Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Of Ethiopia (2LP, white vinyl) [STRUT]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP special edition from Strut comes on white vinyl, pairing the original stereo album master with the pre-mix mono master, both from the original tapes. It's the album that carried Ethio-jazz, his own blend of Ethiopian music, jazz and Latin rhythm, out into the world.

This edition

• 2LP set
• White vinyl
• Stereo and mono mixes
• Mastered from the original tapes

About the album

Mulatu Astatke was sent to Britain at 16 to study engineering and came home with an entirely new genre instead. Along the way he studied at Trinity College of Music in London, played Soho clubs alongside African and Caribbean musicians, and in 1963 became the first African student at Berklee in Boston, where vibraphone and percussion took over and Latin jazz got under his skin.

Back in Addis Ababa from 1969, he called his new sound Ethio-jazz and arranged for many of the city's great singers, while still working in the U.S. He cut Mulatu of Ethiopia in New York City in 1972, and his vibraphone and congas, instruments he introduced to Ethiopian popular music, sit at the centre of "Mulatu," "Mascaram Setaba," "Kulunmanqueleshi," "Kasalefkut-Hulu" and "Chifara." Having the stereo mix and the earlier mono master side by side lets you hear the same session two ways, and both reward a close listen.

The following year he played as a special guest with Duke Ellington's band on its tour of Ethiopia, the sort of line most of us can't put on a CV.

Also at Kops: more Mulatu Astatke on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Strut (cat# STRUT129LPC), a reissue of the 1972 album.