Mulatu Astatke - New York - Addis - London The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975 (2LP) [Strut]

Format: 2x12" in printed sleeve.
CAT: STRUT051LP

Vibraphonist and keyboard player, master arranger and bandleader, Mulatu Astatke is one of the great figures of Ethiopian music of all time and the creator of his own original musical language: Ethio jazz. Thanks to the acclaimed Ethiopiques album series and his inclusion on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s movie Broken Flowers, his music has reached – albeit belatedly – a global audience and a new generation of younger listeners. Last November, he recorded an inspired new album alongside London psych jazz outfit The Heliocentrics for Strut’s ‘Inspiration Information’ studio collaboration series. Now, Strut proudly presents, for the first time, the definitive retrospective of Mulatu’s career, spanning his seminal recordings from the 60s and 70s.

Mulatu is a true pioneer of African music. He was the first Ethiopian musician of his generation to travel extensively and record abroad: studying in the UK, in Wales and at London’s Trinity College of Music, cutting his teeth in the vibrant London jazz scene of the early 60s. He was also the first African student to attend Harvard, and lived and recorded in New York, where he developed a unique sound fusing Western jazz with traditional Ethiopian melodies. As he says himself: “it took a lot of time to find the balance, to let the colors and the emotions of the Ethiopian modes shine through.” Returning to so-called ‘Swinging Addis’ in the late 60s, he became a key figure, arranging for many of the country’s leading vocalists and developing rich, dense textures in his own music during the final years of Selassie’s reign and the period of the communist military Derg junta in the mid-70s.

Charting the evolution of his experiments in Ethio jazz, with full access to all the labels he recorded for, Mulatu Astatke: New York-Addis-London is the essential Mulatu compilation. Spanning his early UK recordings in 1965, his ground-breaking fusions for the tiny Worthy label in New York and his key 70s recordings back in Addis for Amha, Phillips and Axum, the album includes detailed sleeve notes penned by Miles Cleret, founder of the prestigious Soundway Records label, as well as rare and unseen photographs from Mulatu’s personal archive.