Home » Jazz Musicians » 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. “Me learning about jazz, how to play and interpret, was always a case of just trial and error. I think where I’ve come to recently is I’ve stopped trying to think ‘Is what I’m doing valid? or ‘Is what I’m doing part of the jazz tradition?’ and just see myself as a musician.”

Now 33, Hutchings first began garnering attention as a member of Melt Yourself Down, the “Nubian party punk” band led by fellow saxophonist Pete Wareham. Sons of Kemet (“Kemet” being the pronunciation of the ancient name of Egypt) marked his first group as a bandleader, and 2013’s Burn and 2015’s Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do, both released by the UK label Naim Jazz, received significant acclaim, including a nod from influential DJ Gillles Peterson. Sons of Kemet’s new album, Your Queen Is a Reptile, their first record for Impulse!, is the band’s most fully realized creation yet, powered by Hutchings’ blazing, incendiary saxophone, Theon Cross’ tuba blasts, which sound like funky bass lines, and the high-octane interplay between multiple drummers (a revolving cast that includes Tom Skinner, Seb Rochford, and Eddie Hick).

Born in London, Hutchings moved to Birmingham at age two, then relocated to Barbados at six, remaining there til he was 16 (after which he returned to England). He began to play clarinet in the school band, and the calypso and soca music of Barbados’ Carnival not only provided Hutching’s first musical memories but informs Sons of Kemet’s kinetic intensity. “Everyone comes out on the street and it’s a massive party,” says Hutchings of Carnival, “and in some ways that’s the core feeling that we’re trying to get in Sons of Kemet. As someone from the Caribbean diaspora imagining that feeling, how I remember that feeling as a youngster, I want everyone in the room being so connected to that jubilant feeling of really just enjoying the celebration of music. That’s what I’m trying to get with the performances, the situation where every single person in that room can feel this energy that brings us all together. And once we are together, for me that’s when the transcendence can happen.”

Read more

Tags

5
Live Review

Sons of Kemet / Ramakhandra at the Bluebird Theater

Read "Sons of Kemet / Ramakhandra at the Bluebird Theater" reviewed by Geoff Anderson


Sons of Kemet/Ramakhandra Bluebird Theater Denver, CO August 3, 2022 “Nebraska--It's Not for Everyone." That's one of the more unusual tourism campaigns out there. But it came to mind Wednesday night at the Sons of Kemet concert. To start with, the band's instrumentation is unusual: tenor sax, tuba, two drummers. No vocals (although some of their albums feature guest vocalists here and there). No chording instrument like a piano or guitar. Not exactly Top 40 ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

A Selection Of New Releases

Read "A Selection Of New Releases" reviewed by Bob Osborne


A selection of tracks from recent releases including music from the fourth album from drummer Andrés Elstein, cutting edge avant-garde playing from Joe O'Connor, Theo Carbo & Tim Green, and sampling and sculpting of sounds from Matias Riquelme. Then to the UK for new albums from Slowly Rolling Camera, and Sons of Kemet and to the USA for another Turnpike Diary from Tony Malaby and previews of two new releases from William Parker. Playlist Sons of Kemet “Think ...

20
Album Review

Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is A Reptile

Read "Your Queen Is A Reptile" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


There is nothing quite like the Sons of Kemet. In a genre that struggles with the perception that it too often becomes mired in sameness and safety, this is a group that embraces the African roots of jazz while skirting the very essence of the genre. Eye-opening deviations come from unexpected places and in the case of Your Queen Is a Reptile, that source is London's “New School," or so-called “New British Invasion" in jazz. Including the likes of Kendrick ...

9
Live Review

Brilliant Corners 2018

Read "Brilliant Corners 2018" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Brilliant Corners 2018 Black Box jny: Belfast, N. Ireland March 3-10, 2018 Compared to Dublin or cities in the UK, Belfast is usually overlooked when jazz groups tour. When the likes of Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Ahmad Jamal, Keith Jarrett or Brad Mehldau come to Ireland it's usually a one-stop visit to Dublin and then away. Pat Metheny's November 2017 Dublin/Belfast gigs was the exception that proves the rule. In recent times ...

Album Review

Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is A Reptile

Read "Your Queen Is A Reptile" reviewed by Enrico Bettinello


Con il consueto ritardo (tempo tecnico di maturazione lo definirebbe qualcuno di più diplomatico) anche il mondo globalizzato del jazz si sta accorgendo del talento di Shabaka Hutchings. Chi bazzica infatti il jazz europeo più vivace non può non avere notato da tempo il sassofonista inglese, con i The Comet Is Coming, con Louis Moholo, con la Sun Ra Arkestra, magari con Mulatu Astatqe o Orlando Julius, a confermare l'approccio globale del musicista. Per non dire dello splendido lavoro a ...

24
Album Review

Sons of Kemet: Your Queen Is A Reptile

Read "Your Queen Is A Reptile" reviewed by Chris May


It is appropriate that this, British-based Sons of Kemet's third album, should be released under the Impulse banner. During its heyday, Impulse was the home of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders and as such was the chief platform for the cosmic/spiritual jazz movement of the 1960s and 1970s and that movement's demand for white-majority society's recognition of black culture and respect for black people. In 2018, the multi-racial Sons of Kemet, led by tenor saxophonist and composer Shabaka ...

8
Extended Analysis

Sons of Kemet: Burn

Read "Sons of Kemet: Burn" reviewed by Phil Barnes


The first thing you notice about Shabaka Hutchings' latest project, Sons of Kemet, is the unexpectedly large feel to the recording's soundscape. Not only does it have the hallmarks of a warmer analogue past but the reverb is at times extraordinary, being akin to hearing the band play in an immense auditorium with twice as many musicians as the relatively paltry core quartet listed in the credits. Drummer and producer Seb Rochford explained in interview that this was achieved by ...

Read more articles

Photos

Music

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.