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Gétatchèw Mèkurya (Amharic: ጌታቸው መኩሪያ) (14 March 1935 – 4 April 2016) was an Ethiopian jazz saxophonist. Mèkurya was born in Yifat, Ethiopia. He began his musical studies on traditional Ethiopian instruments such as the krar and the masenqo, and later moved on to the saxophone and clarinet. Upon reaching adolescence, he began his professional career in 1949 as a part of the Municipality Band in Addis Ababa. In 1955 he joined the house band at Addis' Haile Selassie I Theatre, and in 1965 joined the famous Police Orchestra. He was also one of the first musicians to record an...

Menelik Wèsnatchèw started out in 1961 at the Haile Sellassie I Theatre under the brilliant tutelage of Nersès Nalbandian, before joining Girma Bèyènè’s Ras Band in late-1965 / early 1966. He belongs firmly to the modernists who made their first, bold mark in the 1960s. In 1979, he took up a job in Sudan, leaving behind the Wallias Band and the comfort of the Hilton to flee Mengistu’s Ethiopia, and with a brief Egyptian interlude in 1983-85, he remained in exile in the Sudan until the fall of the dictator. .

Brian Kassan formed Chewy Marble in 1995 as a vehicle for his growing catalog of unrecorded material after a three-year stint as co-founder, bassist, session guitarist and co-songwriter/producer for the Wondermints. Joining Kassan were guitarist and lead vocalist Stuart Forman; bassist Derrick Anderson; and drummer Tammy Glover, who has since gone on to fame as the touring drummer/percussionist with Sparks. 1997 saw the release of Chewy Marble’s critically acclaimed self-titled debut on Permanent Press Recordings in the U.S. and on Nippon Columbia in Japan. In 2001, their sophomore effort Bowl of Surreal was released on the band’s own Furry Sidekick...