Biography

Teferi Assefa is an “Ethio Musicologist” who researches the unique and previously unknown Ethiopian musical rhythms, tunes, beats, themes and intertwines them with conventional jazz and experimental musical styles. Teferi Assefa has been involved in music since early childhood even though his “professional” involvement as a drummer and percussionist officially started in high school where he joined the school band under Binyam Tsegaye. He then was selected and mentoured by Dr. Mulatu Astatke (“Father of Ethio jazz”).

Teferi pursued his college studies at Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music (Poland) where he earned his Master’s Degree in jazz drumming and percussion. Upon graduation, he performed in numerous live jazz concerts in Europe and America in addition to concerts with legendary Ethiopian artists as well as international musicians. However, his life-long dream has always been to showcase Ethiopia’s music to worldwide audiences and do so without diluting the original core of these musical themes. His first such project involved Lasta Sound, a world music band that artistically fused classic Ethiopian songs into a different types of rhythms that caught the ears of many music aficionados. This led to “Journey to Lasta” an independent movie inspired by the band. The band earned the “Best Music Award” at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (2005).


His next major project involved the co-establishment of the Wudasse Ethio-jazz band. The band was a first-of-its-kind in Ethiopian music history as being the first live recorded album.,The band performed live to numerous audiences all over the United States as well as in Ethiopia. Its popularity is best exemplified by the millions of hits on one of the YouTube clips of its first album releases.


Upon returning to Ethiopia, Teferi had a chance to experience the rich and diverse music from various tribes in person. This inspiring experience led to the birth of the Negatit band which was established in 2012 by Teferi as a platform for undertaking ethnomusicology and anthropology research and analysis efforts targeting indigenous communities and their unique cultural heritages. The band vision is to produce and publish “indigenous jazz” recordings, which are able to seamlessly incorporate undiluted beats and rhythms of rapidly disappearing indigenous communities of our world as core foundations to the band’s jazz arrangements.

As the name “Negarit” suggests, the band wants to reach across geographical distances and cultural differences to bring its unique blend of music to global audiences and creating a new style of “INDIGENOUS JAZZ”.