Shabaka and the Ancestors – “Finally, the Man Cried” from We Are Sent Here By History (2020, Impulse!)
Can saxophone lines be sinewy? Serpentine? Or is that just indulgent music blog pablum? And if that is, watch out for this next one: I think that Shabaka Hutchings is one of the most interesting presences in jazz music right now, if not all music.
Actually, that’s a rather arrogant thing to say. Not because I believe myself to be Shabaka Hutchings, but because I think it takes just a tad more confidence than I possess to say a thing like that, to assume that I have the requisite knowledge to back up such a statement.
My friend Josh has a deep knowledge of jazz and its records and their players and the relationships across groups and records and decades. I aspire to that, but I’m not there. So shit. I don’t know. Suffice it to say that I, in whatever capacity I operate in, sure find Shabaka Hutchings’ musical offerings to be interesting.
Anyway, back to those sinewy lines (you can read more about Shabaka Hutchings, Shabaka and the Ancestors, Sons of Kemet, and The Comet is Coming here, here, and here). The song, down-tempo but heavily percussive, begins with intertwining melodic lines from Hutchings and saxophonist Mthunzi Mvubu set against a jaunty bass line from Ariel Zomonsky with drums and percussion from Tumi Mogorosi and Gontse Makhene, respectively.
I can’t exactly put my finger on it but the tune’s opening puts me in mind of some of the world-building found on an Ellington record, or maybe Mingus or Roach. It doesn’t sound like one of their tunes so much as it feels like one, if that is of any help — imagine Mingus leading Roach’s group on a worked-up version of “Mood Indigo” and you’re maybe there. Except that’s not it at all — I just went and checked and am now in real time skimming the Ellington catalog to try and put my finger on it. “Caravan?” Maybe. And I know that I could go back and edit to make it look like I was thinking “Caravan” the whole time, but that’s just not the kind of guy I am.
But that’s just the opening, and if you clicked on any of the parenthetical links in paragraph four, then I don’t have to tell you now that there’s also this whole international component to this music. Hutchings is British/Trinidadian, playing with a band of South African jazz musicians, with a singer (Siyabonga Mthembu) who has chosen Portuguese for the vocals on this track. The song evolves, or rather distills until the central focus is what I can only describe as a thicc-ass repetitive base line that will likely appeal to open-minded fans of Hoover, June of 44, Lungfish, etc.
This is heavily spiritual music, and it is clear that much thought was put into it — from the artwork to the album and song titles to the songs themselves. It is a sound that is new and also timeless, and I find it incredibly exciting.
The Shuffler 