Artist
Mulatu Astatke
Mulatu Astatke appears 3 times in our Ethio-Jazz list, placing as high as No. 1. Hand-curated, with a reason for every pick.
- Ranked entries
- 3
- Appears on
- Ethio-Jazz
- Years
- 1969–1972
- Highest placing
- No. 1 in Ethio-Jazz
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
Appears on
Yèkèrmo Sèw
1969 · Amha
Ranked No. 1 in Ethio-Jazz
A vibraphone, a fuzz guitar and a mode that refuses to resolve. Jim Jarmusch later used it in Broken Flowers and introduced the whole tradition to a generation who had never heard of Addis.
Tezeta
1972 · Amha
Ranked No. 3 in Ethio-Jazz
Tezeta is both a mode and a word for nostalgia, which tells you how the two are related here. The most purely beautiful thing in the Ethiopiques series.
Yègellé Tezeta
1969 · Amha
Ranked No. 4 in Ethio-Jazz
The organ line is the hook and the bass never settles. Astatke's own tezeta, and the one most often lifted by hip-hop producers who found the reissues.