Debo Band is a nine-piece collective that combines East African polyrhythms, American soul and funk, and the brass bands of East Europe. The result is a genre the band calls Ethio-groove, reminiscent of Ethiopian popular music of the 1970s. Danny Mekonnen, an Ethiopian-American jazz saxophonist and PhD candidate in ethnomusicology formed the band in 2006. Since then, their blend of horns, strings and accordions has been heard in the church basements and neighbourhood bars of Boston, Mass. as well as in Ethiopia, where the band has opened for greats such as Tilahun Gessesse and Getatchew Mekuria. In 2011, the band released Flamingoh (Pink Bird Dawn), a four-track EP of recent live performances in East Africa.