Shabaka Hutchings

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With Sons of Kemet at the INNtöne Jazzfestival 2018
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
We Are Sent Here by History (Shabaka and the Ancestors)
  DE 81 04/03/2020 (1 week)

Shabaka Hutchings (* 1984 in London ) is a British jazz musician ( tenor saxophone , clarinet , composition) with Caribbean roots.

Live and act

Hutchings spent his childhood with his family in Barbados from the age of seven , where he received classical clarinet lessons from the age of nine. At the age of 16 he returned to Great Britain to continue his training as a classical musician, first in Birmingham and then in London. At college by day, he jammed with Soweto Kinch and other jazz musicians at night .

Hutchings initially worked in the field of improvisational music with Steve Beresford and Orphy Robinson , soon also with Louis Moholos Blokes and with Evan Parker . Courtney Pine brought him to the Jazz Warriors . Mulatu Astatke made him a member of his Heliocentrics , with whom he toured Europe several times. He also belonged to the Alexander Hawkins Ensemble.

In his own project Sons of Kemet , for which he also composes, Hutchings focuses on danceable music; there Theon Cross , Tom Skinner and Eddie Hick work with him. He also plays (as King Shabaka ) in the collaborative electro jazz trio The Comet Is Coming with Max Hallett on drums and the synthesizer player Dan Leavers, who have released three albums so far (2020). He also plays the saxophone in Melt Yourself Down , a band led by Pete Warehams, and occasionally in the post-jazz band Polar Bear . Since 2015 he has been exploring the possibilities of his musical language in Shabaka and the Ancestors with South African colleagues such as Nduduzo Makhathini and Tumi Mogorosi against a different socio-cultural background.

He has also performed with Jack DeJohnette , Charlie Haden and his Liberation Music Orchestra , with Yazz Ahmed , with King Sunny Adé , with Makaya McCraven ( Universal Beings , 2018) and with Cara Stacey . In 2014 he was invited to play some concerts with the Sun Ra Arkestra (including recordings for BBC Radio 3 ).

In 2012 he was commissioned to write a composition Babylon for the BBC Concert Orchestra , his own Sons of Kemet , electronic musician Leafcutter John and beatboxer Jason Singh, which was performed at the London Jazz Festival in Queen Elizabeth Hall and broadcast by the BBC . In 2013 he performed his own piece at the Leasowes Bank Music Festival , which he interpreted as a clarinetist with the Ligeti String Quartet around Mandhira de Saram . He also received a commission from the London Sinfonietta .

Shabaka Hutchings (2018)

Prizes and awards

Hutchings was recognized as a New Generation Artist by BBC Radio 3 in 2010 (this has resulted in radio recordings with Julian Joseph , the BBC Big Band, as well as with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he performed the Copeland Clarinet Concerto). With his group Sons of Kemet he won a MOBO Award in 2013 as “Jazz Band of the Year”. The following year he was named jazz musician (instrumentalist) of the year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards . In the same year he received the Paul Hamlyn Composer Award . At the Down Beat Critics Poll 2020 he was the winner in the category Jazz Musician of the Year (Rising Star) .

Discography (selection)

  • Sons of Kemet: Burn (Naim, 2013)
  • Shabaka and the Ancestors: Wisdom of Elders (Brownswood, 2016)
  • Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile ( Impulse , 2018)
  • The Comet Is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (Impulse, 2019)
  • Shabaka and the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here by History (Impulse, 2020)

Web links

Commons : Shabaka Hutchings  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [Shabaka] in the German charts
  2. ↑ Radio 3 Live In Concert (November 3, 2012)
personal data
SURNAME Hutchings, Shabaka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz musician (tenor saxophone, clarinet, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH London