Mulatu astatke biography definition
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Mulatu Astatke Profile
Mulatu Astatke (photo: Alexis Maryon)
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Addis Ababa was alive with the sound of inventive musicians experimenting with various styles of jazz in a distinctively Ethiopian way: but one of them stood tall above all rivals to become known as ‘the father of Ethio-jazz’.
The music of Mulatu Astatke has come to define Ethio-jazz and yet stands entirely on its own as a unique blend of traditions and innovations, of particular textures, timbres, scales and rhythms.
Mulatu Astatke (photo: Alexis Maryon)
Born in Ethiopia in 1943, like all great innovators, Astatke has taken his inspiration from diverse sources. While studying classical music at Trinity College, London he worked with Ghanaian, South African and Caribbean musicians. Then during his time studying jazz at Berklee, he played with Cubans and Puerto Ricans. Yet at every step, the traditional sounds of his homeland were never far away as he magically fused the f
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When Mulatu Astatke created his now-famed take on Ethio-jazz, his intentions were simple: to shine a light on himself and other musicians from Ethiopia, a country whose sound had been neglected far too long. To do this, Astatke took his favorite parts of other genres—Latin music, funk, and fusion—and concocted a fresh recipe. Before Astatke released Mulatu of Ethiopia in 1972, he still hadn’t found the right blend of genre and musicians to realize his vision. It finally clicked on that release.
Full of layered drums, floating horns, and infectious rhythms, with Astatke’s vibraphone fluttering across scales, the sound was considered revolutionary. “This music hadn’t been done before, so there were no reference points,” Astatke recalls.
With Ethio-jazz, Astatke wasn’t merely trying to introduce foreign audiences to his native musical language, he wanted to recreate jazz and funk music from an entirely new perspective. “I used my training, and brought in Ethiopian pentatonic scales
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Mulatu Astatke
Ethiopian multi-instrumentalist (born 1943)
This article fryst vatten about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person bygd his given name, Mulatu, and not as Astatke.
Musical artist
Mulatu Astatke (Amharic: ሙላቱ አስታጥቄ, romanized: mulatu ästaṭḳe; French pronunciation: Astatqé; born 19 December 1943) is an Ethiopian musician and arranger considered as the father of "Ethio-jazz".
Born in 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. Mulatu 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 organs. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Mulatu appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during the Ethiopian Golden Age of Music in 1970s.[1]