Although he is now in his 81st year, Mulatu Astake, the pioneer of Ethio-jazz, is not slowing down. His latest album, Tension, clearly shows that his appetite for pushing his musical envelope in new directions has not diminished.
Born in Jimma, the largest city in South-Western Ethiopia, Astatke trained in jazz and Latin music, initially in London during the 1950s and then in Boston and New York. His earliest albums saw him fusing traditional Ethiopian scales and rhythms with funk, jazz, Latin and soul in a style he termed “Ethio-jazz”. Whilst he had long been recognised as a major artist in his home country, the release, in 1998, of Éthiopiques, a compilation of his instrumental recordings, along with the highly successful 2005 film Broken Flowers, in which his compositions featured heavily, saw his music exposed to a much broader, international audience.
Collaboration, since 2009, with The Heliocentrics, a London-based psychedelic-funk-jazz collective, has seen him develop into a major artist performing to audiences on the global touring circuit. He is held in high esteem by his musical peers and has been covered by the likes of Dengue Fever, a personal favourite being their cover of his Yègellé Tezeta composition, which they titled Ethanopium.
For this latest release, Mulatu has joined the Hoodna Orchestra. Originally formed on the south side of Tel Aviv in 2012 and soon to become renowned as the city’s premier Afrobeat band, this collective has not only diversified its sound to incorporate funk, jazz, soul, psychedelic rock, and East African music but has also recently discovered a shared penchant for the music of Ethiopia, specifically the Ethio-jazz of its founding father, Astatke.
In 2023, the eleven-musician collective was given the opportunity to record and perform with Mulatu. Over the first two days of March of that year, Tension was recorded in Tel Aviv’s Anova Studios. Neal Sugarman, a multi-instrumentalist and member of The Dap-Kings, plays on and co-produced the session with Hoodna guitarist Ilan Smilan.
The result of their endeavours is seven original compositions, with all arrangements credited to the Orchestra, which, whilst offering homage to the emblematic Mulatu sound, also blazes new trails as the music marries his trademark vibraphone playing with their brass-dominant creations.
This new direction is immediately exemplified on the album’s opening title track, as Astake’s singular vibraphone, which is very much to the fore in the mix, is complemented by vibrant beats, strident bass lines, and super-charged percussion before intense brass motifs are delivered. Mulatu’s captivating vibraphone solo here is matched by an equally stunning tenor sax solo, delivered with aplomb by Eylon Tushiner.
The second offering, Major, was recorded towards the end of the session. It is a joyous, carefree, West African-infused piece that features percussive beats, jaunty brass runs, full-on electric guitar, and a superb organ solo from Eitan Drabkin.
Smilan’s composition Hatula initially presents a dramatic change of mood and tempo. Mulatu, playing piano accompanied by some honeyed sax, offers a slow, crepuscular experience. This atmosphere, however, eventually gives way as tension builds into a great, almost cacophonous crescendo.
On Yashan, the longest track on the album, Astatke returns to the vibraphone and, initially, to the lounge-core vibes present at the start of the previous track. While his playing subtly underlines the pounding bass lines of Nadav Bracha, the urgent Ethio-jazz breaks from the horns, and the mellifluous baritone sax solo courtesy of Elad Gellert at times, as with other tracks on the album, his solos are very much allowed to breathe and take centre stage.
The penultimate track, the Latin-jazz-inflected Delilah, is another seductive listen. The opening flute and guitar motifs, reminiscent of a wide-screen Morricone soundtrack, act as perfect amuses bouches before the main courses, beguiling solos from Astatke himself on vibraphone and Tushiner on guitar, which take things to a different level before, with remarkable symmetry, there is a return to the flute motif, whilst the understated brass remains subtly in the background throughout.
The album closes with Dung Gate, a magisterial composition by percussionist Ran Birnbaum. Here, the strong, resonant horns are countervailed by the sophisticated and often complex percussive beats and handclaps, while Mulatu’s precise vibe figures further add to the track’s regal tone.
Like all good musicians, Mulato Astatke has refused to let his music stagnate; his Ethio-jazz style continues to evolve and travel along fresh paths in original directions. Tension is a vibrant, uplifting listen, the musicianship is of the highest order, and the chemistry between its participants is palpable throughout.
Tension (Batov Records)
Bandcamp: https://mulatuastatke.bandcamp.com/album/tension