Posted on 08/14/2009
While many question the future of Jazz's popularity, 66 year-old musician/composer Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics play on. In the true spirit of jazz, Ethiopia's musical pioneer continues exploring new territory. If genre-defying modern jazz music is your taste, you'll likely be pleased with this release.

For those unfamiliar with Mulatu, he is a vibraphonist, pianist and percussionist that practically invented ethio-jazz which is an amalgam of traditional music from his native land Ethiopia and jazz. He studied music at Berklee College in Boston and continued his musical education throughout the UK. His companions on the album, the Heliocentrics, are a progressive British jazz band. Their nine members count David Axelrod, Sun Ra and James Brown as influences.

This record is the third installment in Strut Record's Inspiration Information series. I'd say the most compelling track is the first one, titled "Masengo," which begins slowly with melodic piano over static sounds and builds with a woman singing uptempo...then it stops, and a crunching break-beat with a nice echoey snare, bass guitar and more improvized sounding piano take over. It really is a very cut and paste composition but for whatever reason, it works. The entire album is all about combinations; electric and acoustic instruments, and quick chaotic pianos paired with classic four bar drum patterns. Some tracks, such as "Chik Chikka" are loungy and light, whereas "Fire in the Zoo" reverberates between chaotic horns and more breakbeat, hip-hop influenced drums.

Inspiration Information is not a record for everyone, simply because everyone isn't a jazz fan. However for those of you who are into jazz, and especially if you like afro-pop, this may be the next thing you've been waiting for.

- Nick McClure