By Howard Mandel | Published October 2025
I regret not having heard of 81-year-old Mulatu Astatke earlier in his 50-year career but rejoice at discovering him now. Eminent in Ethiopia — not the most avidly promoted of jazz scenes — Astatke is a composer-performer here revisiting and retooling his long-established repertoire as beguiling miniature jazz symphonies for a chamber orchestra-sized ensemble mixing traditional horn-of-Africa sounds with solid blowing by a British band ably directed by James Arben.
The pentatonic krar lyre, one-string bowed massengo and end-blown washint flute are key to Astatke’s palette, used alongside the Western reeds, brass, traps, viols, keyboards and vibes (his main instrument, employed with self-effacing languor as on “Netsanet”). Each piece, carefully plotted and lovingly produced, contains intimate detailing as well as unusually open and/or deftly inflated passages.
Astatke has found that cyclical Ethiopian rhythm patterns track with Afro-Caribbean clavé and emphatically syncopated beats. The drumming alone fascinates. But it underlies Blue Note-style jams (“Zelesenga Dewel”), militant marches (“Kulun”), undefinable exoticism (“The Way To Nice”), free sax breaks (“Yekatit”) and echoes of such diverse masters as Ellington, Sun Ra, James Brown, Raymond Scott, Gil Evans, Eddie Palmieri, Roy Ayers and Horace Tapscott — all marked by Mulatu Astatke’s distinct personal touch. Welcome, Maestro.
