Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, the album finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped change the face of Ethiopian music in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Recorded between London and Addis Ababa, Mulatu Plays Mulatu brings together Mulatu’s long-standing UK band—an intuitive ensemble shaped through years of live performance—and cultural musicians based at his Jazz Village club in Addis. The album reflects his long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena.
Across the record, Mulatu reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and deep rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels both contemporary and rooted in tradition. Tracks such as ‘Yekermo Sew’, ‘Netsanet’ and ‘Azmari’ are reimagined here as elegant big band performances. As Mulatu explains, “Ethio-jazz brings us together and makes us one. This album is the culmination of my work bringing this music to the world and pays respect to our unsung heroes, the original musical scientists in Ethiopia who gave us our cultural music.”
Produced by Dexter Story, the album also features LA-based artists Carlos Niño and Kibrom Birhane. It was recorded and mixed by Isabel Gracefield at RAK Studios in London and by Dexter Story in Addis, with artwork by acclaimed Oslo-based Ethiopian artist Wendimagegn Belete and photography by Alexis Maryon.
