Mulatu Plays Mulatu

Mulatu Astatke’s hypnotic fusion of jazz, Latin and traditional Ethiopian music is one of those sounds that feels both instantly comforting and terminally mysterious—spy themes for quiet bars at the edge of the world. After a series of reissues and compilations that brought him to light from relative obscurity (including 2009’s great The Story of Ethio Jazz and Éthiopiques, Vol. 4), 2025’s Mulatu Plays Mulatu offers something different: a re-recording of 11 tracks from across his career backed by his long-standing live band. The tension in his music is always between the gentle firmness of the grooves and the freedom of the improvisations around it, whether it’s the saxophone and masenqo (a fiddle-style instrument from Ethiopia and Eritrea) of “Chik Chikka” or Astatke’s meandering vibraphone on “Yèkèrmo Sèw”.