Hailu Mergia (born 1946) is an Ethiopian keyboard player and accordionist who was the leader of the Walias Band — Ethiopia's biggest jazz-funk group of the 1970s. The Walias toured internationally and recorded prolifically until the Derg military regime's repression made cultural life in Addis Ababa untenable. Mergia emigrated to Washington D.C. in the 1980s, where he worked as a taxi driver for over two decades, quietly composing in his cab on a battery-powered keyboard before a crate-digger rediscovery brought him international fame.

Ethio-jazz is a genre that fuses traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scales and rhythmic modes (especially the kinit scale system) with American jazz, funk, and soul. It flourished in Addis Ababa in the 1960s and 1970s under the patronage of Emperor Haile Selassie, who encouraged a cosmopolitan cultural scene. The genre's most famous practitioner is Mulatu Astatke, who collaborated with Herbie Hancock and whose music was featured in Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers (2005).

How was Hailu Mergia rediscovered?

Brian Shimkovitz, founder of the blog and label Awesome Tapes From Africa, tracked down Mergia in Washington D.C. where he was still working as a taxi driver. Shimkovitz re-released Mergia's 1985 solo album Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument in 2013, which introduced him to a global audience. Mergia subsequently toured internationally, recorded new albums, and performed at major festivals — all in his 70s, having spent nearly three decades practising in relative obscurity.

The Keyboard in the Trunk

Genre: Ethio-jazz, funk, Ethiopian, Hailu Mergia, 1970s, rediscovery

February 22, 2026

Ethiopia's greatest keyboard player spent 20 years composing in the backseat of his D.C. taxi — then a crate-digger called his number

Tracks

1. Tezeta (Nostalgia) — Mulatu Astatke
2. Tezeta — Hailu Mergia, The Walias
3. Yekermo Sew — Mulatu Astatke
4. Yekatit — Mulatu Astatke
5. Lala Belu — Hailu Mergia
6. Lanchi Biye with Tilahun Gessesse — Mulatu Astatke
7. Tche Belew — Hailu Mergia, The Walias

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