Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Plays Mulatu
Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Plays Mulatu
Artist:
Mulatu Astatke
Title:
Mulatu Plays Mulatu
Label:
Strut
Cat. No.:
STRUT 482LP
Released:
2025
Style:
ethio jazz
Format:
LP
Condition:
NEW
Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.
Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live performance, alongside cultural musicians resident at his Jazz Village club in Addis.
Mulatu Plays Mulatu realises Mulatu’s long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, intricately balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. Throughout the album, he reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and a deepened rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels as vital and contemporary as it does steeped in tradition. Familiar tracks like ‘Yekermo Sew’, ‘Netsanet’ and 'Azmari', composed by Either/Orchestra's Russ Gershon, are reinvented here as elegant big band performances.
TRACKLIST :
A1 Zelesenga Dewel
A2 Kulun
A3 Netsanet
B1 Yekermo Sew
B2 Chik Chikka
B3 Motherland
B4 Yekatit
