Mulatu Astatke

Mulatu Astatke (born 1943) is an Ethiopian musician, composer, and arranger, widely regarded as the father of Ethiojazz — a synthesis of Ethiopian modal scales and pentatonic structures with jazz harmony and Latin rhythm that he developed while studying at Berklee College of Music in the 1960s. Returning to Addis Ababa, he recorded a series of albums in the early 1970s for the Amha and Philips labels that became foundational texts of the Ethio-jazz canon, later compiled by Francis Falceto for the Éthiopiques series on Buda Musique. His music was prominently featured in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers (2005), introducing him to a new international audience.