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shabaka and the ancestors - wisdom of elders - brownswood records - vinyl

New Copy

Genre: Jazz

1. Mzwandile
2. Joyous
3. The Observer
4. The Sea
5. Natty

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Rush Hour Store

The album is a document of sessions combining Hutchings with a group of South African jazz musicians he's long admired

After years spent in the orbit of London�s jazz circuit, Shabaka Hutching examines and reimagines his influences with a dexterity that�s unique. Drawing out the vision underlying his new album, he says, �I see energy as being a form of wisdom to be passed down through the ages.�

Unpicking the album�s title, he continues, "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.

The album is a document of sessions combining Hutchings with a group of South African jazz musicians he�s long admired. His connection to the group was Mandla Mlangeni (bandleader of the Amandla Freedom Ensemble), whom he�d flown there to play with over the past few years. Recorded across just one day, the group drew on their South African lineage � heroes like Zim Ngquwana and Bheki Mseleku � to bring their own slant to the American jazz lineage which is reconfigured in Hutchings� compositions themselves.

Going beyond the jazz greats Hutchings cites, influences are drawn from plenty of other sources: Caribbean calypso, central African song structures and Southern African Nguni music all play a part. Bringing together those ideas with the contributions of his bandmates is, he explains, crucial to what he sees in the role of an album artist. �Even though I wrote all the music, for me, the leader of the project isn�t the person who writes all the music but the one who has a vision for how certain musical elements will be combined."