Ethiopian Aster Aweke Speaks The Universal Language Of Music

Aster Aweke, 8:30 p.m. Thursday at The Backstage, 2208 N.W. Market, 781-2805. $15.

Though Ethiopian pop singer Aster Aweke is happy that Americans have enthusiastically taken to her music, she is still baffled as to why.

"I don't sing in English and my vocal style is very different from other singers in this country," Aweke mused. "I'm glad people like my music here. I just wish they could understand the words, too."

Though she can speak English, the language Aweke sings in is Amharic, the most common of Ethiopia's many tongues. When CBS Records decided to release Aweke's first album, "Aster Aweke," in this country, the language barrier was never a concern.

That's because the most engaging aspect of Aweke's vocal style is her ability to express many emotions without being literally understood. Her broad range, ornate improvisatory vocal extensions, wildly unexpected shifts in tempo, and focus on the deeply expressive Arabic-influenced minor scale allow Aweke to speak directly to the heart and soul of her listeners.

The effect she has had on fans in this country and throughout Europe is not unlike the widespread popularity she attained in her own country in just two years of performing and recording. On stage she is a constant glow of electricity. The intensity of her performance is never contrived. Aweke allows her audience to feel the passion of her music, whether she is singing a traditional song thousands of years old or one she composed herself.

"When I'm telling a story in my music, I'm feeling every part of it," she says. "The way I sing and the way I move around is very much a part of what the song is about, and when I look out I can see the people crying or moving with me. I think that the way I perform is a reflection of my culture. In my language, `I love you' doesn't really mean that much. It's how those words are expressed that gives it real meaning."

Aweke began her professional singing career in 1977 in Addis Ababa, where she joined the Shebele Band and recorded two singles with them that same year. In a country where music is not considered an acceptable profession for a young woman, Aweke was an instant success. In 1981, Aweke decided to move to the U.S., and in 1983 she settled in Washington, D.C., to perform regularly in a popular restaurant in one of the largest and most prosperous Ethiopian communities in the country.

"When I first began performing for the Ethiopian community here, I was homesick and I would sing a lot of traditional songs and songs I wrote about home. Very often I would cry and several people in the audience would cry, too," she said. "Now I've been here 10 years and I've accepted this as my home.

"Today, I sing about growing up and about love. Love songs dominate my music, I don't know why. I can't say that I've ever really been in love, but I want to be . . . maybe that's why I sing about love so much."

Aweke's debut album featured several traditional songs with the Ethiopian krar, an ancient harp-lute, along with Western instrumentation. With its nightclub atmosphere, the album was a hit on world-beat charts and fared well on domestic pop-music charts.

Aweke and her band have just finished work on a second album, which the singer says will focus more on instrumentation. It features a three-piece horn section along with keyboards, guitars, krar and percussion. This, she said, is the standard standard Ethiopian pop band lineup.

"I can see that the music I do is different from what anyone else is doing in pop music," she said. "I'd like to return to Ethiopia to perform someday, but I think there's more to do here. I'm not satisfied yet."