How did they receive you in London?
You know, the British were really strict but they were very nice. They
gave me the ability to build self-confidence and things like that. British
high schools are really very serious and good.
When did you become interested in jazz?
I wanted to try to do compositions and play and write and promote
Ethiopian music. I had a few musician friends and I said, “Look, I
have a background in classical, but I want to study jazz—do you know
any places in America where I can go to learn more about that?”
Finally, I came up with Berklee College in Boston, which was the only
jazz school in the world at that time, it was 1958. So I went to Berklee
and that’s where I really worked my tools. Then I started thinking
while writing: “Why don’t I come up with something called Ethio Jazz;
why don’t I blend Ethiopian music and jazz?” I thought that if I blend
them directly then it would sound like two cultures going at the same
time. It took me time but I somehow managed, somehow I put them
together. So, my research paper at Harvard, where I recently studied,
was about Ethiopian contribution to the world of music and art. It talks
about contributions like if you were to go to southern Ethiopia there’s a
tribe that plays diminishing scale, which is so great.
Are they aware of what they’re doing and how it’s different?
Well, it’s their country’s music, they grew up with it.
So they have no idea what a diminishing scale means—it just is
one?
No, it just is one.
How do you feel music and science are connected?
The harmony section of music is a combination of different sounds...
like scientists usually mix chemicals with different chemicals to cause
whatever reaction. So you have the artist mixing up different colors
and coming up with some kind of new color. Music is the same. They
are all connected whether they work with chemicals or work with
sounds: artists work with colors. So we mix them up—we come up
with something else. So music is what I call science; that’s what
makes music science.
Once Ethio Jazz was created, how long and how hard did you have
to work to spread it? Are you still playing new variations of that
form or are you now focusing on educating other people?
I recorded a CD, which isn’t out yet and has a different concept of the
Ethio Jazz. I combined the jazz element with the five-tonal, but that
was my experimentation which was seen at Harvard. It’s been very
successful. I’ve been working hard to really find out this identity—the
different identities of the Ethio Jazz. Also, by upgrading cultural
instruments I am able to play in Europe. My target is the cultural Ethio
Jazz, which is what we are now working on at MIT. I am using
traditional instruments and playing jazz movements and jazz-everything
on it. So, not only am I still playing but I am also writing new
materials. I never stop. I just keep on working to come up with
different sounds, different approaches to music. I hope I have time in
the future to do more research. I’ll never stop; I’ll keep on working.
In spreading the word of your creation of Ethio Jazz, it certainly
helps to find fans in people like Jim Jarmusch.
He is definitely a great man. He’s one that is really here for me and
speaks for my efforts for years and years. We’ve been working for
years and finally, now it’s like it’s all over the world. It’s so great this
music is really coming up now. We just keep on pushing and playing it
out. Source
You know, the British were really strict but they were very nice. They
gave me the ability to build self-confidence and things like that. British
high schools are really very serious and good.
When did you become interested in jazz?
I wanted to try to do compositions and play and write and promote
Ethiopian music. I had a few musician friends and I said, “Look, I
have a background in classical, but I want to study jazz—do you know
any places in America where I can go to learn more about that?”
Finally, I came up with Berklee College in Boston, which was the only
jazz school in the world at that time, it was 1958. So I went to Berklee
and that’s where I really worked my tools. Then I started thinking
while writing: “Why don’t I come up with something called Ethio Jazz;
why don’t I blend Ethiopian music and jazz?” I thought that if I blend
them directly then it would sound like two cultures going at the same
time. It took me time but I somehow managed, somehow I put them
together. So, my research paper at Harvard, where I recently studied,
was about Ethiopian contribution to the world of music and art. It talks
about contributions like if you were to go to southern Ethiopia there’s a
tribe that plays diminishing scale, which is so great.
Are they aware of what they’re doing and how it’s different?
Well, it’s their country’s music, they grew up with it.
So they have no idea what a diminishing scale means—it just is
one?
No, it just is one.
How do you feel music and science are connected?
The harmony section of music is a combination of different sounds...
like scientists usually mix chemicals with different chemicals to cause
whatever reaction. So you have the artist mixing up different colors
and coming up with some kind of new color. Music is the same. They
are all connected whether they work with chemicals or work with
sounds: artists work with colors. So we mix them up—we come up
with something else. So music is what I call science; that’s what
makes music science.
Once Ethio Jazz was created, how long and how hard did you have
to work to spread it? Are you still playing new variations of that
form or are you now focusing on educating other people?
I recorded a CD, which isn’t out yet and has a different concept of the
Ethio Jazz. I combined the jazz element with the five-tonal, but that
was my experimentation which was seen at Harvard. It’s been very
successful. I’ve been working hard to really find out this identity—the
different identities of the Ethio Jazz. Also, by upgrading cultural
instruments I am able to play in Europe. My target is the cultural Ethio
Jazz, which is what we are now working on at MIT. I am using
traditional instruments and playing jazz movements and jazz-everything
on it. So, not only am I still playing but I am also writing new
materials. I never stop. I just keep on working to come up with
different sounds, different approaches to music. I hope I have time in
the future to do more research. I’ll never stop; I’ll keep on working.
In spreading the word of your creation of Ethio Jazz, it certainly
helps to find fans in people like Jim Jarmusch.
He is definitely a great man. He’s one that is really here for me and
speaks for my efforts for years and years. We’ve been working for
years and finally, now it’s like it’s all over the world. It’s so great this
music is really coming up now. We just keep on pushing and playing it
out. Source
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| Mulatu Astatke Art & Entertainment Music |
| Ethio Quest News: For latest Ethiopian News, views, Reviews and More |
by Staff | 03.03.2009
Unlike Don Johnston (Bill Murray) in
Broken Flowers—AKA the film that
popularized Ethio Jazz—the father of
the genre, Mulatu Astatke, will never
stop working or become a shell of his
former life. Here he talks to FILTER
about his experiences abroad, the
science of music, and his persistence
to spread his creation.
(continued from HERE)
Unlike Don Johnston (Bill Murray) in
Broken Flowers—AKA the film that
popularized Ethio Jazz—the father of
the genre, Mulatu Astatke, will never
stop working or become a shell of his
former life. Here he talks to FILTER
about his experiences abroad, the
science of music, and his persistence
to spread his creation.
(continued from HERE)
Mulatu Astatke, Father Of Ethio Jazz
| and arranger. He is known as the father of Ethio-jazz. Born in 1943 in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston, where he was the first African student at Berklee College of Music. He would later combine his jazz and Latin music influences with traditional Ethiopian music." More from Wikipedia |
| MULATU: Ethio Jazz Innovator Breaks Big ( Now Toronto ) "...The Ethiopian visionary who once brought the sound of young America to swinging Addis is now doing the reverse..." More Mulatu Astatke gives a primer on Ethiopian music, culture |
| Mulatu Astatke |
Mulatu Astatke &
The Heliocentrics
have big muscles or
anything," ..More
The Heliocentrics
- 5 May, 2009
( Jam Base ) -
" ..Music just
needs the brain
have big muscles or
anything," ..More
