Mulatu Astatke

Date of birth	December 19, 1943
Country	Ethiopia

Mulatu Astatke is the legendary composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist celebrated as the "Father of Ethio-jazz." Originally sent to the UK to study aeronautical engineering, he pivoted to music at London's Trinity College before moving to the US, where he became the first African student at Berklee College of Music. In the 1960s and '70s, Astatke revolutionized East African music by masterfully blending the strict pentatonic modes of traditional Ethiopian music with Western jazz harmonies, Latin rhythms, and Afro-funk, introducing instruments like the vibraphone to the vibrant "Swinging Addis" era and even performing with Duke Ellington in 1973. Although the rise of the Derg regime in 1974 forced his catalog into decades of obscurity, his career experienced a massive global renaissance in the late 1990s and 2000s via the acclaimed Éthiopiques reissue series and Jim Jarmusch’s film Broken Flowers. Today, his hypnotic vintage grooves are heavily sampled by hip-hop artists like Nas and Kanye West, and he continues to tour internationally while working to preserve and modernize traditional African instrumentation.