London jazz wizard Shabaka Hutchings: Sons of Kemet / The Comet Is Coming / Shabaka & the Ancestors

Saw Sons of Kemet this past Thursday in a small basement club in Washington DC. Wow, a ferocious sound attack from the sax and tuba, and then the 2 drummers with the galloping, drum & bass beats. The songs often started tunefully and then got a bit more out there via the horns shrieking more at the end of each number (but the drum rhythms helped keep it from just going into free jazz improv territory).

I listened to the Shabaka and the Ancestors album this morning, for the first time in a few months. There's so much going on in there - there's jazz, gospel, some dub effects, songs in African languages, but it all works together as a whole. I love it.

― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, September 27, 2018 11:15 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I finally got around to listening to this and it is incredible. Spiritual hat aficionados will especially be into it.

And if you like it, do check out albums by Nduduzo Makhathini, the keyboardist (and occasional vocalist) from the band. He's doing terrific work that's not getting much attention outside South Africa, as far as I know. I wish a US label would pick up his music for distribution.

any recommendation on which Makhathini album to start with?

btw, I listened to your podcast with Hutchings, Ahmed, and Garcia--great interview! and now I need to follow up on both of them too

His most recent one, Ikhambi, is the one I'm most familiar with. It's on Spotify (in the US, anyway):

https://open.spotify.com/album/7aonkfRAyRNSHKIpfyi2Jm?si=G_lSyubMRHWo4V9HoHMMvQ

His whole catalog is up there, in fact.

Went to the show last night and they were great, very danceable.

Also struck me how close some of this music is to Masada, at the end of the night I realized I had this tune in my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzIzSXnpwP0

I like the tuba player a lot, but I can't help compare all tuba players to New Orleans guys and Youngbl00d Brass Band, and then I feel like a snob. But he said that Nat from YBB was his main inspiration, so I no longer felt bad.

Saw them on Friday, holy shit that was like a top ten of all time show (not that I would or could ever consider making such a list). From the records I hadn't even registered there were two drummers; incredible energy from them, no gaps between songs and they took one break in a 90 minute set.

the drum rhythms helped keep it from just going into free jazz improv territory

u+k imo.

just listening to Maisha's There Is a Place album .. nice!

I'm losing count of all the top albums coming out of London this year.

The Maisha album is fantastic - gonna write about it for Stereogum for sure.

that looks great (beautiful cover too).

as briefly mentioned by upper mississippi shakedown and me on the rolling jazz thread, Shabaka and a couple other Londoners play on the new Makaya McCraven album Universal Beings, which I would highly recommend

Emanative's Earth is another good one, this lot are not pissing about at the moment.

only heard the first SoK record but I was pretty fascinated by the way it almost had this dub-like sound to it. it felt like there was some element missing...another horn, guitar, something. idk anything about jazz though. definitely a very good record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nk9P3eO4p0

on a big shabaka kick lately, has he really released no solo material? this performance leaves me so hungry

I listened to The Comet Is Coming record last week after playing Sons of Kemet to death and it just feels a little tepid in comparison? I was expecting crazy space jazz but it was all a bit safe, a bit Caribou, without the fire of Your Queen Is A Reptile.

Given all that what's the best place to go next?

maisha's there is a place is v good.

Well worth checking the Makaya McCraven stuff - albeit Shabaka is only a guest on a few tracks. Universal Beings is quite a thing.

has he really released no solo material?

There's a fanastic track on the We Out Here complition credited to solo Shabaka. His work with Sarathy Korwar is worth a listen too. (As is SK's own stuff.)

There's a new The Comet Is Coming due in March - I haven't heard the whole thing, because like Matt DC I feel like TCIC is the weakest of all Hutchings' projects.

Bought the two Emanative full-lengths on Bandcamp today, thanks for the recommendation upthread.

Yeah my initial enthusiasm for TCIC cooled pretty quickly--it's not bad but there are fewer ideas than in his other groups. The SoK and Ancestors albums are much better.

I've been digging the A.R.E. Project record with hieroglyphic being and sarathy korwar lately, that's pretty out there, tabla & sax cosmic and pounding house bliss that in some moments sounds a bit like GAS and in most other moments very much does not. although the hectic riffage in parts of your queen is a reptile is what initially hooked me I think some of the slightly more restrained/less immediate pieces on that are gorgeous. I know the black skin, black masks track & it's great but I'd love some proper solo stuff like in that live video where he's like a more expansive and nimble colin stetson, it's just gorgeous and I guess I love solo performers more than most. following him around is a good way of getting into all sorts of stuff though, the lad really gets about! a proper hodologist.

finally got around to ordering We Out Here. p great, not sure what I like the best on it. There's one showy electric guitar-led track that I def am not into

New Theon Cross (tuba player in SoK) album sounds promising: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/theon-cross-fyah/
Anyone here heard the whole thing yet? (unperson?)

Yeah, it's great. He's got a 2015 EP with the same lineup that's also really good.

three tracks available for listening here:

https://theoncross.bandcamp.com/album/fyah

That's good to hear.
Thanks for the link sleeve, bandcamp's architecture sometimes confuses me. However, now I'm distracted by this great Moses Boyd single linked to in Beta's review: https://mosesboyd.bandcamp.com/album/rye-lane-shuffle-single. And I see he put out a whole album last year--this scene might actually be too productive lol

The Comet is Coming is...coming to St. Paul this summer and while it's not my first choice of his projects in these sometimes jazz starved parts I'm pretty excited to see him

That Moses Boyd single now sells for £££. It's seen as a bit of a landmark.

Bought the Maisha and Kamaal Williams albums yesterday. Both very very fine.

Rye Lane Shuffle is fantastic - reminds me of MRA by Brotherhood of Breath. Theon Cross is also on the new Seed Ensemble album along with a lot of other members of the scene.

new s/t Kokoroko (afro-beat 8-piece led by London trumpet player Sheila Maurice-Grey) ep is really good.

xps

yeah that tuba-tastic Theon Cross album is excellent as well.

I love this scene so much. It is so great to have jazz that is alive, culturally grounded and in dialog with the music around it.

Kokoroko album is tremendous.

I really need to get to some gigs next time I'm in London.

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/binker-golding-elliot-galvin-ex-nihilo/716654-01/

fantastic improv album with Binker Golding/Elliot Galvin that seems to have gone under the radar, it's hard to keep up with this lot.

The Theon Cross and Moses Boyd albums are both excellent. I think I prefer the Theon record aesthetically in general but Moses definitely has higher highs.

Also the N171 was my teenage night bus so I'm feeling mad affinity for that particularly Moses Boyd track. This scene in general could use more singers.

The local references are unsurprisingly appealing to me too - Rye Lane itself is closed to through traffic for the whole of 2019 so it is unusually shuffle-y at the moment, though the diversion on the number 63 is irritating.

Also "Marooned in SE6" made me laugh - you can always walk through Nunhead, dude, it's not so tricky.

Moses Boyd is from Catford so going through Nunhead might not help matters. He's probably just stuck living with his parents or something.

there can never be enough twin drum/bass/tuba combos for my liking.

or is the tuba the bass, my ears deceive me!

It seems the BBC radio documentary from last year on the London jazz scene didn’t get posted to this thread.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000t6b

going off-topic here - but on a similarish tip to the Theon Cross alb is the excellent Portuguese Tuba/Guitar/Drum trio TGB whose ace TGB III album has just dropped on Clean Feed.

I think he's running his tuba through a load of effects pedals to get some of those sounds, it's insane.

Listening to 'Drum Dance' on the Moses Boyd album now and just texturally it's incredible. Weirdly what it reminds me most of Henrik Schwarz which I'm sure is a complete coincidence and a matter of shared source material.

I'll have to be the contrarian here; Theon Cross's tuba annoys me on both his album, and on the Sons Of Kemet. Perhaps I just don't like tubas.

http://cdn5.coloringcrew.com/coloring-book/painted/201048/297b6e6f8d9a94e648c9f8dace1dffd6.png

I guess you’re not gonna fly to New Orleans and catch a brass band with a tuba in a second line parade either. Oh well.

I'll have to be the contrarian here; Theon Cross's tuba annoys me on both his album, and on the Sons Of Kemet. Perhaps I just don't like tubas.

― mike t-diva

xp - oh God, don't get me started on Hot 8!

The ARE Prject EP that he did with Hieroglyphic Being and Sarathy Korwar is my favorite thing he’s been a part of— could listen to that record on a loop, and in fact, I have done so for hours at a time

table otm

I had to stop the new Comet, forget the idea that it's jazz, put it back on, and it works much better now. I have no idea what synthwave is but I could picture this in a video game all right.

This is what I mean! Come over to my side, we have fat breakdowns

Synthwave is just a term for Carpenter obsessed synth soundtrack stuff.

If it is that then it def can't also be EDM.

Gonna go listen to the damn album now and find it.

*out

I'm on "Frequency" and the groove is quite formidable, it's very much ethno porn sax skronk but I don't mind. The developments and sonic contrast with the synths and beats are... incongruous and funny ? It's the first album in a while that seems to have a sense of humor and make me want to laugh. It's a rather strange mix of subversive and meditative, but I can take it as it is.

Comet would have been great at Megadog

The genre of TCIC is "music that kicks ass" I think.

Had the pleasure of seeing them live this week and they were incredible.

incredible live band

New record is pretty great in my book. John Carpenter + skronky sax sounds good to me.

a concert this coming Tuesday that might be of interest to Londoners, with sets from three Native Rebel artists, Shabaka Hutchings’ record label:

https://earthackney.co.uk/events/native-rebel-recordings-the-brother-moves-on-chelsea-carmichael-con-kwake-15-11-2022/

mentioning it because I saw The Brother Moves On from Johannesburg in Amsterdam last night and they were awesome. I only knew their “You Think You Know Me” from last year because it was nominated in Tom Ewing’s EOY Twitter poll. great track, but not very representative (and they didn’t play it).

they performed as a five-piece band (guitar, bass, drums and two saxophonists/flutists) plus wonderful frontman/vocalist Siyabonga Mthembu.
there’s a lot of jazz in what they do, but (to my ears at least) it’s local SA genres at the heart of it all. their Wikipedia entry mentions “maskandi rock” (and “ninja gospel” fwiw).

listening to their recent album right now, and I’m enjoying it, but it can’t hold a candle to the live performance. go see them live if you can.

I guess I might add that they somehow manage to be intense and fun at the same time

He killed it. Never heard anyone who can turn on a dime like this guy.

Dude what

https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/shabaka-hutchings-presents-john-coltranes-hackney-church-tickets/13648158

This will be Shabaka’s final performance on the saxophone before he takes a hiatus from the instrument.

Have folks heard the Kofi Flexxx record? He's not attaching his name to it but it's pretty definitely him and has guest vocals from billy woods, ELUCID, and Siyabonga Mthembu (from Shabaka and the Ancestors), among others.

https://kofiflexxx.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-in-the-dark

^I missed the memo on Kofi Flexxx, will have to check that out

I was a bit wary going in as Afrikan Culture never hooked me, but Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is brilliant and a significant departure from the solo EP to my ears. Ultimately I don't love the sound of the flute as much as Shabaka does, but there's a thoughtful and thought through, compelling, at times witchy or eerie quality to this album that the more new age-y peer comparisons lack. And it goes in some unexpected directions: the first half of the track with Laraaji and Floating points reminded me of something you might hear on Ghost Box, and a couple other moments also had a UK folk revival vibe (e.g., Living).

I interviewed him for Stereogum about the new record, breaking up all his bands, etc., etc. It was a really interesting conversation.

yeah, that's a great piece unperson