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Shabaka

Afrikan Culture

Impulse!
Release Date: May 20, 2022

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Black meditation
1 Black meditation  
2 Call it a European paradox  
3 Ital is vital  
4 Memories don’t live like people do  
5 Ritual awakening  
6 Explore inner space  
7 The dimension of subtle awareness  
8 Rebirth  
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Celebrated saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, debuts his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!).  Entirely written by Shabaka, the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.

Produced by Shabaka and frequent collaborator Dilip Harris, Afrikan Culture takes you on a sonically healing journey. Immersed in a sea of sound, diverse instruments that include the Shakuhachi (a Japanese end-blown flute), a Kora (a stringed instrument used extensively in West Africa), a Mbira (a “thumb piano” from Africa), and a music box envelopes the listener in a soothing sound that lingers on well past the last played note.

  • Shabaka set for Royal Festival Hall / UK JAZZNEWS
    Posted At: September 30, 2024 12:00 AM
    From UK JAZZNEWS……Shabaka, who will be at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 November, is “an emblematic artist for the age.” Phil Johnson writes….Much of the well-deserved attention for ‘Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace’, the debut solo album by Shabaka – the artist previously known as Shabaka Hutchings – was about his forsaking the earthy saxophone for the transcendental qualities of the flute. ...
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  • 'Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace' is all Shabaka. His flute tone suggests the human voice / Blogcritics
    Posted At: August 7, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Lo...
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  • If I lost this flute, it would be pretty tragic.' Shabaka, on his favourite instrument / The Guardian
    Posted At: June 2, 2024 12:00 AM
    From The Guardian's Kathryn Bromwich……….Shabaka on his shakuhachi: ‘The way it makes you feel is unsurpassed by any other instrument’A central figure of the London jazz scene, Shabaka Hutchings, 40, has been a member of bands including Shabaka and the Ancestors, and the Mercury-nominated Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming. He announced last year that he would no longer be playing the saxophone live. For ...
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  • Shabaka mesmerizes with new his sonic vision, at the Barbican / jazzwise
    Posted At: May 13, 2024 12:00 AM
    How best to describe an artist like Shabaka Hutchings? A starting point might be the basics: he’s a multi-reed player, composer and bandleader. More importantly, he’s an influential and multi-layered cultural instigator who helped kickstart a new generation of London music. He’s a phenomenal player; a next generation festival headliner who is surfacing and expressing some of the most exciting music on the p...
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  • Aquarium Drunkard - Transmissions chats with Shabaka / Talkhouse
    Posted At: May 1, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Hi...
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  • Shabaka: KCRW Guest DJ Set
    Posted At: April 29, 2024 12:00 AM
    Hosted by Novena Carmel KCRW writes….When you think of the current jazz landscape, chances are you’re thinking of something that connects to Shabaka Hutchings. The renowned saxophonist and band leader has historically shown a penchant for making maximalist epics with a vast cosmic reach — one of his most beloved projects is called The Comet is Coming, after all. Perhaps you witnessed his mastery of the...
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  • Shabaka - Percieve its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace deserves listening to again and again to unlock its secrets / UKJAZZNEWS
    Posted At: April 24, 2024 12:00 AM
    UK JAZZ NEWS - Phil Johnson writes….The vinyl edition of Shabaka Hutchings’ album is a thing of beauty. Thick cardboard gatefold sleeve, satisfyingly heavy platter, interesting art work, and that iconic orange Impulse! logo, familiar from LPs by John and Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders et al, and now owned by the Universal Music Group. There’s also a lot of information to unpack even before you get the reco...
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  • Shabaka - Breathe Open / 90.1WRTI
    Posted At: April 23, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Ov...
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  • Shabaka: 'This is the moment to make patient music' / 88.3WBGO
    Posted At: April 19, 2024 12:00 AM
    After putting down the saxophone, the instrument he has become synonymous with, Shabaka returns with his first full length album under his own name. Expanding off the meditative 2022 EP Afrikan Culture, his new album Perceive its beauty, Acknowledge its Grace is a deeply moving suite of primarily instrumental music.  The listening experience is reflective and contemplative, with passages flowering from...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings's switch to flutes, sparks new album: 'Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace' / jazzwise interview
    Posted At: April 18, 2024 12:00 AM
    Shabaka Hutchings interview: “You’ve gotta keep it moving with music, and that’s what typifies all the heroes of the music that I really respect”jazzwise - Kevin Le Gendre writes…..A large, chameleonic country stretching out across 3.5 million square miles, Brazil has a dizzying array of music drawn from African, Amerindian and European ancestries. As one might expect, there is an abundance of instruments t...
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  • Shabaka Q&A's with STEREOGUM about new album: 'Perceive its beauty, Acknowledge its Grace'
    Posted At: April 9, 2024 12:00 AM
    After putting down the saxophone, the instrument he has become synonymous with, Shabaka returns with his first full length album under his own name. Expanding off the meditative 2022 EP Afrikan Culture, his new album Perceive its beauty, Acknowledge its Grace is a deeply moving suite of primarily instrumental music.  The listening experience is reflective and contemplative, with passages flowering from...
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  • Shabaka - Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace makes JAZZIZ: 10 Albums You Need to Know for April 2024
    Posted At: April 4, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Ov...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings chats on NPR's 'Bullseye with Jesse Thorn'
    Posted At: April 1, 2024 12:00 AM
    London-born, Shabaka Hutchings spent much of his childhood in Barbados. Beginning at age nine, he studied the clarinet, playing in calypso bands while studying classical repertoire, often practicing over hip hop beats by artists such as Nas, as well as to the music native to Barbados. He imparted that at the time, “The idea of being a particular ‘type’ of musician who limited themselves by genre was to...
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  • Shabaka - 'Ill Do Whatever You Want' makes STEREOGUM's NEW MUSIC MARCH
    Posted At: March 21, 2024 12:00 AM
    The track Features André 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding, & LaraajiSTEREOGUM's TOM BREIHAN writes…The great London jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings has already played a key part in hugely consequential groups like Sons Of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming, and he’s now getting ready to release his first solo album. Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace comes out next month, and it features con...
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  • Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace makes Pitchfork's '50 Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2024'
    Posted At: March 19, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Lo...
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  • Shabaka - Percieve its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace makes NPR Music's 'Spring Preview'
    Posted At: March 12, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Lo...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings new single and video: 'End of Innocence' makes JAZZIZ - The Week in Jazz
    Posted At: March 11, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Lo...
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  • Inside the new UNCUT, Shabaka Hutchings explains to Sam Richards...'Its gonna be good, so just enjoy the ride'
    Posted At: March 4, 2024 12:00 AM
    UNCUT's Michael Bonner writes…..The UK jazz magus has retired his celebrated bands Sons Of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming – and even put aside his trusty saxophone – in order to seek out fresh creative inspiration. His quest takes him from a bamboo forest in Japan via the birthplace of A Love Supreme to a kids’ swimming pool in Croydon, where SHABAKA HUTCHINGS explains to Sam Richards, “It’s gonna be good, s...
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  • Shabaka's 'End Of Innocence' makes PASTE - This Week's Best New Songs
    Posted At: February 29, 2024 12:00 AM
    Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.Lo...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings announces new flute-led solo album 'Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace' / jazzwise
    Posted At: February 28, 2024 12:00 AM
    The leading light of the new wave of UK jazz unveils his highly anticipated jazz flute odyssey with a stellar cast of collaboratorsjazzwise - Mike Flynn writes……Shabaka Hutchings, the artist best known for his work as the incendiary sax player and band leader of celebrated groups Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, will release his new solo album, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, on 12 April v...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings will perform John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' in London / TREBLE
    Posted At: September 26, 2023 12:00 AM
    How best to describe an artist like Shabaka Hutchings? A starting point might be the basics: he’s a multi-reed player, composer and bandleader. More importantly, he’s an influential and multi-layered cultural instigator who helped kickstart a new generation of London music. He’s a phenomenal player; a next generation festival headliner who is surfacing and expressing some of the most exciting music on the p...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Shabaka Hutchings is meditative on 'Afrikan Culture' / relix
    Posted At: September 22, 2022 12:00 AM
    relix - Rudi Greenberg writes…For someone whose playing is often aggressive, propulsive and frenetic, London jazz bandleader Shabaka Hutchings is surprisingly restrained, even meditative, on his latest album, Afrikan Culture.“There’s a tempo and a pace in terms of how you make the musc, which is slower and more considered,” Hutchings says of Afrikan Culture, his first release under the name Shabaka. “The id...
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  • 'Afrikan Culture' is a sharp move, as Shabaka recalibrates his approach / Lament For A Straight Line
    Posted At: August 18, 2022 12:00 AM
    Celebrated saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, debuts his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!).  Entirely written by Shabaka, the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.Produced by Shabaka and frequent ...
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  • Shabaka - Afrikan Culture makes TREBLE'S '10 Great Albums You Might Have Missed from Spring 2022'
    Posted At: August 9, 2022 12:00 AM
    TREBLE STAFF writes…At the end of the year, Treble always runs a list of excellent albums that flew under the radar—albums you maybe didn’t get a chance to hear, and maybe we nearly missed them as well. But this year we’ve decided to do it quarterly, since there’s seemingly more and more amazing records that slip outside of the hype cycle. We began with our winter albums list, and now we’re offering a list ...
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  • Shabaka's debut solo outing is a shift towards the meditative, but still crackles with his signature energy / The Guardian
    Posted At: May 22, 2022 12:00 AM
    Shabaka: Afrikan Culture review – open-ended shimmerCelebrated saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, debuts his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!).  Entirely written by Shabaka, the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aura...
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  • With 'Black Meditation,' Shabaka Hutchings hints at the mood of his solo EP 'Afrikan Culture' / Louder Than War
    Posted At: May 17, 2022 12:00 AM
    Acclaimed saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, announces his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!), out on May 20th.   Entirely written by Shabaka the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.  The fir...
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  • Shabaka has revealed his new project: 'Afrikan Culture' / Jazz FM
    Posted At: May 16, 2022 12:00 AM
    Jazz FM's Alastair Steel writes….Acclaimed saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, has announced his first major-label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture, which will be released on the iconic Impulse! Released on 20 May 2022.Entirely written by Shabaka, the eight-track digital-only EP showcases him on various ...
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  • Shabaka Hutchings gets meditative / 88.3WBGO:Take Five
    Posted At: May 16, 2022 12:00 AM
    Acclaimed saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, announces his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!), out on May 20th.   Entirely written by Shabaka the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.  The fir...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Shabaka - Afrikan Culture makes JAZZIZ: The Week in Jazz
    Posted At: May 14, 2022 12:00 AM
    Acclaimed saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, announces his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!), out on May 20th.   Entirely written by Shabaka the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.  The fir...
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  • Shabaka announces new solo album - Afrikan Culture / CMU
    Posted At: May 6, 2022 12:00 AM
    Acclaimed saxophonist, philosopher, bandleader, and musician Shabaka Hutchings, now professionally known as Shabaka across all solo musical efforts, announces his first major label solo body of work, Afrikan Culture (impulse!), out on May 20th.   Entirely written by Shabaka the eight-track digital only EP showcases him on various wind instruments and focuses on the aural meditative space.  The fir...
    Bookmark and Share
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