Results for "Sons of Kemet"

Sons of Kemet

Over the last half decade, Shabaka Hutchings has established himself as a central figure in the London jazz scene, which is enjoying its greatest creative renaissance since the breakthroughs of Joe Harriott and Evan Parker in the 1960s. Hutchings has a restlessly creative and refreshingly open-minded spirit, playing in a variety of groups—most notably, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka & the Ancestors—and embracing influences from the sounds of London’s diverse club culture, including house, grime, jungle, and dub. “The common theme in my career as a jazz musician has been wondering if what I’m doing is the thing that I should be doing,” says Hutchings, who studied classical clarinet at college at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Balimaya Project: When The Dust Settles

by Chris May
August 12, 2023

Formed in 2019 by London-based drummer and percussionist Yahael Camara Onono, the sixteen-piece Balimaya Project blends traditional West African Mandé music with modal jazz and other sounds out of modern Black London. The ensemble's closest comparator, albeit at some remove, is the veteran Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab who, in the 1980s, were hugely popular at home ...

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2023

by Mark Sullivan
July 19, 2023

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec June 29-July 3, 2023 The 2023 festival continued the broad offering of free shows that was so prominent last year. They were frequently strong enough to vie with the ticketed concerts (which were also quite diverse and featured marquee artists from jazz and adjacent ...

Makaya McCraven: In The Moment to In These Times

by Rob Garratt
June 13, 2023

Makaya McCraven needs a coffee--fast. It's 4pm and he's crashing. It will be his third of the day. His first caffeine hit, consumed on stage six hours earlier, was a chemical necessity; McCraven was drinking at a nearby Irish pub until the early hours and nearly missed his early morning panel talk appearance alongside fellow percussion ...

Ezra Collective's Femi Koleoso: On Tony Allen and UK jazz today

by Rob Garratt
March 13, 2023

Of all the artists to emerge from the overbaked “UK jazz explosion" of recent years, Ezra Collective are arguably the greatest crossover success--based on Spotify stats and tour bookings, anyway. And while the juggernaut of early hype may have worn itself out, things are only looking rosier in 2023: The barrier-busting London quintet is currently gearing ...

Nubya Garcia & Shabaka Hutchings Meditate Together On Bitches Brew

by Chris May
March 13, 2023

New releases from London doff the hat to two 20th century American masterpieces. Both of the new albums feature tenor saxophonists Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, playing alongside each other and kicking up a storm alongside other luminaries of the London scene. The double album London Brew (Concord) is to be released on ...

Graham Collier: Down Another Road @ Stockholm Jazz Days ’69

by Chris May
March 7, 2023

In 1969, when the composer and bassist Graham Collier took his sextet to Stockholm Jazz Days to give a live performance of their album Down Another Road (Fontana, 1969), the presence of a British band onstage at a European jazz festival was exceptional. The idea that British musicians would one day have their names on the ...

Jazz & Spoken Word Show

by David Brown
February 28, 2023

This week, The Jazz & Spoken Word Show. Featuring Damon Locks, Fred Moten, Trapeta B. Mason; Tributes to NYC from Charles Mingus and George Russell; John Zorn's homage to Mike Hammer detective adventures with Spillane, plus works from William Parker, The Exploding Star Orchestra, Irreversible Entanglements and Gil Scott Heron. Word up! Playlist Thelonious ...

Sebastian Rochford / Kit Downes: A Short Diary

by Karl Ackermann
January 10, 2023

London-based drummer Sebastian Rochford (aka, Seb) and pianist Kit Downes have a long working history but have recorded only once as a duo on the EP Live @ The Vortex (Loop Collective, 2012). They reunite on the poignant and cerebral A Short Diary. Rochford began his relationship with ECM Records as part of the Andy Sheppard-led ...

Bog Bodies: Bog Bodies

by Chris May
December 8, 2022

Formed in 2015, Bog Bodies is an international trio comprising tenor saxophonist Robert Stillman, guitarist Anders Holst and drummer Sean Carpio. The band moves freely between the composed and the improvised, the abstract and the figurative, and the acoustic and the electronic. Is it jazz? Is it La Monte Young-inspired drone? Is it noise? Is it ...