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Interview with Mulatu Astatke It should come as no surprise that there's plenty of good jazz being made in Africa. After all, the style is rooted in African-American work songs and spirituals, whose elements were mainly African. And yet, even connoisseurs would be hard-pressed to come up with the names of African jazzmen, with the exceptions of pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, trumpeter Hugh Masakela, and the late bass-player Johnny Dyani, all from South Africa. But The World's Marco Werman suggests heading north to Ethiopia. Click here to download the audio file. Marco Werman: The first time you hear the music of Mulatu Astatqe, it takes you back...centuries. And in fact, a lot of the music that 58 year-old Mulatu Astatqe composes is based the ancient scales and traditional rhythms of Ethiopia. Astatqe wrote this composition "Yekermo sew" in 1969. It translates as "a man of experience and wisdom." And when it comes to jazz, that's Mulatu Astatqe. A percussionist and vibraphone player, Astatqe studied music in Britain, and graduated from Boston's Berklee School of Music in the early sixties before returning to Ethiopia and bending his country's music through his jazz mind. Mulatu Astatqe: I started changing the arrangements of the melodies which are very much used to the public ears, like wedding songs, songs like children's lullabies. Werman: But even though Mulatu Astatqe had returned to Ethiopia with an innovative musical idiom, the public wasn't ready for it. Then in 1970, Duke Ellington visited Addis Abeba, the Ethiopian capital, on a State Department sponsored tour. Mulatu Astatqe met the Duke and showed him some of his scores. Astatqe: So he said "Why don't you come over, let's play and see what happens?" So we played it at the Hilton concerts, the Addis Hilton, and it was very successful. And he said, "I never expected this from an African." So that was a fantastic comment. Werman: Travels such as these would further inspire Duke Ellington. The African and Asian influence on jazz became evident on his 1971 recording "The Afro Eurasian Eclipse." Mulatu Astatqe also went on to evolve as a musician, carrying a torch for jazz in Ethiopia. Astatqe founded and continues to direct the African Jazz Village in Addis Abeba, a place where aspiring African jazz musicians can study, jam and compose. He hosts a jazz program on Ethiopian radio that reaches over a million people. And occasionally Mulatu Astatqe does arrangements for musician friends, like fellow Ethiopian Teddy Makonen, who lives in the United States. Most recently, Mulatu Astatqe is picking up an unexpected following in European dance clubs. His 1969 hit "Yegelle tezeta," was brought into a British compilation of hip Afrobeat tracks, and is now a big seller outside Ethiopia. In English "Yegelle tezeta" means "my own memory." Mulatu Astatqe's song may be a memory for many Ethiopians. For Afrobeat fans across the globe discovering the track for the first time, it's as fresh as it was 32 years ago. |