Mulatu Astatke – “Gubelye” from the album “Ethiopiques Volume 4”

Mulatu Astatke was born on 19 December 1943 in Djimma, Ethiopia. At a time when Ethiopian musicians were trained in the ranks of the institutional bands, Mulatu was the first, possibly only, musician of his generation to have travelled and studied music abroad.

He was sent to UK at the age of 17 to study engineering, but quickly changed to music, studying clarinet, piano and harmony at London’s Trinity College of Music and music theory at the Eric Gilder School of Music in Twickenham. He then attended the Hartnett National Music Studies in New York and then Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

In New york he frequented the jazz and latin-jazz scene and founded the Ethiopian Quintet. He remains the only Ethiopian musician to have been truly influenced by Latin-American music and by Jazz and weave it into the “Ethiopian groove”. He is known as the father of Ethio-Jazz.

Ethiopiques Volume 4

1) Yèkèrmo Sèw;  2) Mètché Dershé; 3) Kasalèfkut Hulu; 4) Tezeta; 5) Yègellé Tezeta; 6) Munayé; 7) Gubèlyé; 8) Asmarina – Feqadu Amde-Mesqel; 9) Yèkatit; 10) Nètsanèt; 11) Tezetayé Antchi Lidj; 12) Sabyé; 13) Ené Alantchi Alnorem – Girma Hadgu; 14) Dèwèl