Whole Lotta Mulatu

Mulatu Astatke "Yekermo Sew"

Mulatu Astatke "Gubelye"

Mulatu Astatke "Yegelle Tezeta"

[right click to download]

Here's some great music from a great film. In Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers", Bill Murray finds out he has a son and must travel around the country visiting his old girlfriends to find out which one is the mother. A friend of his makes him a mix cd to accompany him on his voyage, and these three songs play as Murray drives around trying to unravel his mystery. It's perfect music for a mystery, although it may be more suited for solving a mystery in a place like Tangier rather than Ohio.



All three songs are by Mulatu Astatke, a seminal figure in Ethiopian pop and jazz. His style of afro-jazz grooves is like nothing I've ever heard before, although i don't listen to a lot of jazz. As soon as I heard this in the film I went out the next day and bought the soundtrack, which also contains music by Sleep, The Greenhornes, and Dengue Fever's briliiant "Ethanopium", a cover of Astatke's "Yegelle Tezeta".

Don't worry, this isn't turning into a world music blog, but everyone needs to take a break from NECROPHAGIST every now and then.