Teddy Mak's Timeout

Teddy Mak's Timeout is a direct expression of human emotions that transcend the listener to  the beyond – it is in a way a form of art and entertainment, involving the most complex rendition of sounds and silence . Its melody and harmony, rhythm, timbre, articulation, dynamics and texture is truly Ethiopian; bordering on far-eastern creation; while its also involves complex generative forms in time through the construction of European and American patterns and combinations of natural stimuli. Teddy Mak's masterpiece is one sparsely spiced by St Yared's Ethiopian Church hymns to Bizunesh's lyrics; Tilahun's, Mahmoods's and Kassa's Tizitas, Ambasssels and Bati - to contemporary R&B that regained usage during the soul music  adaptation of psychedelic rock .  It brushes on funk and soul, not of their hard sultry and sexually-charged rhythms, but the modern style of contemporary R&B that grew to be a major part of our contemporary pop music .

Timeout is highly artistic aesthetic, communicative and entertaining ; and as such it fall under classical music (or "art" music), and popular music and like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue , it is fusion of jazz and classical music. It is a genre in its own right mixing and digesting several number one R&B ( Rhythm and blues) hits such as by Aaliyah, her self-titled album 'Aaliyah', Beyoncé's 'Dangerously in Love'   and Brook Benton's 'Rainy Night in Georgia' and 'It's Just A Matter Of Time', that today define a style of African-American music, combining elements of soul, funk, pop and now hip hop.

Time out is what we believe in our claims to fame as the birthplace of humanity, that much of the cultural dynamism of the Renaissance also had its roots in our tradition, art and music. Timeout follows the tradition of the Renaissance when French composers such as 14th century Guillaume de Machaut established polyphonic and contrapuntal music.  As in Flemish composer Orlando de Lassus, Teddy Mak in Timeout and Truth has applied his miracles to a wide range of musical forms of the 16th century, when both men and women of the upper classes were expected to understand music and to perform it. You actually own Timeout in your spirits and ideal mind; rivaling Ben E. King’s "Stand by Me, the Supremes Broadway showtunes, psychedelia and disco, the Temptations repertoire which has included doo-wop, soul, psychedelia, funk, disco, R&B, and adult contemporary and first tenor/falsetto Eddie Kendricks, and second tenor/baritone Paul Williams.

Teddy Mak's gift to the Ethiopian Millennium is Timeout -- where every human being can bask in the luxury of singing to oneself for 29 minutes non-stop.... it is not Teddy's melody anymore -- it is deeply ingrained in your fathoms of feelings and psyche. Teddy's music flows from synergy between Teddy's brain and his feelers, but more interesting than this, the compendium of everything his hands will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all his thoughts and aspirations for the Ethiopian Millennium. True to Friedrich Nietzsche words, in music the passions enjoy themselves – Teddy has finally given us one that is both universal and Ethiopian for the millennium.

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos

Addis Ababa, Sept 11, 2008