I heard a great story on how Mulato's music happenend on the soundtrack of Broken Flowers. Apperently director Jim Jarmusch was a big fan of Mulato and ended up adding an african-american character to the movie just to get the Ethiopian connection, and therefore getting Mulato's music as a significant part of the story. Actually check the story from the source, Gilles Peterson recently did a podcast worth checking out. Obviously you need to check out the new recording from Heliocentrics & Mulato Astatke. Out on Strut Records, and certainly an essential record if you ask me. Meanwhile check this one. Come out, I believe in 05', don't actually know who's behind it. A cheeky edit on Yègellé Tezeta, handy for the toilet break, and to f-ck up the kids on the dancefloor.
I had the pleasure to attend Metalheadz at Blue Note, in Hoxton Square some 15 years ago. 'That's how it is' always played some of the jazzier stuff later on. Sure this brings good memories, though I don't have references to all of this. But check it out, it's cool:
Forget about all trendy sh-te that comes and goes. This is the sh*t. Blair - Nightlife Lp from 78' on Solar Sounds. The title track is just an amazing piece of dance music, and if you like your fusion there's also 'Virgo Princess' on the LP. Talking bout new music, there's obviously still good stuff coming out, John Arnold & Jeremy Ellis recently covered this one. Sure a fine take with an uptempo edit by Bug in the Attic & broken beat meister Daz I Kue. So till you can get your hands on the original LP, check the new version on Future Soul Records, or this vinyl rip:
Keeping it on the soundtrack tip. Moving over to a more modern recording, still rooted in vintage blaxploation style. This is a cool cover on Johnny Pate's title track from Shaft in Africa. Here by the amazing Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, released on a nifty little japanese 7". HBE are by the way, soon releasing a new LP on Honest Jon's. Make sure you check out, I believe produced by the El Michels Affair. And how bad is their take on Wu-Tangs 'Enter the 37th chamber'?! Killer. Anyway, here's a vinyl rip from the 7":
This is a well played track for me. Especially for about ten years ago, but going back to it now makes me realise how great track this is. Dennis Coffey is one guys who's delivered lots of breaks (or riffs rather) to the hip hop community. I'm actually bit of novice in this field, but he's done quite a few blaxploation soundtracks during his career. He's also got a quite interesting background in Detroit in the sixties. Being a session player at Motown and close to the Funk Brothers. I started to look around for some stuff and found this, check words from the man himself:
Back to what I actually what I wanted to give you initially; Theme from Black belt Jones. It's a vinyl rip from my, bit worn out, 7". Quite elusive nowadays, but there's quite a lot reissues around in one form or another. The Jedi Knights also did a fairly nice version of this break. Theme from black belt Jones (320)
I heard a great story on how Mulato's music happenend on the soundtrack of Broken Flowers. Apperently director Jim Jarmusch was a big fan of Mulato and ended up adding an african-american character to the movie just to get the Ethiopian connection, and therefore getting Mulato's music as a significant part of the story. Actually check the story from the source, Gilles Peterson recently did a podcast worth checking out.
