For the new album, tracks were recorded with members of Either/Orchestra in Boston, with contributions by traditional Ethiopian musicians in Addis, members of The Heliocentrics and some of the UK’s leading jazz and African players during the final sessions in London in November 2009.
Each track on the album tells its own story. The reflective, meandering opener, Radcliffe, was composed specifically for the Radcliffe Institute during Mulatu’s time lecturing at Harvard in Boston – the original score is now framed on the wall there. The Way To Nice was written and arranged on the tour bus during Mulatu’s recent French dates – “with this track, you are travelling on a long journey, talking and thinking” explains Mulatu. “It was inspired by the many beautiful places on the coast road around Nice.”
Assosa adapts traditional music from the Assosa tribes in northwestern Ethiopia and Mulatu’s Mood re-works a Mulatu jazz fusion composition from the early ’90s into a new swinging Afro highlife arrangement. “I wanted to use West African styles within this version and try new ways of using the beautiful sound of the kora.”
Boogaloo and I Faram Garni I Faram reprise Mulatu classics with new, fuller scores and bonus digital track Derashe highlights the traditional diminishing scales of the Derashe people of Southern Ethiopia, a musical technique that would later feature in the classical compositions of Debussy and the jazz of Charlie Parker. “Many debate how this music developed but the Derashe have played these scales for centuries. It is an untold story.”
Buy the album:
- In North America: Mulatu Steps Ahead. Other recordings available: New York – Addis – London: The Best of Mulatu Astatke
- In Europe: Mulatu Steps Ahead
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
