JIM CARROLLreviews this week's funk CD

MULATU ASTATKE & THE HELIOCENTRICS

Inspiration Information

Strut ****

Mulatu Astatke is the veteran Ethiopian band-leader and composer widely viewed as the grandmaster of Ethio-jazz and the man with quite a few star turns in the "Ethiopiques" series. When Astatke joined London jazz-not-jazz cadets the Heliocentrics in the studio, the tapes were rolling and what we get to hear are a bunch of musicians making merry. Featuring some of Astatke's landmark tracks from the late 1960s/early 1970s, as well as some freshly squeezed cuts, Inspiration Informationis a blast because of the heady imagination which Malcolm Catto and his group bring to bear on Astatke's distinctive, compulsive creations. Throughout, swirls of funk, jazz, Ethiopian folk and psych produce unexpected twists, delightful, shimmering sounds and patches where James Brown and Sun Ra are jamming together beneath an Addis Ababa sky. www.strut-records.com

Download tracks: Blue Nile, Masenqo