Shabaka and the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here by History

Pitchfork 80

The British-Barbadian jazz saxophonist and his South African players narrate the apocalypse from a distant future, suggesting that in order to build anew, some things will first need to burn.

The Guardian 80

(Impulse)

Fronting three different groups may seem like hubris, but the energy and vision of London-based saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is not easily contained. This second album from his alliance with assorted South African musicians is both calmer and more ominous than his work with the Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet. There are no synth squalls and fractured beats – instead, Hutchings’s tenor and clarinet are pitched against an acoustic ensemble driven by double bass and awash with Fender Rhodes piano, an approach that often echoes South Africa’s distinct jazz lineage.

The mood is futurist, however. Hutchings is fond of apocalyptic warnings, and the fiery declamations here, co-written with poet Siyabonga Mthembu, are suitably full of dread, beginning with the compulsive 10-minute blast of They Who Must Die. Another strand to Hutchings’s playing is its lyrical, contemplative quality, captured by the churchy Go My Heart, Go to Heaven, the rootsy, determined We Will Work (on Redefining Manhood) and the husky closer Teach Me to Be Vulnerable. Such pieces are a counterpoint to Hutchings’s talk of “what happens when life as we know it can’t continue”. A remarkable, shamanic talent.