After a decade of revitalising the London jazz scene with Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming and Shabaka and the Ancestors, Shabaka Hutchings has not only announced his temporary retirement from these bands, but also said he’s putting his main instrument, the saxophone, to the side for the time being. He learnt to play the ancient Japanese shakuhachi flute during the pandemic and is now back with his first solo album after an EP last year. »Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace« is a gentle, meditative and collaborative album full of spiritual energy and flutes—not only Japanese flutes, but also South American quenas, Mayan flutes from Teotihuacan and pifanos from Brazil. On the mostly instrumental pieces, with titles like lines of poetry, Shabaka sometimes acts more like a curator, coordinating the myriad musical guests, of whom Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Esperanza Spalding and Floating Points are just the most well known. There’s also room for another flutist, André 3000, as well as singers like Saul Williams, Moses Sumney, Laraaji and Lianne La Havas. Even his tenor saxophone makes a brief appearance on this extraordinary album, on which Shabaka changes his musical expression without losing any of his power and impact.
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