Following his 2008 collaboration
with The Heliocentrics, Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke's star has risen
appreciably, with last October's New York – Addis – London compilation drawn
from his Sixties and Seventies work now followed by Mulatu Steps Ahead, his
first new studio album in some time.
Recorded with a mixture of
Ethiopian musicians, Heliocentrics, British jazz players and Boston's
genre-straddling Either/Orchestra, it's an enjoyably eclectic collection in
which Astatke standards like the Afro-Latin groove "I Faram Gami I Faram" and
"Mulatu's Mood" rub shoulders with more recent compositions such as "Radcliffe"
and "The Way To Nice". The former, written for Boston's Radcliffe Institute
during Astatke's stay as a Harvard lecturer, makes a languid, meandering opener
to the album, its breathy flutes finding shared space with the hoarse quality of
the middle-eastern bowed-string sound, before vibes, electric piano and muted
trumpet direct it to more exploratory, miasmic territory. "The Way To Nice", by
contrast, sounds rather like the Road To Addis Ababa tempered with a few 007
chordings. The cinematic mood continues with "Ethio Blues", where loping,
Mancini-esque brass work in alliance with the dry scrape of Ethiopian violin and
Mulatu's own vibes.
Listen Mulatu Astatke's Oldies music here @addismood.com
Independent
