The father of Ethio-Jazz

For more than 50 years, Mulatu Astatke has been performing at venues around the world, inspiring audiences with his original genre of music known as Ethio-jazz.

He recorded the volumes of ‘Afro-Latin Soul’ with his band, The Ethiopian Quintet, in 1966. They were the first experiments of this new sound, fusing Ethiopian traditional notes with Afro Latin and jazz forms.

Mulatu Astatke tells Vicky Carter how he created the genre of Ethio-jazz.

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(Photo: Mulatu Astatke. Credit: BBC)