Mulatu Astatke
Encyclopedia
Mulatu Astatke is an Ethiopia
n musician and arranger
best known as the father of Ethio-jazz.
Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma
, Mulatu was musically trained in London
, New York City
, and Boston
where he combined his jazz
and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone
and conga drums—instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music—as well as other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ
. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia's Golden ’70s.
in Wales
during the late 1950s. Instead, he earned a degree in music through studies at the Welsh Lindisfarne College
and then Trinity College of Music
in London
. In the 1960s, Astatke moved to the United States
, where he became the first African student to enroll at Boston
's prestigious Berklee College of Music
, where he studied vibraphone and percussion.
While living in the US, Astatke became interested in Latin jazz
and recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2, in New York City in 1966. The records prominently feature Astatke's vibraphone, backed up by piano
and conga drums playing Latin rhythms, and were entirely instrumental, with the exception of the song "I Faram Gami I Faram," which was sung in Spanish
. Though these records are almost indistinguishable from other Latin-jazz records of the period, some tracks foreshadow elements of Astatke's later work, and he is credited as having established conga and bongo drum
s as common elements in Ethiopian popular music.
In the early 1970s, Astatke brought his new sound, which he called Ethio-jazz, back to his homeland while continuing to work in the US. He collaborated with many notable artists in both countries, arranging and playing on recordings by Mahmoud Ahmed
, and appearing as a special guest with Duke Ellington
and his band during a tour of Ethiopia in 1973.
During this time, Astatke recorded another album in New York, Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972). Meanwhile, the bulk of his recorded material was being released on Amha Eshèté's eponymous Ethiopian label Amha Records
in Addis Ababa
, which released several Mulatu Astatke singles along with the 1974 album Yekatit Ethio-Jazz and six out of the 10 tracks on that year's Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits compilation. Astatke's records appeared alongside releases by notable Ethiopian vocalists Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté
, and others, all of whose music was influenced by the infusion of American jazz and Latin instrumentation that Astatke brought to Ethiopia.
By 1975, Amha Records had ceased production after the Derg
military junta
forced the label's owner and many other Ethio-jazz luminaries to flee the country. Astatke stuck around long enough to play vibes for Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band's 1977 album Tche Belew (which featured the original classic "Musicawi Silt") before the Wallas also left Ethiopia to tour internationally. But by the 1980s, Astatke's music was largely forgotten outside of his homeland.
ian record label Buda Musique
began to reissue many of the Amha-era Ethio-jazz recordings on compact disc as part of the series Ethiopiques
, and the first of these reissues to be dedicated to a single artist was Ethiopiques Volume 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969–1974, Mulatu Astatke. The album brought Astatke's music to a new international audience, perhaps the largest in his career.
His Western audience expanded even further when the 2005 Jim Jarmusch
film Broken Flowers
featured seven of Astatke's songs, including one performed by Cambodian-American rock band Dengue Fever. National Public Radio used Astatke's instrumentals as beds under or between pieces, notably on the program This American Life
. Hip hop
artists have also sample
d Astatke's songs extensively, samples can be heard in the works of for example Nas
, Damian Marley
, Kanye West
, Cut Chemist
, Quantic, Madlib
, Oddisee
, and Knaan.
After meeting the Massachusetts
-based Either/Orchestra
in Addis Ababa
in 2004, Mulatu began a collaboration with the band with performances in Scandinavia in summer 2006 and London, New York, Germany, Holland, Glastonbury (UK), Dublin, and Toronto in 2008. In the fall of 2008, he collaborated with the London-based psyche-jazz collective the Heliocentrics on the album Inspiration Information Vol. 3, which included re-workings of his earlier Ethio-jazz classics with new material by the Heliocentrics and himself.
In 2008, Mulatu completed a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University
, where he worked on modernizations of traditional Ethiopian instruments and premiered a portion of a new opera
, The Yared
Opera. Mulatu also served as an Abramowitz Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, delivering lectures and workshops, as well as advising MIT's Media Lab
on creating a modern version of the krar
, a traditional Ethiopian instrument.
On February 1, 2009, Mulatu Astatke performed at the Luckman Auditorium in Los Angeles with a band that included such notable jazz musicians as Bennie Maupin
, Azar Lawrence
, and Phil Ranelin
. Mulatu also released a two-disc set to be sold exclusively to passengers of Ethiopian Airlines
, with the first disc being a compilation of the different styles from different regions of Ethiopia and the second being studio originals.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n musician and arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
best known as the father of Ethio-jazz.
Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma
Jimma
Jimma, also Jima, is the largest city in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Jimma Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of . The town was the capital of Kaffa Province until the province was dissolved. Prior to the 2007 census, Jimma was reorganized administratively as a...
, Mulatu was musically trained in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
where he combined his jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
and conga drums—instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music—as well as other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia's Golden ’70s.
Early years
Astatke's family sent the young Mulatu to study engineeringEngineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
during the late 1950s. Instead, he earned a degree in music through studies at the Welsh Lindisfarne College
Lindisfarne College
Lindisfarne College was a private school or independent school. It was founded in 1891 in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, England. In 1940 Lindisfarne College moved from Westcliff to nearby Creeksea Place, but during World War II the building was requisitioned by the military and the school transferred...
and then Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In the 1960s, Astatke moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he became the first African student to enroll at Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's prestigious Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, where he studied vibraphone and percussion.
While living in the US, Astatke became interested in Latin jazz
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
and recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2, in New York City in 1966. The records prominently feature Astatke's vibraphone, backed up by piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and conga drums playing Latin rhythms, and were entirely instrumental, with the exception of the song "I Faram Gami I Faram," which was sung in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Though these records are almost indistinguishable from other Latin-jazz records of the period, some tracks foreshadow elements of Astatke's later work, and he is credited as having established conga and bongo drum
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
s as common elements in Ethiopian popular music.
In the early 1970s, Astatke brought his new sound, which he called Ethio-jazz, back to his homeland while continuing to work in the US. He collaborated with many notable artists in both countries, arranging and playing on recordings by Mahmoud Ahmed
Mahmoud Ahmed
Mahmoud Ahmed is an Ethiopian singer of Gurage ancestry.-Biography:Born in Addis Ababa, Mahmoud shined shoes in that city before becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, where he first sang professionally in the early 1960s...
, and appearing as a special guest with Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and his band during a tour of Ethiopia in 1973.
During this time, Astatke recorded another album in New York, Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972). Meanwhile, the bulk of his recorded material was being released on Amha Eshèté's eponymous Ethiopian label Amha Records
Amha Records
Amha Records was an Ethiopian record label founded by Amha Ashèté. The company released 103 singles and 12 albums between 1969 and 1975.Prominent singers and musicians who recorded for the label included Alemayehu Eshete, Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke and Tilahun Gessesse.-Resource:* Falceto,...
in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, which released several Mulatu Astatke singles along with the 1974 album Yekatit Ethio-Jazz and six out of the 10 tracks on that year's Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits compilation. Astatke's records appeared alongside releases by notable Ethiopian vocalists Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté
Alemayehu Eshete
Alemayehu Eshete is an Ethiopian Ethio-jazz singer active since the 1960s who primarily sings in Amharic. Eshete's talent was recognized by colonel Rètta Dèmèqè who invited the young singer to perform with Addis Ababa's famous Police Orchestra...
, and others, all of whose music was influenced by the infusion of American jazz and Latin instrumentation that Astatke brought to Ethiopia.
By 1975, Amha Records had ceased production after the Derg
Derg
The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...
military junta
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
forced the label's owner and many other Ethio-jazz luminaries to flee the country. Astatke stuck around long enough to play vibes for Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band's 1977 album Tche Belew (which featured the original classic "Musicawi Silt") before the Wallas also left Ethiopia to tour internationally. But by the 1980s, Astatke's music was largely forgotten outside of his homeland.
Recent work
By the early 1990s, many record collectors had rediscovered the music of Mulatu Astatke and were combing stashes of vinyl for copies of his 1970s releases. In 1998, the ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian record label Buda Musique
Buda Musique
Buda Musique is a French Record label specializng in world music, who are especially known for their Ethiopiques series of albums.They have released over 400 albums in their 18 year history....
began to reissue many of the Amha-era Ethio-jazz recordings on compact disc as part of the series Ethiopiques
Ethiopiques
Ethiopiques is a series of compact discs featuring Ethiopian and Eritrean singers and musicians. Many of the Ethiopiques CDs compile various singles and albums that Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia released during the 1960s and 1970s in Ethiopia...
, and the first of these reissues to be dedicated to a single artist was Ethiopiques Volume 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969–1974, Mulatu Astatke. The album brought Astatke's music to a new international audience, perhaps the largest in his career.
His Western audience expanded even further when the 2005 Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
film Broken Flowers
Broken Flowers
Broken Flowers is a 2005 French/American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. The film focuses on an aging "Don Juan" who embarks on a cross-country journey to track down four of his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter...
featured seven of Astatke's songs, including one performed by Cambodian-American rock band Dengue Fever. National Public Radio used Astatke's instrumentals as beds under or between pieces, notably on the program This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
. Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
artists have also sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
d Astatke's songs extensively, samples can be heard in the works of for example Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
, Damian Marley
Damian Marley
Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley is a Jamaican reggae artist who has won three Grammy awards. Damian is the youngest son of Bob Marley....
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Cut Chemist
Cut Chemist
Lucas MacFadden , better known as Cut Chemist, is an American DJ and record producer. He is a former member of the funk Latin band Ozomatli, and of hip hop group Jurassic 5...
, Quantic, Madlib
Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...
, Oddisee
Oddisee
Amir Mohamed, better known as Oddisee is a hip hop producer and MC from Prince George's County, Maryland.-Biography:Oddisee was born in Washington, D.C. to an African-American mother and a Sudanese father. He grew up in Maryland influenced by hip-hop and soul as well as the myriad of musicians on...
, and Knaan.
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
-based Either/Orchestra
Either/Orchestra
The Either/Orchestra is a jazz group formed by Russ Gershon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in 1985. E/O is configured as a "small big band", with three saxes, two trumpets and one or two trombones...
in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
in 2004, Mulatu began a collaboration with the band with performances in Scandinavia in summer 2006 and London, New York, Germany, Holland, Glastonbury (UK), Dublin, and Toronto in 2008. In the fall of 2008, he collaborated with the London-based psyche-jazz collective the Heliocentrics on the album Inspiration Information Vol. 3, which included re-workings of his earlier Ethio-jazz classics with new material by the Heliocentrics and himself.
In 2008, Mulatu completed a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he worked on modernizations of traditional Ethiopian instruments and premiered a portion of a new opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, The Yared
Yared
Saint Yared was a semi-legendary Ethiopian musician credited with inventing the sacred music tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Ethiopia's system of musical notation...
Opera. Mulatu also served as an Abramowitz Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, delivering lectures and workshops, as well as advising MIT's Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
on creating a modern version of the krar
Krar
The krar or kraar is a five- or six-stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Eritrea and Ethiopia. The instrument is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern krar may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin....
, a traditional Ethiopian instrument.
On February 1, 2009, Mulatu Astatke performed at the Luckman Auditorium in Los Angeles with a band that included such notable jazz musicians as Bennie Maupin
Bennie Maupin
Bennie Maupin is a Detroit Michigan jazz multireedist. He performs on various saxophones, flute and bass clarinet.He is probably best known for his participation in Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi sextet and Headhunters band, and for performing on Miles Davis's seminal fusion record, Bitches Brew...
, Azar Lawrence
Azar Lawrence
Azar Lawrence is an American jazz saxophonist, known for his contributions as sideman to McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw. Lawrence was the tenor saxophonist Tyner used following John Coltrane's death....
, and Phil Ranelin
Phil Ranelin
Phil Ranelin is an American jazz and experimental music trombonist.Ranelin was born in Indianapolis, and lived in New York before moving to Detroit in the 1960s...
. Mulatu also released a two-disc set to be sold exclusively to passengers of Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines , formerly Ethiopian Air Lines, often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is an airline headquartered on the grounds of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It serves as the country's flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia...
, with the first disc being a compilation of the different styles from different regions of Ethiopia and the second being studio originals.
As bandleader
- Maskaram Setaba 7" (1966, Addis Ababa Records, US)
- Afro-Latin Soul, Volume 1 (1966, US)
- Afro-Latin Soul, Volume 2 (1966, US)
- Mulatu Of Ethiopia LP (1972, Worthy Records, US)
- Yekatit Ethio-Jazz LP (1974, Amha Records, Ethiopia)
- Plays Ethio Jazz LP (1989, Poljazz, Poland)
- Ethio Jazz: Mulatu Astatke Featuring Fekade Amde Maskal
- From New York City to Addis Ababa: The Best of Mulatu Astatke
- Mulatu Astatke
- Assiyo Bellema
- ÉthiopiquesEthiopiquesEthiopiques is a series of compact discs featuring Ethiopian and Eritrean singers and musicians. Many of the Ethiopiques CDs compile various singles and albums that Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia released during the 1960s and 1970s in Ethiopia...
, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974 CD (1998, Buda MusiqueBuda MusiqueBuda Musique is a French Record label specializng in world music, who are especially known for their Ethiopiques series of albums.They have released over 400 albums in their 18 year history....
, France) - Mulatu Steps Ahead with the Eithor/Orchestra CD/2xLP (2010, Strut, Germany)
As a musician and collaborator
- Tche Belew with Hailu Mergia & The Walias Band (1977, Kaifa Records, Ethiopia)
- Inspiration Information with the Heliocentrics (2009)
Compilation appearances
- Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits LP (1974, Amha Records, Ethiopia)
- New York–Addis–London: The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965–1975
External links
- Mulatu Astatke Steps Ahead album site
- Mulatu Astatke - The Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information album site
- Mulatu Astatke: Ethio Jazz
- Berklee Spotlight: Echoes in Africa
- Either Orchestra performances with Mulatu Astatke
- A second round of glory article at Ha'aretz.
- Mulatu Astatke Interview
- RBMA Radio On Demand - Toronto Treasures - Mulatu Astatke (Ethio-Jazz, Ethiopia)