Mulatu Astatke at The Cervantes Theatre Málaga 13th November featuring Mulatu Astatke vibraphone and percussions, Alexander Hawkins keyboards, James Arben saxophone, Matthew Ridley double-bass, Benjamin Brown drums, Daniel Keane cello, Byron Wallen trumpet, Richard Baker percussions 

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. with a pair of highly influential mid-’60s releases, he spent much of the ‘70s expanding the boundaries of Ethiopian music by collaborating both home and abroad with artists like Mahmoud Ahmed and Duke Ellington and releasing critically acclaimed music on Amha Eshete’s Amha Records. His popularity enjoyed a renaissance in Western culture in the mid-2000s after his music was used in Jim Jarmusch’s film Broken Flowers. Mulatu continued to evolve creatively well into the 2010s, and has maintained long-term collaborations with a number of acts, including Boston’s Either/Orchestra, London band the Heliocentrics, and Australia’s Black Jesus Experience. Never one to paint himself into a creative corner and always expanding his musical vision, Mulatu collaborated with the London-based psych-jazz configuration the Heliocentrics in 2008 on the album Inspiration Information, Vol. 3, which included updated versions of many of his classic compositions. Around the same time, 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.

TEATRO CERVANTES MÁLAGA

10 Nov SHAI MAESTRO QUARTET

11 Nov YOUN SUN NAH & BENJAMIN MOUSSAY

12 Nov PAQUITO D’RIVERA PRESENTA: 10 AÑOS SIN BEBO

13 Nov MULATU ASTATKE