Album
Mulatu Plays Mulatu
2025 · Jazz, Folk, World, & Country
Rare pressing on Gatefold
Mulatu Plays Mulatu is a Jazz album by Mulatu Astatke, originally released in 2025. On Gatefold: 5 pressings tracked.
About
Mulatu Astatke’s hypnotic fusion of jazz, Latin, and traditional Ethiopian music is one of those sounds that feels both instantly comforting and terminally mysterious—spy themes for quiet bars at the edge of the world. After a series of reissues and compilations that brought him to light from relative obscurity (including 2009’s great <i>The Story of Ethio Jazz</i> and <i>Éthiopiques, Vol. 4</i>), 2025’s <i>Mulatu Plays Mulatu</i> offers something different: a rerecording of 11 tracks from across his career backed by his long-standing live band. The tension in his music is always between the gentle firmness of the grooves and the freedom of the improvisations around it, whether it’s the saxophone and <i>masenqo</i> (a fiddle-style instrument from Ethiopia and Eritrea) of “Chik Chikka” or Astatke’s meandering vibraphone on “Yèkèrmo Sèw.”
via Apple Music
The Clerk says
The Clerk knows this whole record — the pressing quirks, the credits, the take.
Tracklist
- 1Zèlèsègna Dèwèl10:05
- 2Kulun3:33
- 3Nètsanèt8:15
- 4Yèkèrmo Sèw8:03
- 5Azmari4:48
- 6Chik Chikka7:13
- 7The Way to Nice4:53
- 8Motherland Intro1:36
- 9Motherland3:37
- 10Mulatu5:32
- 11Yèkatit3:45
Sound DNA
- Jazz
- Latin Jazz
- warm
- hypnotic
- spiritual
Notes from the original pressing. Later editions may differ.
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, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late "60s and early "70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live perf
Credits
The people behind it.
Performers
- Alexander HawkinsPIANO
- Byron WallenTRUMPET
- Dan KeaneCELLO
- James ArbenTENOR SAXOPHONE, FLUTE
- John EdwardsDOUBLE BASS
- Jon ScottDRUMS
- Mulatu AstatkeVIBRAPHONE, PIANO, ELECTRIC ORGAN , TIMBALES, CONGAS, BONGOS VIBRAPHONE, PIANO, ELECTRIC PIANO , TIMBALES, CONGAS, BONGOS
- Neil CharlesDOUBLE BASS
- Richard Olatunde BakerPERCUSSION
- Yetemusaq MulatHARP
- Almaz WoldeVOCALS
- Carlos NiñoPERCUSSION
- Freshgenet Roufa LightnerVOCALS
Rare pressing on Gatefold · 5 pressings tracked on Gatefold
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