Biography

Mulatu Astatke (also spelled as Mulatu Astatqé; Amharic: ሙላቱ አስታጥቄ) is an Ethiopian musician and arranger. He is known as the “Father of Ethio-Jazz.” Born in 1943 in Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia, Astatke was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston, where he was the first african student at the Berklee College of Music. He would later combine his jazz and Latin music influences with traditional ethiopian music. In 2005, his music appeared on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers; Jarmusch has claimed the music to be a source of inspiration for making the film itself.

In 2009, Mulatu Astatke paired up with The Heliocentrics to record the album Inspiration Information, part of Strut’s Inspiration Information studio collaboration series. The album was chiefly recorded at Quatermass studios in East London. Alongside Mulatu Astatke, London-based Ethiopian musicians including Dawit Gebreab, Yezina Nagash, Mesafnit Nagash and Temesgen Taraken guested on several tracks, contributing to a traditional sound using instruments like the krar (a six-stringed, five tone instrument), washint (a flute traditionally made from bamboo) and Begena (a ten string instrument dating back to the 15th century, sometimes referred to as “David’s Harp”). Astatke is also active in the Wallias Band.