Hailu Mergia’s florid keyboard playing made him a pioneer of Ethiopian popular music in the '70s. Born in Ethopia’s Shewa Province in 1946, he played in the funk-influenced bands The Walias and Dahlak Band and became a rarity in the Ethiopian music landscape of the time: an instrumental music star. Upon moving to Washington, D.C., in the ’80s, Mergia studied music at Howard University, and he produced his 1985 solo record, Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument, in a studio there, highlighting his newfound penchant for the accordion and incorporating synthesizer textures. After falling into obscurity, Mergia was rediscovered in the early 2010s, leading to greater proliferation of his groundbreaking older records—especially 1978’s jazz-influenced, genre-bending Wede Harer Guzo—and the production of inspired, exploratory new music: 2018’s Lala Belu and 2020’s Yene Mircha.