Mulatu Astatke

Mulatu Astatke is the "father of Ethio Jazz", making him one of Africa's most influential musicians. Astatke was born in 1943 into a wealthy Ethiopian home. In 1956 he began his school education in England. At Trinity College of Music in London he played clarinet and percussion instruments

After discovering his penchant for jazz in New York, he became the first African to attend Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music in the early sixties, switching to the vibraphone. "That's where I got my tools. Berklee really shook me up," as he himself noted. Throughout the sixties, Astatke performed regularly with his Ethiopian Quintet in the jazz clubs of New York, absorbing the wild spirit of the time. He began to combine Western jazz, Latin, funk and traditional Ethiopian music. That means he extended the pentatonic 5-tone scale common in Africa and Asia by the chromatic 12-tone scale of the northern hemisphere and thus invented Ethio Jazz

The first official tribute to this new style was the album "Mulatu Of Ethiopia", released in 1972. It was recorded in New York and is now remastered back in stores via Strut. All formats include rare photos, an actual interview with Astatke and the original artwork.