“In
concert, his [Mahmoud's] enigmatic multi-octave voice seizes on a
note, brief or sustained, and makes its pitch tremble as it its
urgency could barely be contained”
The
New York Times
“MAHMOUD
Ahmed has a rich, deep voice that oozes liquid chocolate down a phone
line crackling with static; what a pity I can't understand a word he
is saying.”
Sydney
morning herald
75
years ago a baby named Mahmoud Ahmed brought to this world by an
Ethiopian working class parents at a place locally known as Mercato
in the center of Addis Ababa. Neither his family nor himself had
imagined that this little boy one-day would be an internationally
acclaimed artist. Mahmoud coming from Ethiopia's well known
entrepreneurial and hard-working Gurage ethnic group, his first
profession like many of his fellow mates, was shining shoes on the
streets of Addis. He tried a series of other menial jobs before he
ended up as handy-man at the Arizona Club which was back then an
after-work hangout place for Emperor Haile Selassie I's Imperial Body
Guard Band. On a fateful night, one of the singers didn't show-up and
Mahmoud
