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Mar 16, 2020 Web Exclusive By Michael Watkins

To anyone that has been following jazz, and in particular British jazz, over the last few years, the name Shabaka Hutchings will not be new to you. He is, after all, perhaps the busiest working artist in the genre at present. His breakthrough release as part of Sons of Kemet came in 2018 on the glorious Your Queen is a Reptile, a record that remains the best in his back catalogue. Returning to another band of his, The Comet Is Coming, he released Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery to similar acclaim last year.

Back with yet another different outfit, this time Shabaka and the Ancestors—reprising the moniker under which he released 2016’s Wisdom of Elders—he has released We Are Sent Here By History, a brooding, space-age jazz tour de force that hangs over its listener like an omnipresent guiding force as opposed to the tight snap and sparkle of those two aforementioned releases.

Due to the slower and more spaced out nature of this album, any concept intended to be found within it isn’t quite as crisp as we have come to expect from Hutchings-led projects. We Are Sent Here By History is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable and well-executed assortment of tracks that will perhaps get better the more they are listened to. (www.shabakahutchings.com/ancestors/)

Author rating: 7/10