Jarmusch/Mulatu

    The other day I was listening to NPR online at something like 4am, and I came across an interview with Jim Jarmusch the director of a film I had previously seen called Broken Flowers starring Bill Murray. I remembered back that I had really enjoyed the movie primarily for the soundtrack. Jarmusch had chosen some particularly interesting music.
    Listening to the interview I discovered that Jarmusch created an entire character just because he really wanted to incorporate the music into the movie. By creating the character of Bill Murray's neighbor as a man from the geographic location that the music was derived, he was able to give reason for its presence in the movie.
    After listening to the rest of the interview I researched a little about the music. The artist is a man named Mulatu Astatke. Born in Ethiopia in 1943, Astatke was musically trained in London, New York and Boston and was Astatke was the first African student to be accepted into Berklee College of Music.

     He later recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul v.1&2 in New York. To say the least, the man's music is just crazy good! If you have the means, I highly suggest checking it out. Here's a sample to wet your whistle, click on the link below.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDC7oMOnmCc
    To listen to the interview with Jim Jarmusch on NPR click the link below.
     http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129529392&m=129529181