Once upon a time, as a much younger and more impressionable child, I would while away my Saturdays in the local Virgin Recrods store, listening to the sample CDs. On one particular Saturday, the luminous face of a black woman with her eyes closed yet the strangely French and romantic name Gigi blasoned across her face.

Gigi, in fact, turns out to be the stage name for Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu Shibabaw (try saying that five times fast!). In her self-titled 2001 album, Gigi, she reinterprets traditional Ethiopian music to a much more contemporary setting. But unlike so many such "reinterpretations" that fail miserably to sound like anything grander than something that belongs at Epcot, Gigi truly succedes at creating music that sounds both contemporary and ancient. 

Sung entirely in Amharic, the album begins with the energetic "Gud Fella," which is full of drums and string drums. But the album quickly takes a slower, jazzier tone. Unfortunately, I cannot understand a word, but "Sew Argen" is brilliant with its saxophones.

Apparently, she has even gotten into trouble with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for singing what is unquestionably the best song on the album, the closing "Adwa," because it is a traditional lament for dead soldiers only sung by males. Way to go!