Shabaka and the Ancestors send out a history with a potent message
They were a highlight of Sydney Festival two years ago, now Shabaka and the Ancestors have released a potent new album.
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One of the emotionally charged highlights of Sydney Festival a couple of years back was London tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings’ concert with a group of South African jazz musicians, the Ancestors.
The performance was given an extra sense of poignancy and significance as it coincided with the news of the death of legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela, father of South African jazz.
The concert was based around seven numbers from their highly acclaimed 2016 album Wisdom of Elders, made in an astonishing six-hour period in which eight of the nine tracks, all composed by Hutchings, were first takes.
Now the band has released its sophomore album, We Are Sent Here by History, which is every bit as good as the first. The line-up is the same, with Hutchings’ tenor duelling with the alto sax of Mthunzi Mvubu, complemented by the striking vocals of singer and poet Siabonga Mthemba. The soundscape is filled out by keyboard maestro Nduduzo Makhatini and trumpeter Mandla Mlange and underpinned by an immaculate rhythm section in drummer Tumi Morogosi, percussionist Gontse Makene and the driving double bass of Ariel Zomonsky.
European-US sensibilities mix with ballsy South African pulses and Mthemba’s poetry and chants, which at times sound like a third saxophone.
Born in London and then raised in the Caribbean before returning to England, Hutchings has an amazingly varied palette of sounds. John Coltrane’s influence is obvious, but he oscillates from breathy mellow to fierce, stabbing bravado runs in the standout We Are Called with its refrain “you are here on history’s call”.
Go My Heart Go To Heaven has Hutchings weaving around a repeated bass riff which builds to joyful climax with a Caribbean undertone much in the vein of the great Sonny Rollins. And on Run The Darkness Will Pass – one of the most “African” of the tracks – he swaps his tenor for the woody attack of the clarinet.
Other tracks combine earthy almost visceral rhythms with a strong spirituality, while Mthemba’s presence often lifts the music to a new dimension as he sends out messages – listen to We Will Work (On Redefining Manhood) – condemning misogyny, racial exploitation and environmental degradation.
But this is no political polemic. It is more an all-encompassing collection of tracks from one of the most exciting and innovative jazz ensembles on the scene today. And its infectious beats, catchy riffs and boundless energy are impossible to ignore.
You can get Shabaka and the Ancestors We Are Sent Here by History at Birdland Records for $29.99 (CD) or $65 (Vinyl).