Shabaka And The Ancestors’ Jozi Invasion This Weekend

The London-based musician Shabaka Hutchings launches his debut album this Friday and Saturday at The Orbit jazz club in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

The tenor saxophonist gathered some of his favourite South African musicians to interpret his compositions earlier this year. The resulting recording session, preceded by two gigs on consecutive nights in February 2016, with his band The Ancestors, gave life to Wisdom of Elders. The album will be released being through the Brownswood label on September 21. 

The album opens with “Mzwandile”, a name given to Shabaka by master drummer Louis Moholo who, besides still being active on the club and festival circuit, is known for his role in making the South African sextet Blue Notes the influential global force it became.

Of the album’s title, Shabaka says: “When we study the music, the lives, the words of our master musicians we obtain a glimpse of that artist’s essential energy source. This is the core vitality of the individual which leads them to utilise the musical specifics of their chosen genre in a way that mirrors their inner source of power. This is an intuited wisdom that’s handed to us from the legacies of our elders.”

Collectively, the band spans influences ranging from the 70s Afro-rock of Harari, to the early nineties spiritual jaunts of Bheki Mseleku (whose album Celebration left an indelible mark on Shabaka, who discovered it when he was 18 years old), to Caribbean calypso, and central African song structures.

The Ancestors are: Mthunzi Mvubu (alto sax), Mandla Mlangeni (trumpet), Siyabonga Mthembu (Vocals), Nduduzo Makhathini (rhodes, piano), Ariel Zomonsky (bass), Gontse Makhene (percussion), Tumi Mogorosi (drums). 

www.www.shabakahutchings.com ; www.brownswoodrecordings.com