To Know Without Knowing

This is the second album that Mulatu Astatke, one of the fathers of Ethio-jazz, has recorded with ‘BJX’, the 12-piece multi-ethnic collective from Melbourne. He describes them as ‘my favourite backing band’. Although his stamp is all over this outstanding album, those signature vibes are only prominently heard on the opening ‘Mulatu’ (a sophisticated reworking of the raw prototype heard on Astatke's 1972 debut), the brief ‘Blue Light’ and the final ‘A Chance to Give’.

This might be a disappointment if Black Jesus Experience weren't considerably more than a backing band. They were described as ‘brilliant beyond belief after their 2011 appearance at Glastonbury and dip anywhere into the nine indelible numbers for evidence that the hyperbole has substance. Particularly impressive are native Ethiopian singer Enushu Taye's call-and-response with her chorus on the hypnotic ‘Ambassa Lemdi’, Peter Harper's muscular tenor sax and the reinvigoration of the Éthiopiques sound on the roiling ‘Kulun Mankwaleshi’, the moody, simmering vamp of ‘Living on Stolen Land’ (dedicated to the First Nations people of Australia), the raw funk of ‘Lijay’ and the dynamic Ethio-Latin rearrangement of the classic ‘Mascaram Setaba’. This blend of hip-hop, jazz and mesmerising pentatonic Ethio-tunes is one to really savour.