.

On "Walk Up," Hadero sings of ascension, "tak[ing] your place in the sky," against a luminous backdrop of finger-picked acoustic guitar and trembling viola. "Float and Fall," a speakeasy swinger with a virtuosic melody, combines breezy sweetness with just enough sass to bypass cliché. The lyrics also underscore Hadero's global consciousness: "I know every person who passes me by/Their history is also mine."

Such awareness extends to Hadero's striking cover of "Feeling Good," a popular Broadway number recorded by dozens of artists, including her lifelong hero, Simone. On this track, Hadero revels in her relationship with nature. It's a fitting homage to the power of connecting beyond the familiar, and with Hadero on the mike, it's a thoroughly convincing sentiment.
- San Francisco Weekly

Singer Meklit Hadero has been described as “if Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco’s Mission District.” The description could not be more apt. As a general rule, comparisons to these two greats (nina and Joni) are wildly over used and often misplaced. But when launched to explain the lovely tone and powerful timbre of Hadero’s voice, it’s just perfect. The description is accurate.

Hadero, the children of Ehtiopian immigrants, raised in part in Brooklyn, NY and the West Coast. She is a TED Global Fellow and a really lovely talent. Know about her.

Listen to her interview on Tell Me More here and bask in the loveliness that is her voice here.


http://thebibliophile.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/nina-joni-at-tea-meklit-hadero-puts-sugar-in-the-bowl/ - The Bibliophile

Anchor Marco Werman speaks to Ethiopian born musician Meklit Hadero. Please follow the link to listen to the interview. - Public Radio International

San Francisco singer/songwriter Meklit Hadero chose the vibrant arts center as home like a moth chooses the light. She could have gone nowhere else. Born in Ethiopia and raised in the US, Hadero brings a wealth of cultural influences to her writing and recording, a plethora that is only enhanced by the multi-cultural stew that is San Francisco. Hadero began performing publicly in 2005, and quickly threw herself into writing while working as co-director of San Francisco's The Art House. Hadero's writing comes to full fruition on her upcoming debut album, On A Day Like This, due out April 20, 2010 on Porto Franco Records. Featuring some of the pillars of the San Francisco music community in supporting roles, On A Day Like This establishes Hadero as the Left Coast's answer to Norah Jones.

Hadero brings a warm, inviting voice to On A Day Like This, opening with “Walk Up”. Dappled with strings, “Walk Up” is a watercolor in music where Hadero paints the elements of her song with a poetic mastery that’s awe-inspiring. Hadero’s approach is low-key ala Norah Jones, but there’s significantly more sonic experimentation in the margins. The song is unique and intriguing and sets the stage well for the rest of the album. “Float And Fall” is a catchy little jazz number that will be rumbling around in your noggin for days. “Leaving Soon” finds Hadero experimenting with the sound of her voice against the background of a solid tune; the effect is enthralling and will have you hitting repeat to hear it again and again.

Hadero offers up a sociolinguistics lesson on “You And The Rain”, reminding us that many cultures do not define such a complex phenomena as rain with a single word. The instrumentation of “You Are The Rain” carries a quirky gentleness that’s highly entertaining and enjoyable. “Feeling Good” blends from African into Western style with a highly simplistic lyrical base, but Hadero’s voice is at its most striking here. "Soleil Soleil" keeps simplicity as its focus, but the dance tune has some interesting sounds going on in the arrangement that will intrigue the musicians in the crowd. “Walls” is the best all-around song on the disc. It’s also the one you’re most likely to dislike on the first listen through On A Day Like This. Hadero’s voice as it’s most enigmatic here; this may not sit well on first listen, but the more you hear the song it will grow on you. Meklit Hadero’s voice carries a fascinating beauty through the vocal line, but it’s a beauty you may need to shift your perspective to hear fully. On A Day Like This closes out with the ambient jazz study of “Under”. It’s a decent enough tune but a bit anti-climactic as a closer.

Meklit Hadero is distinctive, with a voice that lulls, intrigues and occasionally even makes you step back and figure out what she’s doing. Some of it is in the blending of cultural styles, and some of it is simply having an unusual tonal mix ala Sarah McLachlan. On A Day Like This offers a true blending of styles and cultures, taking risks that aren’t really risks at all, and opening up the spectrum of pop music to sounds that aren’t often heard on Western stages outside small communities in large cities. Hadero is distinctive enough and talented enough to become more than a regional act. On A Day Like This is good enough to establish Hadero as a national act, assuming the right break comes along. Takes some time to get to know Meklit Hadero; one down the road you can lord it over your friends that you were in on the secret before everybody else.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)


http://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-meklit-hadero-on-day-like-this.html - Wildy's World

San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero clearly remembers her first performance epiphany: It was in October 2005, appearing at a 24th Street café accompanied by Eliyahu Sills.

“It was a 20-minute set, I was wearing a long blue shirt, this bass player and I had a great vibe. This thing happened. I let go and went to a place I’d never gone before,” she says over the phone in the same friendly, silky tone that characterizes her other-worldly jazz and folk sound, which has been compared to that of Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell.

This week, she may have another, with the release of her first full-length album “On A Day Like This” Thursday in concert at Bimbo’s 365 Club.

For Hadero, who has lived in 12 places across the world and came to The City in 2004 after getting a political science degree from Yale University, the road to musical success has been relatively smooth so far.

“It feels like this was the place of my blossoming. Right away I found a creative community. If you can do that, you’ve got room to grow,” says the Ethiopian-born singer, describing the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission, an arts and cultural center where she served as director for two years and now organizes projects and is an artist-in-residence.

For someone who already has made two recordings — the first was a self-released 2007 EP “Eight Songs” featuring guitar and cello accompaniment — Hadero came to music fairly recently, taking voice, songwriting and guitar lessons just in the past five years.

“The return was just huge,” Hadero admits, saying that formal study wasn’t something she considered as a kid, although she always enjoyed music and the radio: “When I was 4, I knew all the words to ‘Thriller.’”

She’s pleased to have her musical style described in the same sentence as Simone and Mitchell. She calls both inspirational, and is particularly thrilled by Simone’s pure, emotive tones: “She’s not using frills and flourishes. She’s not decorating at all. There’s nowhere to hide.”

Hadero’s compositions are similarly evocative. They fill the new album, complemented by one cover, “Feeling Good,” a tune made famous by Simone.

Her friend, bass player Sills, helps round out the current leg of her musical journey, accompanying her on that important song on the recording.

Calling her life amazing — despite challenges artists face trying to make a living in today’s economy — Hadero says she feels lucky, humble and overwhelmed by the quick and positive reaction to her music: “I can’t imagine it happening any faster.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/A-San-Francisco-songbird-flies-93239964.html#ixzz0tbjilPLT
- The San Francisco Examiner

It's easy to tell that Meklit Hadero is a singer, just by listening to the soft susurrations of her speaking voice. She could talk about anything and it would somehow sound private and intimate. Her singing follows suit, with its dense phrasing and lazy vibratos. Hadero is relatively new to the stage, but she's already generated a huge cult of adoration in the past five years.

There's a maturity to Hadero's debut album, On a Day Like This ... that belies her inexperience. She articulates words in weird, interesting ways to give them shape — "cloud" sounds like "clood" and "up" sounds like "ooom." There are no hard consonants or sharp vowels, and all the lyrics flow along with a bluesy lilt. They could almost be scraps from a spoken-word poem: Green, green, green, everywhere, she sings in "Under," accenting each "green" a slightly different way ("greeen, greenn, grreen"). The song is a lullaby and love ballad. It could almost be a hymn.

Hadero wrote or co-wrote all but two of the ten tracks on On a Day, and they all have a definitive style: spare chords, murky harmonies, an implied rise but no bridge. Her band is fantastic, buoyed by such local stars as drummer Jeff Marrs, bassists Devin Hoff and Marcus Shelby, trumpeter Darren Johnston, and saxophonist David Boyce — who, in a surprising twist, plays bass clarinet for most of this album. But it's Hadero's singing style that really sets the mood, and imbues each line with meaning. (Porto Franco) - The East Bay Express

Like Rupa Marya of Rupa & the April Fishes, Meklit Hadero was born a long way away from San Francisco, California and lived in many different cities before ending up in the Bay Area. Hadero was born in Ethiopia and that country’s culture doubtless exerts an influence on her outlook and on the music she makes. But it would be a mistake to explain her work solely via reference to her country of birth. Like Rupa’s, her music is clearly the product of the cosmopolitan arts scene of San Francisco. Hadero is heavily involved in that scene, from her involvement in the Red Poppy Arts House in the Mission District to her formation of the Arba Mich collective, an organization aimed at promoting cultural work associated with the Ethiopian Diaspora.

On a Day Like This… is Hadero’s debut full-length album, following a self-released eight-song CDR in 2007. The album consists of ten excellent songs, all distinguished by Hadero’s beguiling mix of experimentalism and tradition—though one should really say “traditions”, for her sources are numerous and varied. One minute she may be regaling the listener with the leftfield bossa nova of “Call”, the next delivering the haiku-like fragments of “Under” (“green, green, green everywhere / then the turquoise moment / everything at half speed”) to a stripped-down piano and bass accompaniment that wouldn’t be out of place on David Sylvian’s last album.

There are many instances of poetic beauty in Hadero’s lyrics, such as the moment in “Walk Up” where she sings, “The birds surround you / they circle you and make / a tornado from the air”. Elsewhere, she sings the simple line “In some countries there are a hundred words for rain” (though the way she sings it is far from simple), then goes on to render some of them: “one for the kind it falls slow like pearls”, “one for the kind that makes you brave”, “one for the kind that smells of new life”, and so on. The musical arrangements backing up the evocative imagery—a mixture of folk, jazz, soul, pop, and improv—add further dimensions to the confessional lyrics and no doubt are what have prompted comparisons between her and Joni Mitchell.

What Hadero shares with Mitchell is an ability to compose snaky, discursive songs that at first challenge the listener’s sense of metrical and semantic logic, then hook them in by inviting curiosity as to where they might go. It’s a technique that calls to mind the work of Van Morrison, too, especially on the album-opening “Walk Up”, where the instruments backing Hadero’s meandering lyric—cello, viola, upright bass, oboe, clarinet, and spare percussion—echo the mind-altering improvisatory voyages of Astral Weeks. A similar strategy is displayed to mesmerizing effect on “You and the Rain”, where the song’s narrative takes its own path as Hadero’s collaborators follow and shape the meandering consciousness of the piece. The soundworld on this track is not unlike that on certain exploratory jazz and improvised music, the deep resonances of Amber Lamprecht’s oboe and David Boyce’s bass clarinet meshing beautifully with the textures of Adam Young’s cello and Charith Premawardhana’s viola.

But where Van Morrison only allowed one “The Way Young Lovers Do” onto Astral Weeks, Hadero, who shaped her album around the concept of a single day’s events and reflections, seems happy to interweave her ruminations with plenty of lightness. “Float and Fall”, a love song to Brooklyn born of the nostalgia Hadero felt on returning to a neighborhood in which she had once lived, is borne aloft a jazzy bed of bass and snare drum and accompanied by Darren Johnston’s bright, joyful trumpet. Hadero delivers the vocal with a breathless enthusiasm, breaking down some of the words in a manner reminiscent of scat singing and, more recently, the “anti-folk” of Regina Spektor. Hadero’s wordplay and meandering melodic lines also compare favorably with those of Joanna Newsom. Indeed, she’s an artist whose eccentricities, when singled out, invite comparisons to many artists but, when taken together, signal a singular talent.

This multiple-yet-singular aspect comes to the fore again on “Leaving Soon”, the song chosen to promote Hadero’s album. At various points in this likable pop number, there are echoes of Tracy Chapman, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, and a variety of contemporary R&B singers. Johnston’s trumpet shines brightly again. Hadero has said she thinks this song was written for the trumpet, and the instrument is given as much space as her vocal. Again, as Spektor was able to do on “Fidelity”, Hadero manages to utilize the breaking-down of key words in a manner that veers just the right side of the annoying/catchy divide. Adding to the musical drama of “Leaving Home” are the thrilling slivers of background noise that serve as a reminder of Hadero’s artsy improv side.

“Feeling Good”, a version of the song forever associated with Nina Simone (with whom Hadero has also been compared), opens with the sound of the ne - PopMatters.com

It's taken Meklit Hadero five years since she moved to San Francisco and began performing, frequently at the Red Poppy House, to release her first full-length CD, to which any lover of great vocals can only say: What took you so long? The 10 cuts on the disc amply showcase Hadero's compellingly pliant voice as it swoops up and down octaves like a kid on a swing. The frequent comparison to Nina Simone is justified (I'd also reference Phoebe Snow), particularly in the lower register, but Hadero's sound, with its trilling vibrato, is very much her own. Other than a cover of the Newley/Bricusse "Feeling Good" and "Abbay Mado," a traditional Ethiopian song, the music is all hers and displays as much artistic range as her voice. From the snappy and aptly named "Float and Fall" to the achingly beautiful "You and the Rain" (commissioned by Brava! for Brian Thorstensen's play "Over the Mountain"), Hadero's voice and songwriting are irresistible and become even more compelling with repeat listening.

- The San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero clearly remembers her first performance epiphany: It was in October 2005, appearing at a 24th Street café accompanied by Eliyahu Sills.

“It was a 20-minute set, I was wearing a long blue shirt, this bass player and I had a great vibe. This thing happened. I let go and went to a place I’d never gone before,” she says over the phone in the same friendly, silky tone that characterizes her other-worldly jazz and folk sound, which has been compared to that of Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell.

This week, she may have another, with the release of her first full-length album “On A Day Like This” Thursday in concert at Bimbo’s 365 Club.

For Hadero, who has lived in 12 places across the world and came to The City in 2004 after getting a political science degree from Yale University, the road to musical success has been relatively smooth so far.

“It feels like this was the place of my blossoming. Right away I found a creative community. If you can do that, you’ve got room to grow,” says the Ethiopian-born singer, describing the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission, an arts and cultural center where she served as director for two years and now organizes projects and is an artist-in-residence.

For someone who already has made two recordings — the first was a self-released 2007 EP “Eight Songs” featuring guitar and cello accompaniment — Hadero came to music fairly recently, taking voice, songwriting and guitar lessons just in the past five years.

“The return was just huge,” Hadero admits, saying that formal study wasn’t something she considered as a kid, although she always enjoyed music and the radio: “When I was 4, I knew all the words to ‘Thriller.’”

She’s pleased to have her musical style described in the same sentence as Simone and Mitchell. She calls both inspirational, and is particularly thrilled by Simone’s pure, emotive tones: “She’s not using frills and flourishes. She’s not decorating at all. There’s nowhere to hide.”

Hadero’s compositions are similarly evocative. They fill the new album, complemented by one cover, “Feeling Good,” a tune made famous by Simone.

Her friend, bass player Sills, helps round out the current leg of her musical journey, accompanying her on that important song on the recording.

Calling her life amazing — despite challenges artists face trying to make a living in today’s economy — Hadero says she feels lucky, humble and overwhelmed by the quick and positive reaction to her music: “I can’t imagine it happening any faster.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/A-San-Francisco-songbird-flies-93239964.html#ixzz0tbjilPLT
- The San Francisco Examiner