In the quiet storm of Ethiopian music in the mid- to late-1970s, Tilaye Gebre was something of the eye at the center. Even though much of the music from that period has been ridiculously hard to excavate from history, chances are that if you pick up any gem recorded in Addis Ababa during those times, it features Tilaye on saxophone and his arrangements.

In Africa’s second most populous country, having such a tight-knit musical scene surrounding the recording industry, it seems as if the movers and shakers were largely in each other’s phone books. Given the wealth of Ethiopian musical treasures unearthed in the last few decades, it’s easy to imagine Ethiopia as a society littered with musical institutions, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, only a select few talented musicians were given the opportunity to study music full-time. One institution that stood out, however, was the Haile Selassie First Theatre (Ethiopian National Theatre) in Addis Ababa, where Tilaye was one of 120 pupils attending. A feature on national radio mentioned the new music school being inaugurated, and Tilaye — in fifth grade — jumped at the idea of choosing music as his vocation.