Shabaka
“Shabaka Hutchings is a composer, flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a key figure in bringing England’s 21st century jazz scene to the fore as a founding member of the Heliocentrics. He led the disbanded Sons of Kemet on Your Queen Is a Reptile (2018) and Black to the Future (2021). Shabaka and the Ancestors, a South African jazz project, charted internationally with 2016’s Wisdom of Elders and 2020’s We Are Sent Here by History. Hutchings also co-leads the electro-acoustic, avant-futurist, jazz-rock-dance trio the Comet Is Coming, who issued two acclaimed albums in 2019. On hiatus from saxophone, he released the flute-focused Afrikan Culture as Shabaka in 2022, followed two years later by the collaborative flute- and clarinet-focused Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, featuring Floating Points, Laraaji, and Lianne La Havas. In December, Shabaka released the Possession EP, another collaboration-rich outing with a handful of guests that included Esperanza Spalding and Andre 3000. In March 2026 he returned with Of the Earth, on which he performed all instruments as well as mixing, recording, and producing.
Hutchings was born in 1984 in London. He moved to Barbados at the age of six and began studying classical clarinet at age nine and saxophone a year later. After returning to the U.K., he was granted the title of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2010, allowing him to undertake numerous commissions as well as broadcast performances on the radio (including those of his own group, Sons of Kemet). In July 2013, Hutchings received a commission from the Leasowes Bank Music Festival to write a piece for clarinet and string quartet. He performed this piece with the Ligeti String Quartet to rave reviews. Sons of Kemet released their debut album, Burn, and won the 2013 MOBO Award for Jazz Act of the Year. Additionally, Hutchings was nominated for Jazz Musician of the Year in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. The following year, he was invited by Marshall Allen to join the Sun Ra Arkestra. He performed with them, recording a session for the BBC’s Radio 3, and was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composer Award.
In January of 2015, Hutchings traveled to South Africa to record a project with native jazz musicians. He also received a commission from the London Sinfonietta to write a “note to the new government” and was Associate Artist for the Spitalfields Summer Festival. The second Sons of Kemet album, Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do, was released in September on NAIM, and an electronic trio project, the Comet Is Coming, featuring Hutchings, Dan Leavers, and Max Hallett, issued its first EP on the Leaf label in October. The following spring, the group released its full-length Channel the Spirits to massive critical acclaim and a Mercury Prize nomination.
Hutchings served as a core member of percussionist/producer Sarathy Korwar’s group on the acclaimed Day to Day. Recorded in India and London, it featured the modern jazz and electronics group performing with the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur. The album was released on Ninja Tune during the summer of 2016. Wisdom of Elders, an album by Hutchings’ South Africa project Shabaka and the Ancestors, was issued by Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label in the early fall. While in the African nation, he also contributed to South African jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini’s seminal Icilongo: The African Peace Suite.
Over the next couple of years, Hutchings facilitated collaborations among musicians of various disciplines throughout the London scene. In 2017 alone, he contributed to Yazz Ahmed’s La Saboteuse, Zara McFarlane’s Arise, a self-titled offering by Alexander Hawkins’ Unit(e), and two Heliocentrics’ outings: World of Masks and the original soundtrack for The Sunshine Makers.
That fall, Hutchings signed a deal with the iconic, U.S.-based Impulse! label, recording home to John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and dozens of others. His March 2018 debut was Sons of Kemet’s internationally acclaimed Your Queen Is a Reptile, which he also co-produced. That year he and Nubya Garcia took part in the London gigs recorded for drummer/producer Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings project. Hutchings also took part in the sessions for South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo’s Five Blokes’ recording Uplift the People on the Ogun label.
In April 2019, Hutchings played a key role on Angelique Kidjo’s international smash Celia, her personal tribute to the artistry and influence of Afro-Cuban singing legend Celia Cruz. It was the only session work he did that year, as he remained very busy with the Comet Is Coming, who released two albums: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery in March, followed by the six-track The Afterlife. The group also toured behind them.
Hutchings’ different musical personas were hatching projects regularly. He returned to South Africa that fall and, with the Ancestors (that included Makhathini in the lineup), recorded We Are Sent Here by History. It was issued by Impulse! in March 2020 and, in addition to his composing and playing, listed Hutchings as sole producer. He also appeared on a slew of recordings including albums by Sibusile Xaba, Moses Sumney, Keleketla!, and Shake Stew. In March 2021, Sons of Kemet issued the African Cosmology EP. It paired the mid-length “Myth Science” with the 12-minute “Rites of Passage.” They followed it in May with the charting Black to the Future.
Hutchings played a key role on British/Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph’s Heavenly Sweetness long-player The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives. He also played on 2022’s The River Doesn’t Like Strangers by saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael.
His solo EP, Afrikan Culture, appeared in May 2023, under only his first name. The year found Hutchings contributing to Live at Joshua Tree by the Yussef Dayes Experience, London Brew’s eponymous debut, and The Horse’s Bones Are Flutes by Matthew Herbert and London Contemporary Orchestra. In 2024, Hutchings played on albums by Brazilian jazz pianist Amaro Freitas, composer Ellen Reid, and vocalist Ganavya. In April, he released his solo debut album titled Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, and followed it with the star-studded five-track Possession EP in December that included contributions from South African jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, Andre 3000 (whose New Blue Sun he played on), bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, and rappers billy woods and E L U C I D. 2026’s Of the Earth was performed, produced, and mixed entirely by the artist. The set marked his return to saxophone, while his alto flute is present throughout, and features the first recorded use of his rapping alongside percussion, electronics, keyboards and more. This added dimension serves to connect the polyrhythmic drive of Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming with the meditative textures of 2020s material.”