An Azmari (
Amharic: አዝማሪ) is an entertainer who sings and plays traditional
string instruments
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
of the
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to ...
. Its comparable to medieval European
minstrels
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer w ...
or
bard or West African
griots
A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
The griot is a repos ...
.
''Azmari'', who may be either male or female, are skilled at singing extemporized verses, accompanying themselves on either a ''
masenqo'' (one-stringed fiddle) or ''
krar
Krar ( Amharic: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''Krar'' may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin. The ''Krar'', along w ...
'' (lyre).
Etymology
Azmari means (''to sing'' or ''singer'') in
Amharic.
Amharas
Amharas ( am, አማራ, Āmara; gez, ዐምሐራ, ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly inhabiting the Amhara ...
tend to call all musicians Azmari simply because there's no other word in the language denoting a person who plays a musical instrument.
History
The earliest documented mention of the ''Azmaris'' goes back to the mid-15th century, and they presumably go back much further.
Role in society
''Azmaris'' once played an important role as social critics by improvising sophisticated texts of praise or criticism. ''Azmaris'' would mock people in high places, and even Emperors were not spared if they were found to be unpopular with the public. ''Azmaris'' were the first to convey scandals in high places.
Female ''Azmaris'' flourished in feudal Ethiopia. They were just like their male counterparts poet-musicians. The female musicians are usually wives or lovers of male ''Azmaris'' who gradu