Visiting jazz legend
Mulatu Astatke
AfricanOz briefly caught up with ‘the father of Ethiopian jazz’, Mulatu Astatke, during his visit to Melbourne Jazz Festival 1-8 May 2010, where he performs with Melbourne’s Black Jesus Experience. He’s widely credited as the musical genius who integrated “jazz” with Ethiopian music in the 1960s, sparking an exciting genre of music that took the country by storm and eventually attracted international attention as ‘Ethio Jazz’. As a young man, Astatke initially left Ethiopia to study engineering, and later returned to Ethiopia from the UK and USA with degrees in music. Over the years he’s lived and worked in various countries, developing a huge following that has seen him perform with the likes of Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, the late Mariam Makeba and other African greats.
More recently his music enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after its use in the American film, Broken Flowers. According to Mulatu: “The director Of Broken Flowers Jim Jarmusch found my music for the film after listening to a variety of music. Jim and his crew came to see my concert at the New York Garden Theatre. Jim Jarmusch told me that he is a great fan, and that is really when my involvement with Broken Flowers started. The film Broken Flowers received numerous awards. This has brought a lot of attention and recognition for Ethio Jazz all over the world. Major newspapers around the world started to cover it, which meant a lot of fans and interest in Ethio Jazz. Jim Jarmusch is a creative person and has been instrumental in promoting Ethio Jazz.”
We asked what was so distinctive about Ethio Jazz. Mulatu says: “Ethio Jazz uses the distinctive five-note and also twelve-note Ethiopian scale and represents the music of the different nationalities of Ethiopia. To say Ethio Jazz is a mix of Latin is misleading as the combination of all kind of music elements in Ethio Jazz has to be analyzed. We should also not forget that Latin music has that dominant African rhythm.”
Born in 1943, Mulatu shows no signs of slowing down with age. More recently, between recording (he has released a couple of recent CDs including ‘Mulatu Steps Ahead’), the legendary musician has been working on other projects to bring Ethiopian music to the world: “I am currently working on compiling and arranging music for an Ethiopian film based in Ethiopia. The film will feature The Hamer (Hamar) Tribe in Ethiopia. My other project relates to the chants of St. Yared, the founder of Ethiopian church music thought to date back to the sixth century. I am hoping to feature concerts staged at the rock churches of Lalibela (in Ethiopia).”
Mulatu continues to be happy about the positive response to his music. “I have been involved in Ethio Jazz music for more than 42 years now. So my work was known in the world even before the film Broken Flowers came out…. So far my work has received an overwhelming positive response from people around the world. I have received more than a thousand emails from people who love my music and a lot of people attend my concerts. I am very happy to see such a response for Ethio Jazz.”
More about Astatke at:
Melbourne International Jazz Festival site
You Tube
Wikipedia
MULATU STEPS AHEAD – Astatke, Mulatu New CD
