Mulatu Astatke

I re-watched a favorite Jim Jarmusch film the other day, Broken Flowers, and was intrigued to be reminded that Winston and his family are Ethiopian. Now, Aunt Lizzy has a wonderful reason in her life to be drawn to all things Ethiopian and when I learned that the fabulous music in the movie is Ethiopian I knew I had to learn more. It turns out the arranger/musician is Mulatu Astatke and as you can hear in these clips, he's another master of the vibes, to my amateur ears right up there with my beloved Bobby Hutcherson.





And here he is playing with some folks we used to know in Boston: