THE EXPANSIVENESS OF MY SOUND
Andrew Forbes • $0.99
Collected in FPQ Fall 2011
Saxophonist Metche Hufu and his best friend Hirut are on top of the world. Their band is the talk of Addis Ababa, filling nightclubs and packing dance floors. Their music is unlike anything you have ever heard. But the precarious existence of this golden age of culture depends on an emperor’s benevolence, and his power is beginning to wane. Set against the backdrop of vibrant Addis Ababa nightlife, The Expansiveness of My Sound is an evocative account of the political discord in Ethiopia and the individuals caught in the tumult.
Collected in FPQ Fall 2011
Saxophonist Metche Hufu and his best friend Hirut are on top of the world. Their band is the talk of Addis Ababa, filling nightclubs and packing dance floors. Their music is unlike anything you have ever heard. But the precarious existence of this golden age of culture depends on an emperor’s benevolence, and his power is beginning to wane. Set against the backdrop of vibrant Addis Ababa nightlife, The Expansiveness of My Sound is an evocative account of the political discord in Ethiopia and the individuals caught in the tumult.
Praise for The Expansiveness of My Sound
“How do you give voice to a sax player silenced by the politics of his country? If you’re a jazz singer like Kurt Elling, you take Dexter Gordon’s solo on ‘Body and Soul’ from his Homecoming album and you turn it into vocalese. If your name is Andrew Forbes and your tenor sax player is Ethiopian and it is Addis Ababa 1973 and his musical idol is King Curtis, you write The Expansiveness of My Sound and what you write is wider, more straight-ahead, stronger with political fervour, sadder than Elling but every bit as smart. Forbes is doing it solo and you have to imagine the quartet behind him. Read it with your fingers tapping and you’ll catch the beat. Read it with your ears open and you’ll hear Metche Hufu’s body and soul. Dig it!”
— T. F. Rigelhof, author of Hooked on Canadian Books: The Good, the Better, and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984
“How do you give voice to a sax player silenced by the politics of his country? If you’re a jazz singer like Kurt Elling, you take Dexter Gordon’s solo on ‘Body and Soul’ from his Homecoming album and you turn it into vocalese. If your name is Andrew Forbes and your tenor sax player is Ethiopian and it is Addis Ababa 1973 and his musical idol is King Curtis, you write The Expansiveness of My Sound and what you write is wider, more straight-ahead, stronger with political fervour, sadder than Elling but every bit as smart. Forbes is doing it solo and you have to imagine the quartet behind him. Read it with your fingers tapping and you’ll catch the beat. Read it with your ears open and you’ll hear Metche Hufu’s body and soul. Dig it!”
— T. F. Rigelhof, author of Hooked on Canadian Books: The Good, the Better, and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984
Preview
THE SINGER MAHMOUD AHMED is to play the Hager Fikir Theatre. He is a soul singer, the most masterful vocalist in Ethiopia, perhaps all of Africa. He is like our own Otis Redding. It might be that he is the greatest singer in the world. An associate of Mr. Ahmed’s has contacted me; we have been asked to open the concert. This means we are stars. The world has offered itself to us. As we practise one evening, I ask Hirut where in America he would like to play first. “I think Carnegie Hall in New York,” he says, and we all laugh. We drink too much beer this night because we are so happy.
A few days later we are again on stage at the Black Rose. The owner, a bent man named Sella, has been quite successful since our popularity began to rise. Tonight, perhaps as a result of the news of our date with Mahmoud Ahmed, the room is tremendously full, almost overflowing. There is no room to dance, no room for the waiters to walk. It is hot. The air about us hums with sound, with possibility.
We begin with a tezeta, slow and mournful. We allow it to circle and build for many minutes, until finally I cause it to spill open. My saxophone ululations tear into the night’s air. Behind me, Ato’s bass grows louder. I can feel the vibration in the muscles of my back. Mekonnen strums harder. The music swirls. I see girls in the crowd grow anxious; we contain the promise and the threat of something uncontrollable.
We are alive and making music. It is August of 1974. We will play with Mahmoud Ahmed in a month’s time. I feel as though I am about to explode with happiness.
THE SINGER MAHMOUD AHMED is to play the Hager Fikir Theatre. He is a soul singer, the most masterful vocalist in Ethiopia, perhaps all of Africa. He is like our own Otis Redding. It might be that he is the greatest singer in the world. An associate of Mr. Ahmed’s has contacted me; we have been asked to open the concert. This means we are stars. The world has offered itself to us. As we practise one evening, I ask Hirut where in America he would like to play first. “I think Carnegie Hall in New York,” he says, and we all laugh. We drink too much beer this night because we are so happy.
A few days later we are again on stage at the Black Rose. The owner, a bent man named Sella, has been quite successful since our popularity began to rise. Tonight, perhaps as a result of the news of our date with Mahmoud Ahmed, the room is tremendously full, almost overflowing. There is no room to dance, no room for the waiters to walk. It is hot. The air about us hums with sound, with possibility.
We begin with a tezeta, slow and mournful. We allow it to circle and build for many minutes, until finally I cause it to spill open. My saxophone ululations tear into the night’s air. Behind me, Ato’s bass grows louder. I can feel the vibration in the muscles of my back. Mekonnen strums harder. The music swirls. I see girls in the crowd grow anxious; we contain the promise and the threat of something uncontrollable.
We are alive and making music. It is August of 1974. We will play with Mahmoud Ahmed in a month’s time. I feel as though I am about to explode with happiness.
Collected in
FPQ 2011
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
You Can't Go Home Again
Featuring Mike Mike Mike Mike by Grace O'Connell, The Expansiveness of My Sound by Andrew Forbes, This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern, and What Endures by Pauline Holdstock.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Fall 2011
You Can't Go
Home Again
$3.75
Featuring Mike Mike Mike Mike by Grace O'Connell, The Expansiveness of My Sound by Andrew Forbes, This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern, and What Endures by Pauline Holdstock.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Fall 2011
You Can't Go
Home Again
$3.75
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Click on cover for more info
Mike Mike Mike Mike
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The sleepy town of Arbford is a house of cards, and Betty is the sudden gust of wind that unknowingly knocks it to the ground. In this insightful tale, where each of the men is called Mike, and each of their wives have a different name, Betty discovers that finding somewhere to call home isn't easy. Fun, emotional, and intelligent, Mike Mike Mike Mike is a modern-day fable with a bit of Desperate Housewives thrown in for good measure.
Click on cover for more info
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Click on cover for more info
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Marta is a human resources employee at a grocery store chain. She moves through life passively, always taking the path of least resistance. That is, until one day at work, when she is confronted by an ethical dilemma: A hijab-wearing woman. A strict no-hats policy. And then a cultural opportunity: a seminar on the Sunshine Coast, "Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace." With brutal frankness and keen insight, This Is a Love Crime explores the nature of oppression in its many forms, be it cultural, religious, or domestic, while bringing to life vivid characters that will linger like the scent of cigarette smoke long after the story is over.
Click on cover for more info
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What Endures
What Endures is a story of powerful love. It is a story that will break your heart. Inspired by true events, it tells of the incredible bond between a mother and daughter, and with gut-wrenching poignancy reminds us of the little things that make life worth living.
Click on cover for more info
What Endures
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What Endures is a story of powerful love. It is a story that will break your heart. Inspired by true events, it tells of the incredible bond between a mother and daughter, and with gut-wrenching poignancy reminds us of the little things that make life worth living.
Click on cover for more info
What Endures
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