2012 E.C (2020) ACADEMIC YEAR THIRD QUARTER MUSIC CLASS HANDOUT GRADE 5 Mulatu Astatke Ethiopian musician (piano, organ, vibraphone, and percussion), composer, and arranger Mulatu Astatke (the name is spelled Astatqé on his French releases) is a household name in his native country, where he is known as the father of Ethio-jazz, a unique blend of pop, modern jazz, traditional Ethiopian music, Latin rhythms, Caribbean reggae, and Afro-funk. After developing his sound in the U.S. He was born in 1943 in the western Ethiopia city of Jimma, Mulatu studied music in London, New York City, and Boston, where he was the first African graduate of the Berklee College of Music, and went on to work with several acclaimed jazz artists, including a guest spot with Duke Ellington in 1971. Further schooled in New York’s dance clubs in the 1960s, Mulatu recorded three of his LPs in the city, he completed a prestigious Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University, where he helped to modernize several traditional Ethiopian instruments and also premiere part of an opera he'd been writing, The Yared Opera. His work in Massachusetts also included an Abramowitz Artist-in-Residence program at M.I.T., where he helped the school media lab develop a modern version of a traditional Ethiopian instrument, the krar. The largely improvised Mulatu Steps Ahead, which featured collaborations with both Either/Orchestra and the Heliocentrics, was released in 2010. Another outing, 2013's elegant Sketches of Ethiopia, took the form of a jazz suite and was released via the Jazz Village label. Working with longtime collaborators Black Jesus Experience, Mulatu recorded 2016's Cradle of Humanity. Set By: Meron Demise .