FILTER REISSUES
Force of habit
Home recordings from the Ethiopian nun who became a cult pianist in her eighties.
By David Hutcheon.
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
★★★★
Souvenirs
MISSISSIPPI. CD/DL/LP
HAVING ENTERED an Addis Ababa monaster y in 1944, and spent her final 38 years in a convent in Jer usalem, it’s doubtful Yewubdar Guèbrou, who died last year, aged 99, would have expected her passing to merit worldwide mour ning. That it did was down to the fact that, late in life, she had been discovered to be a virtuoso pianist and composer of unique talent; comparable, in The Guardian’s obituar y, to Keith Jar rett, Erik Satie, Scott Joplin and Professor Longhair, but with a measure of Bach thrown in and an innate understanding of traditional Ethiopian music and Coptic liturgy.