Black Jesus Experience
This August 15th, Black Jesus Experience bring their Ethio-jazz sensibility to the Bellingen Memorial Hall as the headline act at The Jazz Social, Saturday night at the Beyond Jazz Weekender.
What: Beyond Jazz Weekender
Where: Bellingen Memorial Hall
When: 15/08/2026,
In the late 60s and early 1970s, Addis Ababa was one of the most exciting music cities on earth.
Under the fading rule of Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopian musicians were fusing traditional pentatonic scales and Azmari vocal traditions with Western jazz, funk and soul to create something completely new.
They called it Ethio-jazz. The music was equally soulful, sorrowful and joyful in nature. And the scene was extraordinary: nightclubs packed, bands everywhere, records pouring out of studios like Amha and Kaifa. Prominent among the musicians of the time, was Mulatu Astatke, considered a founding figure of the movement, a vibraphonist and arranger who blended Ethiopian modes with jazz, Latin, and funk. Then in 1974, a Soviet-backed military junta — the Derg — seized power. Curfews killed the club scene.
Censorship drove musicians into silence or exile. The golden age was over.
For decades, that music was essentially lost to the world, until a French producer named Francis Falceto began painstakingly compiling it into a series of vinyl and CD releases called Éthiopiques.
In 2005 film director Jim Jarmusch released Broken Flowers, a film he had written while listening to Astatke’s early 1970s recordings. Bill Murray starred alongside Sharon Stone and Tilda Swinton, with an Ethio-jazz soundtrack. The film was a significant moment for Ethio-jazz, providing many audiences their first taste of the genre.
Then in 2007, a compilation — The Very Best of Éthiopiques — successfully distilled the catalogue into a single package, inspiring a resurgence of interest in the genre. Musicians around the world were exploring and incorporating elements of this music into their sound.
In Melbourne, that energy became a band. Black Jesus Experience formed around 2009, built from the ground up around Ethio-jazz, but fused with hip-hop, funk and the improvisational energy of Melbourne’s live scene. Their vocalist Enushu grew up singing in Addis Ababa before migrating to Australia.
They went on to become Mulatu’s Australian backing band, and together they toured Ethiopia four times, played stages from Glastonbury to WOMADelaide and yes, the fabled Global Carnival right here in Bellingen.
And now they are playing at our very own Memorial Hall! Head to beyondjazzweekender.com.au and secure your tickets today.
