Mulatu Plays Mulatu

Mulatu Plays Mulatu

Mulatu Astatke

€ 28,95
  • LP
Label
Strut Records
Expected release
26 September 2025
PRE-ORDER ITEM: This item will only be shipped to you on or after 26 September 2025. Please note any orders containing pre-order items won't be shipped until all items are available, so please order this separately to avoid delays. Release dates are at the mercy of labels, distributor, and pressing plants and will change constantly.

PICK-UP AT SHOP / FREE SHIPPING FOR ORDERS WITHIN BELGIUM AND EXCEEDING €100 (FYI: we notice delays at Bpost which are out of our hands, if you want to be a 100% sure about delivery date, best choose pick-up) / Shipping costs are dependent on various factors and are calculated in your shopping cart. Add this item to your cart to see the shipping cost. Or pick up your order at our store in Ghent.

Description

Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.

Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live performance, alongside cultural musicians resident at his Jazz Village club in Addis.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu realises Mulatu’s long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, intricately balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. Throughout the album, he reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and a deepened rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels as vital and contemporary as it does steeped in tradition. Familiar compositions like ‘Yekermo Sew’, ‘Netsanet’ and the celebratory ‘Kulun’ are reinvented here as elegant big band performances.

“Ethio-jazz brings us together and makes us one,” explains Mulatu. “This album is the culmination of my work bringing this music to the world and pays respect to our unsung heroes, the original musical scientists in Ethiopia who gave us our cultural music.”

Bridging continents and generations throughout his 50-year career, Astatke now offers us an invitation to hear his music again, with a completely fresh perspective. Ethio-jazz, like its creator, is always in motion.

Tracklist

A

  • 1.Zelesenga Dewel
  • 2.Kulun
  • 3.Netsanet

B

  • 1.Yekermo Sew
  • 2.Chik Chikka
  • 3.Motherland
  • 4.Yekatit

More by Mulatu Astatke

You might also like

Shopping bag