![Mulatu Astatke]()
Strut conclude their series of official reissues by Mulatu Astatke, the “Godfather of Ethio Jazz”, with his early classics Afro-Latin Soul, Vols. 1 & 2 from 1966, as recorded by his Ethiopian Quintet.
Interestingly, they were recorded in New York, by Gil Snapper of Worthy Records. Astatke would venture to New York City from Boston’s Berklee College of Music on the weekends. He was already formulating the ideas for creating an “Ethio-Jazz” that he would perfect six years later on 1972’s Mulatu of Ethiopia. While playing in the Big Apple and checking out jazz and the Nuyorican boogaloo scene, he formed his quintet with a host of Ethiopian, Latin, and African-American musicians — he was originally trying to showcase the African continent’s connection to Latin music.
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His outfit would play the Village Gate opening for Dave Pike’s legendary sextet, and it was there he met Snapper, already a marginally well-known producer. He offered to record the Ethiopian quintet and the rest is history.
While the two individual Afro-Latin Soul albums have been available on various labels in various formats for years, this two-fer (also re-released separately) was painstakingly remastered from pristine vinyl sources obtained from collectors. They are easily the best-sounding sources of this music out there. These records stand as important foundational documents of Astatke’s Afro-Latin groove consciousness. The fusion is complete on the first tune here: “I Faram Gami I Faram” is an Ethiopian war chant; Astatke had the lyrics translated to Spanish and delivered it as cooking proto-salsa, complete with the field recorded sounds of elephants bleating, punchy, syncopated two-chord piano vamps, driving vibraphones, and hand percussion timed to handclaps pounding out as the chant begins. On “Shangu,” the rhythm is taken from an Ethiopian folk song, with Astatke’s vibes offering a deft, tonally rich extension atop comping piano, bass, timbales, and congas. “Almas,” with its sharp montunos and right-hand ostinatos, is a perfect portrait of Afro-Latin hard bop. Volume two contains a burning boogaloo in “The Panther,” whose dancefloor vamp, played in unison by piano and vibes, complements the rhythm section in full with the tune’s dancefloor grooves. “Soul Power” is pure African jazz with Rudy Houston’s trumpet duetting with the percussion section with only bass underscoring the beat. “Love Mood for Two” offers a lithe melody — that would not have been out of place on a Motown record — before the piano’s montuno shuffle intertwines with the rhythm section. “The Girl from Addis Ababa” is the first version of Astatke’s most famous tune. Its cooking percussion and punchy vibes harmonically accent the driving piano vamps; it has been sampled often.
Astatke provides his own historical liner essay in the booklet, making this an authoritative repackaging of this material. This is essential for anyone interested in the early fusion of African and Latin popular music with the improvisational flare of American jazz.
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