Tizita

Mergia is credited as arranger and producer; the song is a traditional Ethiopian one with a roughly 75-year history per Bandcamp Daily, and we found no composer credit. Tizita is also the name of a scale and ballad form meaning memory, nostalgia or longing, often compared to the blues. Mergia told Bandcamp Daily's Dean Van Nguyen that with the Walias Band the piece used only two rhythm sections, a slow part and a funk part, and this version has three: now I just added up the swing section, which is a new idea. The Quietus calls it a three-movement journey that begins as a wistful accordion lament to Mergia's long-lost homeland and ends in frenzied free jazz honoring his adopted Washington; DownBeat's John Murph hears a rambling, celebratory melody on piano over a driving dance beat.

A live version, Tizita (Live), is on Pioneer Works Swing (Live), from the show at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn on July 1, 2016. Setlist.fm's top five songs do not include it. We found no covers or samples.