Interview with former Idol judge Feleke Hailu and his family

Seifu on EBS - Interview with former IDol judge Feleke Hailu and his family. The name Nick Page might not be as well-known as Paul Simon, Damon Albarn, or Ry Cooder. But the British music producer, who was best known as one of the main players in the world fusion dance band Transglobal Underground from the early 90s, has a similar intrepid spirit when it comes to discovering music from around the world.

While Simon went to South Africa to record 1986's Graceland, and Albarn traveled to Mali, with Cooder making worldwide stars of the Cuban players of Buena Vista Social Club, Page went to Ethiopia.

He was drawn to Ethiopian music after listening to the Ethiopiques compilations in the late 90s and early 2000s, a music series released by Frenchman Francis Falceto.

"I got very excited because there was something fresh about it, yet it was old but felt slightly new, and it had a Middle Eastern flavor which has a lot to do with Yemen being across the water from Ethiopia. It was exciting because it wasn't what I had come to expect from Africa."

But he admits getting to the country to experience the music firsthand would never have happened without his music-making mate Dan Harper, who lived in the capital Addis Ababa. Harper urged him to pay a visit and in 2006 Page made the sojourn to Addis. He arrived expecting a hot and humid climate. Instead, it was rainy season and, to his surprise, it was a high-altitude mountain city.