Shabaka

In recent years, the most vital, inclusive, and innovative jazz scene on earth has shifted east across the Atlantic to London, and the figure that stands atop this revolution is Shabaka (formerly known as Shabaka Hutchings). Until recently the leader of the heralded conglomerations Sons of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors, and The Comet is Coming, Shabaka returns to SFJAZZ having retired from his previous projects and the instrument most closely associated with him, the tenor saxophone, to embark on new projects with fresh sources of inspiration. This night will be devoted to music from his upcoming solo album that employs flutes, clarinets, and other instruments, while building upon the ebullient spirit and passion that are his true trademarks.

A multi-faceted instrumentalist and composer whose influence has spread far beyond the U.K., the Birmingham-raised Hutchings spent the formative years of his youth in Barbados, an island rife with reminders of Britain’s colonial history, where the budding artist first picked up the saxophone and where the seeds of his creative aesthetic in the roots of the African diaspora were planted.

Bristling with raw energy and deep spiritual power, Hutchings’ new liberation from the conventions and associations of the saxophone allow him to fully explore new sonic realms and chart new expressive paths, each marked by resonances from the ancient past while feeling resolutely of the moment.