Selam Woldemariam

Selam Woldemariam joined The Black Soul Band (BSB) while they were on tour in Addis Ababa in 1973. Alemayehu Eshete and Slim Jones were the main vocalists of the group and together with Tesfaye Lemma of Orchestra Ethiopia, they travelled to various parts of Ethiopia. Towards mid-1974, Woldemariam and some other members of BSB joined the Venus club. After working for a year or so at the Venus, Woldemariam replaced Zimbabwean Ibex Band guitar player Andrew Wilson at the Ras Hotel.

During that time, Ibex was dominated by two foreign musicians: Ismail Jingo, vocalist and percussionist and Andrew Wilson, lead guitarist. At the time, most foreigners were leaving Ethiopia due to the revolution and Jingo and Wilson couldn’t stay. As a result, the band re-formed as Ibex (II) with the inclusion of some new members. Mahmoud Ahmed was already in the group.

The first recording the group did was his Ere Mela Mela album (LP) around 1975, which was later to become their first ever CD in Ethiopian history, released by a good friend, Francis Falceto on his Ethiopiques series. (Ethiopiques # 7). Ibex disbanded in 1979 as most of its members left for the Sudan, while Mahmoud left for the US. The remaining three members, Giovanni Rico, Fekadu Andemeskel and Selam Woldemariam, formed ROHA Band.

The Ibex and ROHA Band dominated the music of the 1970s and 80s. They arranged and recorded well over 250 albums (2500 songs), accompanying various Ethiopian vocalists. From 1980 to 1990, The ROHA Band travelled extensively, throughout Europe, Middle East and the USA as well as to some parts of Africa. Mulatu Astatke joined the ROHA Band at the Paris and Spain summer shows in 1987.

During 2000, Woldemariam moved to the US, and started collaboration on the Power of The Trinity project with the Brooklyn-based Tomas Doncker Band. Besides co-writing and playing guitar on some tunes, Woldemariam is also involved as a production consultant. He has performed with the group at various venues.

Woldemariam is in the process of expanding his thesis paper on Ethiopian music and gathering together a book based on his over forty years of experience in music. He is also working on an instrumental album.