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Of The Earth

SHABAKA

Released 6 March 2026

Shabaka Records

*****

A fearless celebration of the breath - instrumental and vocal - as Shabaka extends the spiritual jazz​ legacy of the Coltanes and the restlessness of Miles Davis with an expansion of his own post-saxophone language.

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Shabaka Hutchings has spent the past decade redefining the parameters of contemporary jazz. As leader of Shabaka and the Ancestors, former driving force behind Sons of Kemet (until their 2022 dissolution), and a key member of The Comet Is Coming, where he performed as King Shabaka, he consistently fused spiritual intensity with rhythmic urgency. His collaborators range from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Floating Points and Mulatu Astatke, reflecting a restless, borderless pursuit of invention and enquiry.

His 2024 solo debut, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, marked a striking pivot away from saxophone towards flutes, shakuhachi, svirel and clarinet - a period of deliberate retreat and recalibration. Of The Earth builds out from that silence, widening Hutching's musical palette while reintroducing the horn - and (for the first time) the voice.

Entirely written, produced, performed and recorded by Hutchings, Of The Earth is described as “deeply personal”, and it sounds precisely that: inward, searching, yet resolutely in character with all that has gone before. The ambient surfaces that led some listeners to misread his previous work as drifting towards new age territory are here revealed as structural, informed as much by the textural experimentation and influence of Floating Points and of Flying Lotus as by spiritual jazz lineage.

On its return, the saxophone emerges sparingly, melodically, almost ceremonially. With it and through it, this music's lineage is made clear - from the innovative flair and devotional fire of the Coltranes, Alice and John respectively, to the restless mutability of Miles; never in imitation, always origination.

Most striking is Hutchings’ decision to rap for the first time: “I’ve never rapped before but was actually inspired by André 3000’s courage in exploring new dimensions with fearlessness and sincerity; I decided to find my voice on this album,” says Hutchings. The delivery is measured rather than performative, an extension of a wind instrumentalist's breath-work, rather than merely a stylistic choice.​​

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