Hailu Mergia Tickets

Band on the Wall welcomes the triumphant return to the music business of one of the leading performers of East Africa – an instrumentalist who was forced into exile by a dictatorial regime hostile to the arts and ended up driving cabs for almost 30 years.

Early in 2018, Hailu Mergia’s amazing account is finally coming full circle: After the blogger, DJ and label owner Brian Shimkovitz had tracked down Mergia in Washington DC (by far the biggest Ethiopian community outside of the motherland), he brought out three fantastic reissues of the keyboardist’s older materials. The maestro started to perform publicly again late in 2013 with sold out venues and amazed fans over three continents. Now Awesome Tapes From Africa, Shimkovitz’ imprint, is releasing “Lala Belu”, Mergia’s long-expected comeback album of all new music.

To celebrate this amazing achievement, Mergia will be on the road again to present more elegant excursions in Ethio-Jazz.