Mulatu Astatke, the 82-year-old musician credited with pioneering Ethio-jazz, recently performed at London's Royal Festival Hall in June, an event anticipated to be his final UK performance. Astatke, who developed his distinctive sound in England and the United States, faced initial resistance when he first introduced his music in Addis Ababa.
His Ethio-jazz blends the pentatonic scales of traditional Ethiopian music with Western jazz and funk, incorporating Afro-Latin rhythms and instruments like the krar, masenqo, and kebero. Astatke describes Ethio-jazz as a "beautiful science," combining various musical notes and styles.
Astatke's musical journey began after he was sent to a boarding school in Wrexham, north Wales, at 16, where he picked up the trumpet. He later studied at London's Trinity College of Music and became the first African student at Boston's Berklee College of Music. He recorded albums with his group, the Ethiopian Quintet, in New York and singles for Amha Records in Addis Ababa.
Today, Astatke is focused on ensuring that Ethiopia's cultural contributions, particularly from its "bush people," receive due credit. He highlights similarities between traditional African scales and rhythms and those found in Western music, questioning who was truly first to create them.