“[W]e’re trying to take that whole Ethio-jazz concept and move it forward into this century,” trombonist Ben Hall says about the album. “We’re trying to put a spin on the older dance styles that we love, and still have it danceable but with our own twist to it.”

Most of the compositions are instrumentals that were penned by Feedel’s keyboardist and leader, Araya Woldemichael, with two songs from other members. Some have a relaxed feel more appropriate for listening than dancing — “Behelme,” for example, starts off smooth before transforming into a more straight-ahead jazz number.

Other cuts are more vibrant: The title track starts off with a guest playing the Ethiopian masenqo, a one-string violin, and then a rough-edged male voice comes in, using the pentatonic scale identified with Ethiopian church music. Eventually, the song adds psychedelic horn riffs. Album closer “Araya’s Mood” has a repeating James Brown-in-Addis modal structure along with fuzzy, psychedelic guitar lines and clever keyboard fingerwork.

Hall says the six-year-old Feedel Band has wanted to do an album since the beginning but “we weren’t able to finance it till now.” They self-financed the release and Hall says they have bought Facebook ads that have spurred interest in Ethiopia. The band recorded Ethiopian Ocean from May through August at Cue Recording Studios in Falls Church, Virginia, with engineer Blaine Misner, and then sent it to veteran mastering engineer Charlie Pilzer, who put together the finished product at Airshow Mastering in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Friday, the band is scheduled to perform with veteran Ethiopian pianist Girma Beyene at D.C.’s Atlas Performing Arts Center. Beyene — who worked as a gas station attendant in D.C. before moving back to Ethiopia — is best known for his rhythmic jazz standard “Muziqawi Silt,” and playing with legendary group the Walias Band.

“The project with Girma Beyene is to recreate his songs with a Feedel Band sound,” Hall says. “We’ve been transcribing the recordings and rehearsing them to put forward the best product for Girma.”

Feedel Band and Girma Beyene perform Oct. 14 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Finding an acceptable line between influence and appropriation has dogged musicians for generations, and Dexter Story addresses the issue in surprising and joyous ways on Wondem, his second album as a bandleader.

A 50-year-old multi-instrumentalist born and bred in L.A., Story has created a song cycle under the spell of Ethiopian music. Before recording Wondem, he’d never visited that part of the world — he traveled to the country himself for the first time only a month or so ago — or apprenticed with any of the region’s musical masters, as tradition dictates. But he’s a studied player and arranger, with a list of musical credits that reads like an insider’s guide to the roots of L.A.’s current polyglot underground music uprising: music director at Temple Bar, member of Build An Ark and The Life Force Trio, accompanist to the likes of Kamasi Washington, Gaslamp Killer, Madlib and many others. Still, on this project, he was admittedly just a cultural tourist who’d surfed the Internet and taken inspiration from what he’d seen and heard.

Which is why Wondem, Amharic for “brother,” simply feels like an informed take on pan-global music, focused on the multiverse of tonalities found in one of the birthplaces of humanity. After years of listening to West African recordings under the influence of the Americas and the Caribbean, Story made a conscious decision to take that fusion mindset and apply it to East Africa from a modern Californian’s point of view. The caring knowledge of an archivist, the loving whimsy of a fan, the seasoning and chops that come with musical experience — all are alive in this mix.

Story’s devotion to Ethiopian music arose from a chance 2011 gig as a drummer with EthioCali, trumpeter Todd Simon’s expert rotating-cast ensemble, as it performed Ethiopian jazz. His awakening began there, but when Story started writing these songs, it wasn’t with the mindset of a musical purist enthused by the newest sound in his arsenal. Instead, he opted to combine ideas that encompassed his entire rhythmic education. For Story, “fusion” is not a dirty word.

The possibilities of musical commingling begin at the top: The opener, “A New Day,” is Story’s attempt to write a modern Ethiopian pop vocal; it ends up sounding like a Memphis soul song translated to a funky Wolayta rhythm as a bright Moog rides the brass fanfares. “Be My Habesha” features guitarist Damon Aaron, drummer Te’Amir Sweeney and a clapping female chorus as they re-create the Tuareg groove popularized in the U.S. by Tinariwen. “Mowa,” dedicated to the legendary Sudanese singer and oud player Mohammed Wardi — whose popularity crossed most East African borders — features a graceful Arabic melody arranged for violin and viola by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, set amid Story and Mark de Clive Lowe’s keyboards. Co-written by vocalist Yared Teshale, “Sidet Eskemache,” Amharic for “one will remember,” views Afrobeat through the lens of the Oromo music traditions. “Yene Konjo” finds the thread between Ethiopian music and R&B: A Wollo beat powers its sunset melody and Dexter’s plaintive notion, before de Clive-Lowe’s piano and Randall Fisher’s flute carry the coda. It’s a gorgeous ending to an album that’s only beginning to uncover a world of influence and possibility.

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The Washington region is home to one of the most robust Ethiopian music scenes in the world — possibly second only to Addis Ababa itself — and D.C. Ethio-jazz ensemble Feedel Band includes some of its top players.

Feedel saxophonist Moges Habte and bassist Alemseged Kebede are well-known for their work with Walias Band, a group that thrived during the height of the Addis jazz scene in the 1970s. (Also in Walias was Hailu Mergia, a D.C.-area cab driver whose music career found its second wind in 2013.) Both Kebede and keyboardist/bandleader Araya Woldemichael have performed with huge acts including vocalist Aster Aweke, who’s been called “Ethiopia’s Aretha Franklin.”

But it’s easy to catch Feedel Band (“feedel” means “alphabet” or “letters”) playing a casual gig around town. The group performs on the first Thursday of each month — sometimes with cameos from notable Ethiopian artists — at Bossa Bar and Lounge in Adams Morgan.

When the band stopped by WAMU in November to play two songs for Bandwidth, it was one of the most hectic sessions we’ve produced yet. Band members and instruments were everywhere. It felt chilly outside but balmy in the studio, with 10 musicians, three videographers, one photographer and two engineers sharing the cramped space under hot lights for hours. But in the end, the chaos felt worth it.

Feedel recorded two Woldemichael-penned songs in the studio that night: “Girl From Ethiopia” (with guest vocals from the bandleader’s nephew, Dibekulu Tafesse of Jano Band) and “Ethiopian Ocean.” I asked Woldemichael how both compositions came together.

The simmering “Girl From Ethiopia” is a love song. “I wrote [it] for my beautiful wife,” Woldemichael emails. “We all must show our love for the wives in our lives, and I’m lucky enough to combine two of my favorite things in the world: love and music.”

Meanwhile, “Ethiopian Ocean” is more of a history lesson. It stemmed from Woldemichael’s discovery that the body of water now called the South Atlantic was once called the Ethiopian Ocean.

“You can clearly see the name Ethiopian Ocean that was used for thousands of years,” Woldemichael writes. “I said to myself, ‘This doesn’t make any sense… I have to do something about it.’ A lot of my people didn’t know about this great history. History is extremely important. Imagine if someone [took] from you … everything you knew about life up to last week, and just erased it. Where would you be? You would be lost.”

It’s tempting to get lost in the two songs Feedel recorded for us — but if you pay attention, you’ll notice the band is a carefully calibrated machine. Study that rhythm section. It’s locked in. And don’t forget to bend your ear toward the two traditional players in the room: Minale Bezu on krar and Setegn Atenaw on mesenko.

Above, listen to Feedel Band play “Girl From Ethiopia” live at WAMU. (Things get really wicked around 1:39, so your patience is worthwhile.) Then immerse yourself in “Ethiopian Ocean,” below.

But the best way to experience Feedel Band is to catch the ensemble live. Their next monthly gig at Bossa arrives on June 4.

Want to follow Bandwidth’s newest videos? Subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Special thanks to Brendan Canty for mixing both “Girl From Ethiopia” and “Ethiopian Ocean.”

Photos by Rhiannon Newman for WAMU