This month: Shabaka Hutchings
At the time of writing, Shabaka Hutchings, composer, saxophonist and leader of The Comet Is Coming, Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors, is looking forward to a back-tobasics event in the social-distance-friendly outdoor environment of the Brixton Courtyard. ‘It’s a bunch of like-minded musicians coming together and making music,’ he says, in no doubt that said music’s improvised nature will offer some pushback against the pressures of lockdown which have lately informed his thinking. This is apparent when discussing the Ancestors’ remarkable second album We Are Sent Here by History (reviewed August). ‘Interviewers were asking me what I meant by the title and by aspects of the album’, says Hutchings. ‘Reflecting on it, the truth is that a lot of the narrative to do with the album was based on the idea of reciprocity, the idea of giving the audience something and being given something back, not literally but figuratively. We called the album a “sonic poem” because it is meant to be reflected upon and interpreted.’
Of the Ancestors’ personnel, Hutchings says ‘I’d been spending a lot of time in South Africa because I knew a lot of musicians there. Friends and colleagues in England didn’t really understand how great the scene was over there, so I decided to record with some of these musicians with whom I had the most synergy. We had one day of rehearsal, a gig and then one day of recording. We then spent a lot of time editing and producing the first album. The second album was done in much the same way, but with slightly more rehearsal and a few more days’ recording.’
What of the future, unpredictable as it now is? ‘We recorded the next Sons of Kemet album last September; that should be out early next year. We’re probably going into the studio for The Comet is Coming towards the end of this year. I’m also looking at ways of creating an album using portable digital recording technology. Being able to do this while mobile will give me a lot of inspiration, so I think that’s going to be an album for 2023. It’s essential to plan – right now that’s all you can do.’ Roger Thomas
We Are Sent by History is a ‘sonic poem’ – to be reflected upon and interpreted