Mulatu, I think you will agree when I say you weren't really predestined for a career in music? Being a musician wasn't that highly esteemed in the Ethiopia where you grew up.
Mulatu Astatke: "Well, that was exactly the problem; a problem that was not only a reality in Ethiopia, but in most third world countries. Another problem was that music wasn't really given much attention in school. When I grew up, Ethiopia was concentrating on becoming a modern nation, focusing on science and technology rather than art, music or theatre. Imagine how many great talents were lost in Africa over the years because of this way of thinking. My story is very similar. I started out studying to become an aeronautical engineer and I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to go abroad and study in England. When I entered the school in the United Kingdom (Lindisfarne College in Wales, red.), a whole new world opened for me, because they had departments for just about every art department you can think of from theatre and music to dance and visual arts. In my opinion that is the best way for a person to discover his or her full potential; just try everything and find out what's hiding inside you. I felt my calling lay in music, but that meant I had to convince my family of that as well. It took a lot of talking and discussing, before I could finally convince them to let me find my own way and that's when I enrolled in Trinity College in London to study classical music, and in my free time I started hanging out in the London jazz scene, places like Ronnie Scott's (Ronnie Scott, born Ronald Schatt, was an English jazz tenor saxophonist who opened a now famous jazz club in Soho, London, in 1959, red.), for example. I became more and more fascinated with jazz and that's how I eventually ended up studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston (Massachusetts, USA, red.). That was back in 1958 and I was the first African student there. After I finished my studies, I moved to New York and developed my signature Ethio-jazz style."
Is Ethio-jazz really a style of music or is it really a description of the music Mulatu Astatke plays?
Mulatu Astatke: "Well, it's a style of music I created. Ethio-jazz is based on a mix of Ethiopian musical scales with European scales. Creating this kind of fusion music is not as easy as it sounds, because you have to be careful not to end up with a mishmash of styles and influences. It's important to respect the different cultures you are trying to incorporate and I think that was part of the reason why I was so successful. I managed to integrate the mood of traditional Ethiopian music in western jazz."
Your music became very popular again after Jim Jarmusch used it for the soundtrack of his film "Broken Flowers" (2005). How did he discover your music?
Mulatu Astatke: "Jim told he had been looking for the right music for this movie for over five years. Finally he stumbled on my music and he fell in love with it instantly. When I was playing a concert at the Winter Garden Theatre (near the World Financial Centre in New York, red.) one day, he came to see me play and afterwards we met for the first time. Now, the fact that he used my music in his film has really changed the audiences coming to my concerts; before I used to attract mainly jazz aficionados, real music lovers you know, but know it's also film fanatics who want to hear the music from "Broken Flowers". That film has really put my music in a global spotlight again and my concerts are sold out wherever I play."
Your old vinyl records keep selling for the most unimaginable prices on eBay, but CD-wise your output has been very limited.
Mulatu Astatke: "Well, the past decade I've been really involved in research and educational projects and on top of that I was playing concerts almost continuously, so I guess I've put off recording or compiling a CD album for too long. Now there's this wonderful album with the Heliocentrics, which just won an award in France (Trophée des Arts Afro-Caribéens, red.) and the label (Strut Records, red.) is also releasing a best of compilation of my older work ('New York - Addis - London, The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975', red.)."
Tell us a little bit about your relationship with the Heliocentrics. How did that story start and where are you guys heading?
Mulatu Astatke: "It started when I was still working at Harvard University. I was invited to do a lecture in Canada for Red Bull Music Academy. There I got an invitation to play in London and that's where I met the Heliocentrics, the band that was supposed to back me on that night, for the first time. They seemed really good musicians with a great appreciation of Ethio-jazz and, although we only had one afternoon to rehearse the concert, that night was a success. That night a promoter of Strut Records, called Quentin Scott, was also present and he pitched the idea to extend the collaboration with Heliocentrics and record an album. As you know, the resulting album has been a great success - we're touring Europe for the second time now - and I hope we can continue the collaboration in the future."
In Europe, we've been enjoying African music for years, but in comparison to music from various other regions in Africa - I'm thinking of Mali or Congo - Ethiopian music seems to be leaping behind a bit. It's only now that people are starting to discover the musical heritage of Ethiopia. Why do you think that is?
Mulatu Astatke: "Ethiopia is a country that has never really known colonization like the other African nations; it's a free country with its own traditions and values and more importantly, it was a secluded nation for many centuries. During the communist Derg regime (1974 - 1987, red.) the country was once again isolated and that limited the chance for foreign music promoters to come over and discover the rich musical heritage. The Ethiopiques series (The Paris-based world music record label Buda Musique began the Ethiopiques series in 1997 and initially compiled Ethiopian popular music releases from the 1960s and 1970s, red.) has played a great role in making available and promoting Ethiopian music and I think we're on the right path now."
What kind of music did you listen to as a youth, when you were still living in Ethiopia?
Mulatu Astatke: "Well, I already left Ethiopia at the age of sixteen, when I was still in high school, so my influences from Ethiopian music are rather limited, but I still fondly remember Getachew Mekurya, for example, a great saxophone player."
The last few years you've been focusing on promoting and re-inventing a traditional instrument from Ethiopia, the krar. Where are you in that project?
Mulatu Astatke: "We upgraded the instrument from six to eight strings, which is far more revolutionary as it sounds, because you have to imagine that this is an instrument that has been around for about 3000 years and was never able to play more than five tones. For the first time in history I tried to change that and play eight-tone music on it! It's not only an update of the instrument, but also of the way of thinking and composing for Ethiopian musicians. I'm doing various projects; at Harvard I'm doing a micro-course on the importance of Ethiopia in music history - the mequamia is an ancient version of the conducting baton which has been around for centuries already, so one could easily see Ethiopia as the birthplace of the modern art of conducting - and I also composed an opera based on Ethiopian church music (the Yared Opera, red.)."
Having had to struggle to become a musician yourself, have you never had the urge to go back to Ethiopia and set up a music project there?
Mulatu Astatke: "Oh, but I did. I established a place called the African Jazz Village (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, red.), which incorporated a jazz school and a jazz club. We taught jazz at various levels there and bands from all the various regions and cultural ethnicities in Ethiopia used to come there to perform."
Have things in Ethiopia improved much since the days of your youth?
Mulatu Astatke: "Yes, a lot! For starters, being a musician in Ethiopia pays far better than it used to do. That, combined with the fact that Ethiopian music is now also becoming more and more popular abroad, makes that more young people are focusing on a career as a musician. Ethiopia is definitely catching up!"