This former Ethiopian music star is getting a late-life encore in the U.S.

Once a music star in Ethiopia, Hailu Mergia moved his life to Washington, D.C., more than 35 years ago. But while today he can often be found behind the wheel of a taxi, he also has returned to performing his music on tour. With a new album, the now 71-year-old is having an unexpected resurgence. Jeffrey Brown reports.

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Many times, when immigrants
come to the United States, they leave behind

careers they had at home.

Jeffrey Brown profiles a man who is returning
to his roots.

JEFFREY BROWN: A taxi picking up customers
at Washington's Dulles Airport, but this one

is driven by a man with an unusual musical
past.

Once a star in his native Ethiopia, Hailu
Mergia has lived in and around Washington,

D.C., for more than 35 years, driving a cab
for many of them.

I was wondering, when you were driving the
taxi, did anybody ever recognize you, maybe

Ethiopians you were driving?

And now he's once again on
stage, performing his music on tour, as in

this recent concert in Philadelphia for NPR's
World Cafe.

With a new album, the now 71-year-old is having
an unexpected resurgence, decades after his

career had seemingly ended.

Was it hard to go from being very well-known
in your city, in your country to being mostly

unknown here?

HAILU MERGIA: Yes, it is.

When people think about you, and some of them,
they think like, I'm not alive.

JEFFREY BROWN: They think you're not even
alive anymore.

HAILU MERGIA: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

HAILU MERGIA: Maybe they think I have passed
away.

I have no idea.

And some of them, why?

Where he is?

All of a sudden, I just disappeared.

And then people, they forgot me.

And I almost -- the only thing that they didn't
forget is my music, what I played.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the 1970s, Mergia was part
of an exciting musical scene in Addis Ababa

that fused Western funk and soul with the
traditional Ethiopian music he grew up with

in the countryside.

His mother had brought him to the capital
when he was 10 and, at 14, he joined the army's

youth troop, where he learned to play the
piano in its band.

He eventually pursued a life in music as keyboardist,
singer and composer, which took off when he

joined the Walias Band, an influential group
that their own spin on sounds from different

continents and had crowds dancing into the
night.

HAILU MERGIA: There were some radio stations
that were playing some latest media or Western

media, which is like from James Brown or from
Wilson Pickett of from Tyrone Davis, or from

Aretha Franklin, I mean, you name it.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, you're funkifying Ethiopian
music.

(LAUGHTER)

HAILU MERGIA: I just pick up the old songs
and rearrange them, change everything, change

the harmony, and change sometimes the intro.

Then I just played it like kind of modern
Ethiopian music.

JEFFREY BROWN: His 1977 album "Tche Belew"
combines funk beats and Mergia's organ improvisations

with the pentatonic scales of Ethiopian folk
music.

What was the biggest you could hope for from
-- at that time?

HAILU MERGIA: At that time, my hope was like,
one, for the group to play in the Hilton Hotel,

because once you get to Hilton, that's the
end of it.

JEFFREY BROWN: That was the biggest place
to play in Addis.

The band became a long-running hit at the
Hilton, the hottest venue in Addis.

But they also wanted more.

In 1981, Mergia and members of the band came
to the U.S.

The gigs were small, mostly to a newly arrived
Ethiopian immigrant community.

The band eventually split up, some returning
home.

Mergia stayed and released a solo album in
1985, but six years later, he stopped performing

and recording.

It was impossible to make a living.

Did you feel like you were giving up a dream
of making it as a musician?

HAILU MERGIA: I never give up, because I was
always practicing.

I was practicing every day, every night in
my house, in my car.

And I start -- I start buying -- I bought
one keyboard that I can move around.

A lot of the time, I want to drive taxi.

You know why?

JEFFREY BROWN: Why?

HAILU MERGIA: Because, one, it's the schedule.

I have my own time.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

HAILU MERGIA: I can go any time without asking
anybody permission.

That's a freedom of the life.

As a musician, sometimes, I go to a studio
and I sit like more than expected time, like

long hours.

JEFFREY BROWN: But, also, also, if you are
driving a taxi, you can just keep your instrument

in the back, in the trunk, and pull it out.

HAILU MERGIA: Yes.

Pull it out and practice.

JEFFREY BROWN: That's pretty good.

And practice.

HAILU MERGIA: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: And practice, he does, even
in the airport parking lot, working out compositions

while waiting for his next customer.

HAILU MERGIA: I'm trying to keep myself busy.

I just -- I don't want to lose my feelings
from music.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, Mergia was ready when musical
fortune struck.

A producer named Brian Shimkovitz, who specializes
in African music, found a cassette tape of

one of his old albums in a box in Ethiopia,
and re-released it in 2014.

That led to a new album titled "Lala Belu,"
or "Say Lala," released in February, and a

new late-life beginning for his second musical
career, in and now out of the taxi.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown
in Fort Washington, Maryland.