An excellent musician, who some call the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke, is coming to Ljubljana. In the 1950s, his Ethiopian family sent him to Wales to study engineering. Mulatu, due to a combination of circumstances, completed the Trinity College of Music in London. In the sixties it was like...
An excellent musician, who some call the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke, is coming to Ljubljana. In the 1950s, his Ethiopian family sent him to Wales to study engineering. Mulatu, due to a combination of circumstances, completed the Trinity College of Music in London. In the sixties, he was the first African to enroll at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he devoted himself to the study of vibraphone and percussion. There he also discovered his affinity for Latin American rhythms. During his career, he released many albums and collaborated with great musicians, including Duke Ellington. Although he has been shaping musical trends for decades, he gained worldwide fame and recognition only recently when Jim Jaramusch used his music in the movie Broken Flowers. In Ljubljana, he will present his latest project, Steps Ahead, with his band Heliocentrics. We will witness an interesting interweaving of various musical traditions in a very dynamic and fresh way. We will listen to top Ethio-jazz. He will be joined on stage by Alex Hawkins on electric piano, Byron Wallen on keyboards, James Arben on trumpet, Danny Keane on sax and flute, Olie Brice on cello, bassist Richard Olatunde Baker and drummer and percussionist Dave de Rose.
