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| Mulatu Astatke on his vibraphone. |
These days, one of the world’s great bandleaders is
dedicating his energy and time to giving African traditional music its rightful
place in the world
“I was doing world music 42 years ago, long before it became
a genre,” says the Ethiopian composer and performer Mulatu Astatke during a
recording session in Nairobi last week.
The 67 year old is credited with successfully fusing Western
jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies, and elements of music
of the ancient Coptic Church. “I became a student of jazz composition and
combined that knowledge with Ethiopian music to give birth to Ethio-jazz,” he
says.
For the last few years Mulatu has been producing an opera
using ancient church music by the Ethiopian composer, scholar and pioneer of
musical notation, St. Yared, who created chants for church services and
celebrations.
“The composition includes choirs, strings, trombones and an
ancient conducting stick called the mekwamia. It has been a big challenge but I
want to see what people will say,” says Mulatu.
The plan is to have the opera eventually performed at one of
Ethiopia’s holiest sites, Lalibela, famous for its rock-hewn Orthodox churches.
The first section of the opera premiered at Harvard
University’s Sanders Theatre two years ago while Mulatu was attending an
academic Fellowship to research and develop the krar, a bowl-shaped six-string
lyre made of wood, cloth and beads
He says young African musicians tend to opt for the guitar
because instruments like the krar are limited in range. This process of
development increased the strings to 8 and ultimately to 12, offering a
dramatic improvement to the versatility of the instrument.
However the successful upgrade of traditional instruments
must be done in tandem with the acquisition of new skills. “ The musicians who
have played these instruments for years also need to develop their mind and
thinking so that they can be better suited to contemporary times,” says Mulatu.
Indigenous instruments
He is full of admiration for what the West Africans have
accomplished with the kora music, whose score was adopted in the 1970s and is
now widely used by modern players.
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