To know without knowing

"In recent years the band best attuned to [Astatke's] ancient-to-modern sensibility has been Melbourne's Black Jesus Experience, a collective of singers, rappers, and jazz improvisers of Moroccan, Zimbabwean, Maori, Ethiopian and Australian origins. On an old classic, Mulatu, the composer segues his glowing vibraphone sound into a bright trumpet theme and a floating drums/keys/wah-wah groove, before MC Mr Monk's driving political rap. Ambassa Lemdi, an Ethiopian traditional song that mesmerising vocalist Enushu Taye learned from her grandmother, is delivered by her in Amharic with tone bends and drifting lines of solemn wonderment ... The set feels like the band's more than the veteran master's (...) but To Know Without Knowing nonetheless confirms how brightly Mulatu Astatke's Ethio-jazz vision burns on".

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"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 ... 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' (...), the raw funk of 'Lijay' and the dynamic Ethio-Latin rearrangement of the classic 'Mascaram Setaba'. This blend of hiphop, jazz and mesmerising pentatonic Ethio-tunes is one to really savour".

"After succesful live dates together, [Astatke and Melbourne's Black Jesus Experience] recorded 2016's 'Cradle With Humanity' which meshed Ethiopian melodies with hip-hop and funk. The nine tracks on this second album builds on the same template, with BJX's co-founder/saxophonist Peter Harper key to bridging the old and new. His evocative playing is prayerful on a reworked "Mulatu" (...); wailing and soaring on "Kulun Mankwaleshi", an update of a traditional wedding song (...); and truly uplifting on the bluesy "A Chance To Give"".