Mulatu Astatke, born in Jimma, Ethiopia in 1943, is an Ethiopian musician and arranger widely recognized as the father of "Ethio-jazz." Initially sent to Wales in the late 1950s to study engineering, he instead pursued music, earning a degree from Trinity College of Music in London after studies at Lindisfarne College. In the 1960s, he moved to the United States and became the first African student to enroll at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied vibraphone and percussion. While in the U.S., he recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2 (1966) in New York City, blending his interests in jazz and Latin music with traditional Ethiopian melodies.
In the early 1970s, Astatke returned to Ethiopia, bringing his innovative Ethio-jazz sound—a fusion of Ethiopian traditional music with American jazz and Latin rhythms. He introduced instruments like the vibraphone and conga drums to Ethiopian popular music, leading his band and playing instruments including keyboards and organ. Key albums from this era, like Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972) and Yekatit Ethio-Jazz (1974), were released on labels in New York and Addis Ababa, and he collaborated with notable artists such as Mahmoud Ahmed and appeared as a special guest with Duke Ellington in 1973. His music gained significant international recognition later in life, particularly after his work was featured extensively in the 2005 Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers and through the Éthiopiques series of reissue albums. Astatke has continued to tour and collaborate internationally, and has been involved with academic work at institutions like Harvard University and MIT, focusing on modernizing traditional Ethiopian instruments.