Shabaka Hutchings burst onto the London jazz scene in 2013 as the leader of the jazz/afrobeat outfit Sons of Kemet. While establishing himself as a competent saxophonist, Hutchings continued diversifying his talents by forming the cosmic-psychedelic-electronic group The Comet is Coming with Danalogue and Betamax. The bands were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
Many artists in a similar position would be satisfied to rest on their laurels, but Shabaka soon grew tired of the touring and exhaustion that his success entailed. Thus, he announced in 2023 that he would be taking a break from the saxophone.
Shabaka has already given us a taste of his experiments with other woodwind instruments in his 2022 EP, Afrikan Culture. His debut solo studio album, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, continues Shabaka’s search for his musical identity as he ventures into the realm of new-age jazz. Hutchings only plays his signature saxophone on one track while performing on the clarinet and various varieties of flute on the others.
The opening track, End of Innocence, highlights Hutchings’ deviation from the styles we associate with him, trading his energetic sax for a mellow, reflective clarinet. This track feels like it is supposed to be peaceful, yet there is something in the interplay between clarinet and piano that takes you on a deeper emotional journey.
Shabaka acquired his first Shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, in 2019. Since then, he has fallen in love with exploring flutes from various cultures across the world. The single I’ll Do Whatever You Want features a wide range of these instruments, including the Shakuhachi, Brazilian Pifano flute, and Aztec death whistle.
I’ll Do Whatever You Want starts out as a haunting and mysterious piece filled with dissonant flute solos and ever-intensifying percussion. The track also features Andre 3000 on his Teotihuacan Drone Flute. The second movement of this piece switches the focus from flute to vocals with Laraaji’s disconcerting chants adding to the atmosphere. It is truly a challenging piece with many layers that reveal themselves every time you re-listen to it.
The closing track, Song of the Motherland, invites Hutchings’ father, Anum Iyapo, to recite his poetry from 1985 to the rhythm of the album’s new-age brilliance. Shabaka’s flute combines seamlessly with Charles Overton’s harp, adding power and soul to Iyapo’s ode to black culture, history and identity.
Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace is not just a woodwind experiment by a natural musical talent. He shows a deep desire to broaden his horizons through the many collaborations on this album using multiple instruments and spoken and unspoken vocals. We cannot imagine what Shabaka will come up with next. We can only know that it will continue to amaze us as he has done for the last decade.
