COMPOSERS: Mulatu Astatke
LABELS: Jazz Village
ALBUM TITLE: Mulatu Astatke: Sketches of Ethiopia
WORKS: Sketches of Ethiopia
PERFORMER: Mulatu Astatke
CATALOGUE NO: 570015
Astatke’s Sketches of Ethiopia also kicks off in triple time, and with Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara and Ethiopian singer Tesfaye sounds almost as Pan-African. Astatke’s casually wandering style on piano and vibraphone is a relaxing treat, with distinctly Ethiopian sounds in the single-stringed masinko lute, the wooden washint flute and the six-stringed krar.
Jon Lusk