What do “concert” and “work” have in common ? A lot. The legendry Ethiopian musician Mohammoud Ahmed put on a demonstration of an exemplary work ethic at the Sept 8th Millennium Celebration concert that was held at the DC Armory near the Redskins Stadium. Talking of the Redskins, if their quarterbacks can put in the kind of work ethic that Mohammoud displayed, the skins would have been back to back superbawl champs. The non-stop performance by Mohammoud picked our curiosity and we started asking around concert goers for their estimate of how long Mohammoud was on the stage. Most answered 2 hours. Some gave a 3 hour estimate and others gave a 4 hour estimate. Mohammoud served up plenty of songs that span generations of Ethiopians that induced nostalgia among the nearly 5, 000 attendees that packed the arena.

Also on display was the rising star Abebe Belew, an eskista artist turned a radio journalist. Abebe showcased an eye popping eskista, an Ethiopian highland dance routine, along with his former peers and did a duty as a stage facilitator and as a comedian. Actually, his jokes were pretty funny. It is beyond the talents of this writer to effectively repeat any of Abebe’s comedy routines. Undoubtedly, there are more talents at which Abebe will excel in his life time. Who knows perhaps, golf? political leadership? University professor? inventor? The sky is the limit for the talented Abebe.

In this Saturday night concert that started at 9PM and ended Sunday morning around 4AM, the crowd was cheerful doing eskista routines wherever they happen to hangout. The millennium organizers did a superb job of effectively feeding every human sensory organ throughout the event. There was literally no idle moment. When live performances were not staged, there were some crowd pleasing recorded music while the video commercials were scrolling on large flat screens. This should keep the event sponsors pretty happy. The crowd seemed to have used every excuse to be entertained and remain festive.

We asked John, a CSC Security Associate, what he thought of the crowd. He did not quite catch the intent of our question first. We clarified our question by asking “compared to other concert attendees of similar events, how does the Ethiopian crowd fare in terms of discipline.” John gave us two answers: The crowd is pretty disciplined and the women are pretty. We were more interested in the first response and John was more interested in his second unsolicited response.

The entertainment extravaganza also featured Ethiopian cultural music, which included performances depicting various Ethiopian cultural groups. Couple of surprises that kept the crowd guessing included the Neway Debebe no-show and the surprise appearance by Ethiopia’s favorite Alemayehu Esthete. Indicative of the type of music that the next generation will consume, the versatile Tebebu Workiye performed an eclectic combo of hip hop, reggae, Ethiopian Bati, rap, with Amharic lyrics. The pace of Tibebu’s music was traveling way beyond the speed limit of the contemporary Ethiopian music. For the ipod generation, the pace should be within the range of normal.

Ethiopians who want to eat out traditional meals go to Ethiopian restaurants. Ethiopians who need medical care go to see their doctor. Ethiopians who need to get a loan go to financial institutions. Ethiopians who want live Ethiopian entertainment go to see Ethiopian musicians. Seeking specialized service to meet specialized needs is not unique to Ethiopians. However, we would like to offer one exception in the upcoming millennium. We think Ethiopians and Ethiopian establishments who seek to acquire individual and organizational excellence ought to consult to Ethiopian musicians who are thankless demonstrators of excellence and work ethic. Look no further than Mohamoud Ahmed, Abebe Belew and Tebebu Workiye.