Mulatu Astatke is one of Ethiopia’s most respected producers, musicians and arrangers. Back in the 60s he pioneered the new genre of Ethio-Jazz, which combined western funk, Latin and jazz music, with traditional Ethiopian styles. In the 70s he worked with jazz icons such as Duke Ellington and his recordings appeared on the definitive series of Ethiopique albums. He even composed the movie soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers.

Last year, the Red Bull Music Academy brought him together with The Heliocentrics, an incredibly talented collective of UK musicians, who manage to fuse psychedelic jazz with Eastern sounds and contemporary hip-hop beats. The aim was to perform a one-off live show at London’s Cargo. However, this was so successful that it led to a Gilles Peterson session at the BBC, the release of an album Inspiration Information (Strut Records) in March 09, and many more live gigs.

Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics performance at this year’s Sonar Festival was definitely the highlight of the weekend for funk, jazz and African music fans. Mulatu’s radiant personality and skilful vibraphone playing, along with the bands deft musicianship and spontaneity won the crowd’s warm appreciation, despite some serious problems with the venue’s PA system—which kept cutting out at inopportune moments. No such problems are likely at Razzmatazz—so if you like your music with a deep and soulful groove combined with elements of both ancient and modern sounds, then this is definitely the concert for you.

October 10th

€23