Check out three songs from Shabaka & The Ancestors' powerful new album on Impulse! followed by a spiritual jazz mix assembled by Shabaka Hutchings.
Shabaka Hutchings' Astro Black Mix track listing:
Feelin' Good - John Coltrane Astral Travelling - Pharoah Sanders Contemplation - McCoy Tyner Om Shanti - Alice Coltrane Believe, For It’s True - Billy Harper Kubi - Zim Ngqawana Fanfare - Bokani Dyer Because You Knew - Mandisi Dyantyis The Rain - Eddie Gale
Shabaka & The Ancestors' Wisdom of Elders album is available now as a double LP, CD or digital download.
Wisdom of Elders was recorded in Johannesburg in 2015 on one of many trips Shabaka Hutchings took there to immerse himself in the country’s rich musical heritage. The album is a psalm in nine parts. An episodic unfurling of a sonic journey across the Atlantic.
“The grand scheme of this album is to present the musical language that I normally associate with my UK bands in the context of SA musicians and musical sensibilities,” explains Hutchings, who sometimes likes to call himself "King Shabaka" when playing with Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, Melt Yourself Down, etc.
Eight men in a studio in Johannesburg; one tenor sax, one alto sax, one trumpet. One on vocals, one on ivory, one bass, one on percussion and one the drums. 800 million voices. 700 years. Millions of bones cracking under the weight of 22 false free years. Innumerable tiny sparks. One uncontrollable blaze.
