Ali Abdella Kaifa

Ali Abdella Kaifa, also known as Ali Tango, is the founder of Kaifa Records and owner of Tango Music Shop in the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was born from a Yemeni father and Ethiopian mother in June 1942. He started out assisting his father in the coffee trade in his teen years while still attending school. When the coffee trade declined, Tango, in an effort to carve out a livelihood, became an agent for Sony, distributing radio and television sets. After listening to the captivating sound of [a3496284]’s song 'Tezeta', Ali was hooked to the sound of local music. He decided to venture into the world of music business, eventually transforming Calypso Music Shop -that his mother bought- into Tango Music shop in the early 1970s. The shop later became his professional address for more than three decades. The shop was located in the center of Piazza in front of Amha Eshete’s Harambee Music Shop and sold Amha Records releases, which gave him insight into the potential of the music business. With Getatchew’s songs already having left a mark on him, Ali always had Getatchew in mind when setting up the business. Unfortunately for him, Getatchew had secured a deal with Amha and Ali had to find other artists to work with. After securing legal license and recording for others, Ali would later launch his label Kaifa Records which later on become an integral force in the development of the music scene of Ethiopia. Kaifa Records continued to produce releases until 1990. After Ali’s departure, first to Yemen and then the US, his son Adil tried to keep the flame by running the music shop in the Atikilt Tera area. He managed to do that for about five years, finally closing shop around 2011.