14 October 2014 Last updated at 23:29 BST
Mulatu Astatke, the godfather of Ethiopian jazz music, has performed around the world to sell-out shows, including the UK's famous Glastonbury festival.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Mulatu Astatke: Spreading ethio-jazz to the world
By Teo Kermeliotis, for CNN
September 17, 2014 -- Updated 1508 GMT (2308 HKT)
(CNN) -- You'd expect a conversation with Mulatu Astake to be about music. He is, after all, the father of a musical genre: Ethio-jazz. But when he talks about the art form, he tends to focus on its scientific merits.
"When you start talking about jazz, they're usually telling us that Africans contributed to the rhythm parts of jazz music, but it's not only the rhythms. We have contributed to the science of jazz as well," he says.
While innovators like Charlie Parker may get credit for the creation of modern jazz music by using diminished scales (as done in classical music by composers like Claude Debussy), Astake offers an alternative view: "In southern Ethiopia, there are tribes called the Derashe -- I call them the scientists of music. By cutting different size bamboos, [they] have been playing this diminished scale [for centuries]. So who first created it? Debussy, Charlie Parker, or the Derashe tribes?"
Unsurprisingly, I'm not the only one who's been presented with such questions by Astatke, whose passion about Africa's contribution to music extends back to the 1960s when he went on to fuse the traditional Ethiopian five-tone scales with western 12-note harmonies to give life to a whole new music genre: the hypnotizing and eerily seductive soundscape of ethio-jazz.
Music pioneer
Astatke, whose performance Saturday at Africa Utopia was one of the highlights of the London-based festival, has been outspoken about his country's cultural heritage throughout his five-decade career. Yet, the father of ethio-jazz first had to go outside Ethiopia to find his musical calling.
Born in Jimma, southwestern Ethiopia, in 1943, Astatke was sent to Wales as a teenager to further his high school studies, with the goal of studying aeronautical engineering. It was there where his fascination with music began, after being encouraged by his teachers to pick up various musical instruments.
Astatke quickly discovered his natural musical talent -- and has never looked back. After shelving plans to study engineering, he moved to London to study classical music at Trinity College. During those years, he also started performing live, playing congas and timpani in various clubs across the London capital.
Keen to explore jazz, Astatke then decided to enroll at Boston's Berklee College of Music, becoming the famed institution's first African student. At Berklee, Astatke analyzed the work of jazz giants -- anyone from Duke Ellington and Count Basie to Gil Evans and John Coltrane -- but was also encouraged to explore his own musical vision.
"I remember at Berklee we had a fantastic teacher who always used to tell us, 'guys, be yourselves,'" says Astatke. "So I started concentrating, working things out my own way and experimenting."
read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/17/world/africa/mulatu-astatke-spreading-ethio-jazz-world/index.html?eref=edition
Sunday, September 29, 2013
After 40 Years, Mulatu Astatke Still 'Sketches' Ethio-Jazz Deftly
by BANNING EYRE
September 26, 2013 4:40 PM
Alexis Maryon / Courtesy of the artist
It is bold indeed for any jazz artist to evoke Miles Davis' landmark album Sketches of Spain. But Mulatu Astatke, like Miles, is a true original.
The music Astatke first imagined 40 years ago sounds as fresh and contemporary today as it did in the swinging Addis Ababa of 1973 when Astatke created a signature "Ethio-jazz" style by blending jazz with Ethiopian music. Decades later, he earned an international following when his early recordings appeared on reissue CDs. Now, Astatke has rewarded fans with new album called Sketches of Ethiopia.
The music Astake makes is cool and complex at the same time that it is easily engaging. It has an almost narrative quality and keeps you constantly wondering what's coming next.
Astake doesn't just compose, arrange, and play jazz. He uses it as a tool to explore cultures, and create musical bridges between them. On the song "Azmari," he fills out his brassy jazz ensemble with Ethiopian drums and the masinko lute, orchestrating it around a cantering, traditional rhythm.
Sketches of Ethiopia incorporates ideas and musicians from three continents and many nations, but the music still maintains a strong Ethiopian stamp. It's never predictable and, for all the surprises, it never feels cluttered or gimmicky. That's the mark of a master. And we're lucky that after all these years, the father of Ethio-jazz has not lost his edge.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/2013/09/26/226553020/after-40-years-mulatu-astatke-still-sketches-ethio-jazz-deftly?ft=1&f=1039
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Mulatu Astatke - Steps Ahead
REVIEWS
BBC
He weaves his highly individual magic in an infectious and mysterious style.On the back of his highly acclaimed 2009 collaboration with London-based astral funk group The Heliocentrics – album of the year in Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards – Ethiopian jazz-fusion maestro Mulatu Astatke was lured back into the studio for his first album in his own right for two decades.
Pitchfork
Anyone who’s liked his music in the past is very likely to enjoy this, but I think Mulatu Steps Ahead will broaden Astatke’s jazz following as well, and frankly, it’s a much more coherent record than a lot of heavily improvisational modern jazz albums.
Contact Music
When listening to ‘Mulatu Steps Ahead‘ I wasn’t sure whether it was just a jazz album as there are very clear influences to Ellington with long solos too. For me it’s when the African or other world influences kick in that makes quite special.
Read more: http://the.rvj.pm
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