Lalibela – “Cherota”

Despite the vocal nature of the artisan “Lalibela” culture (not the ancient city of Lalibela), Negarit Band creatively interweaves sampled freestyle vocal improvisations of the artisans’ oral poetry with the basic “call-and-respond” African foundations of jazz music. “Cherota” achieves this duet form by pitching the sampled vocals of a female oral poet against the washint (flute) instrument as a counterpart.