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Her schooling included music, and she became a pianist, eventually moving to Jerusalem and recording highly unique pieces that filter the traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scale through classical technique-- in the end sounding like impressionistic jazz."

Tilopa plays a long shakuhachi, or kyotaku, which has pentatonic tuning and 5 holes like the shakuhachi, with a much deeper and more mellow sound.

Sharhabeel launched a new genre of Sudanese song, melding jazz vocals with a big band sound, and Sharhabeel and his band became Khartoum's most sought after ensemble. It was a popularity that mushroomed. His synthesiser-driven renditions of traditional songs brought further success and recognition. "It is ironic," he muses, "that in the 21st century, there is not a single recording studio in Sudan," in contrast to the exuberance & optimisim of the 1950s, after Sudan's 1956 independence from Britain. The pentatonic scale of Sudanese music contrasts sharply with the septatonic scale of Arabic music.

Essay by Stephen C. Walker