This, the first new release since the Afrikan Culture EP of mid-2022 by a musician we must now describe as the former saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, will come as a considerable surprise to many, not least because his renowned saxophone appears on only one beautiful but now retrospective track, Breathing, and that is it. He gave up the saxophone at the end of 2023, citing both the physical and emotional intensity required to play and the cost of that on his wellbeing.
On this new set, he concentrates on the Japanese shakuhachi and various other wood and bamboo flutes, plus clarinet. Gone too is the clamour of his work with the Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming and Shabaka & The Ancestors, all of which groups are now, one imagines, in abeyance. Also gone are the vivid, cosmic or ethnic sleeve designs for his new releases, replaced here by a black and white photograph of a tentative, wary and perhaps frightened musician.
In their place comes this meditative, spiritual set of 11 mainly short tracks, lightly groove-based and often closer to African or folk music than to jazz, augmented as required by spoken vocals and a range of harps, pianos, percussion and other instruments. The opening End Of Innocence is introduced by Jason Moran’s sombre piano before Shabaka’s plaintive clarinet walks though the theme, The Planets And The Stars Collapse is an astral mayhem of interweaving shakuhachi, two harps and a string trio, Insecurities a gossamer trio piece for shakuhachi, harp and vocals, and ESKA’s vocals take Living into Kate Bush territory.
Elsewhere, as on Body To Inhabit, the music is hypnotic, otherworldly, driven by Shabaka on bamboo and the wooden svirel flute, while on I’ll Do Whatever You Want the mood is insistent and repetitive, the spacey atmospherics supplied by American rapper André 3000, here playing a Teotichuacan drone flute, while Laraaji, another celebrated guest, supplies the ghostly vocals.
Throughout, despite their differences, all the tracks display is a strong sense of direction and control, a precision even in their seemingly random flow. That said, the track titles speak not of control but of insecurity and a painful existence, of a need for reassurance and comfort. The beauty of this music appears to come at a high price.
This change of direction will take some time to adjust to, and of course the saxophone can be picked up again any time, but I think it is an extraordinarily brave move by Shabaka, one he should be applauded for.
Discography
End Of Innocence; As The Planets And The Stars Collapse; Insecurities; Managing My Breath, What Fear Had Become; The Wounded Need To Be Replenished; Body To Inhabit; I’ll Do Whatever You Want; Living; Breathing; Kiss Me Before I Forget; Song Of The Motherland (46.51)
Shabaka Hutchings (ts, c, shakuhachi, bamboo and quena f, svirel) plus collective personnel: André 3000 (drone f); Charles Overton, Brandee Younger (hp); Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (vn, vla, clo); Jason Moran, Nduduzo Makhathini (p); Floating Point (elp); Surga Botofasina (syn); Chris Sholar (elec); Dave Okumu (elg); Esperanza Spaulding, Tom Herbert (b); Nasheet Waits, Marcus Gilmore (d); Carlos Nino, Ranja Swaminathan (pc); Moses Sumney, Saul Williams, ELUCID, Laraaji, ESKA, Lianne Las Havas, Anum Iyapo (v). New Jersey, London, no date.
Impulse! 602465050356
