One of Africa’s great bandleaders and the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke, released his first new solo album since the 1980s, Mulatu Steps Ahead. In the late 1960s and early '70s, Astatke was one of the driving forces behind the transformation of the Ethiopian music scene. Astatke, the only vibraphonist on the swinging Addis scene, mixed local sounds and traditional Ethiopian folk melodies with the jazz, funk, Latin music, and psychedelia he'd picked up during his time at music schools in the U.S. and Britain to make something new. He remained little-known outside his home country until the successful Ethiopiques album series came out, and he was featured on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers.