Shabaka Hutchings

Shabaka Hutchings (who goes by simply "Shabaka" as a solo artist) is a jazz saxophonist, composer, bandleader and a frequent collaborator in London's dynamic jazz scene, having fronted various bands along the way. He has had a signature sound in all those outings, adopting an energetic, ebullient style, often creating strongly Afrobeat oriented music (as in Sons of Kemet) as well as Afrofuturistic electronic funk (see The Comet is Coming). In a surprising twist, he turned completely inward in his solo work, starting with his 2022 EP, Afrikan Culture, to produce a string of meditative, ambient-inspired quiet pieces, with subtle impressions of jazz may be found in between the lines. He also moved away from the saxophone in the context of this work and began to focus on the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, shakuhachi.