Sons Of Kemet

Sons Of Kemet Was A British Jazz Group Formed In 2011 By Shabaka Hutchings Oren Marshall Seb Rochford And Tom Skinner. Theon Cross Replaced Marshall On Tuba After The First Album And Eddie Hick Replaced Rochford On Drums After The Third. The Band Disbanded In 2022. The Group Used Saxophone And Clarinet Hutchings Tuba Cross And Two Drummers Skinner & Rochford Or Hick To Make Their Music And Played A Mixture Of Jazz Rock Caribbean Folk And African Music. The Band Released Four Albums During Its Lifetime And Won Best Jazz Act At The 2013 MOBO Awards. These Collaborative Players Have Previously Won Major Praise In Celebrated Acts Such As Polar Bear Hello Skinny Melt Yourself Down Mulatu Astatke And The Heliocentrics And Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Yet There’s Still Nothing Quite Like The ‘supergroup’ Sound Of Sons Of Kemet Eloquent Fierce Explosively Funky – And Thrillingly Out-There. ‘I See Sons Of Kemet As A Group That’s Free To Explore Even More Areas ’ Smiles The Genial 31-Year-Old Hutchings. ‘The Music Is Driven By The Band’s Synergy But It Could Go Anywhere And We’ve Played Everywhere From Sit-Down Art Venues To Sweaty Nightclubs And International Festivals We’re Not Forced Into One Direction. We Can Let Our Musicality Take On A Life Of Its Own. When We Play Live We Know What The End Result Is Everyone In Hysteria. But How We Get There Is Anyone’s Guess.’ Originally Formed In May 2011 Sons Of Kemet Had Already Forged A Rep For Incendiary Live Sets By The Time Their Debut Album Burn Was Released In September 2013. That Assured Collection Inspired Passionate Props Across The Board From DJ/music Connoisseur Gilles Peterson Who Included Burn In His Worldwide Awards Shortlist To The Arts Desk Who Pronounced It Album Of The Year ITunes Best Of Jazz And The Quietus. The Band Also Scooped The MOBO Best Jazz Trophy That Year Which Remains One Of Hutchings’s Proudest Achievements ‘It Felt Like Lots And Lots Of Work Had Actually Paid Off ’ He Says Adding Wryly ‘Actually I See Burn As Quite A Restrained Album.’ Hutchings Regards Sons Of Kemet’s Hotly Anticipated Second Album Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do As A Vivid Continuation Of Their Debut Work’s Themes Rather Than A Complete Departure. He Also Describes The Latest Collection As ‘a Meditation On The Caribbean Diaspora In Britain’. ‘The Realisation Dawned After I’d Started Writing These Tunes ’ He Explains. ‘I Was Thinking Of My Grandmother’s Generation From The Caribbean Who Came Here To Work Incredibly Hard And Also What It Means To Be A Black Person In Britain Now Especially A Generation Of Youth Experiencing High Unemployment And Those Elements Of Society Who Are Not Always Easy To See.’ A Pivotal Track On Lest We Forget… Is The ‘earthy And Ceremonial’ Afrofuturism Which Takes The Band’s Explorations Of Caribbean Roots Into New Realms ‘The Bass Rhythm On That Track Is Based On A Traditional Barbadian Style Called Tuk With A Bass And Snare Drum It’s Similar To Fife Music From New Orleans But There Are Also Links To West African Roots And Western Military Band Music. Barbados Is Quite A Small Island And Before The Emancipation Of Slaves There Was Nowhere For People To Privately Retain African Cultural Traits Or Beliefs – So They Were Finding Ways To Keep Those Elements In “acceptable” Forms Of Music. I Think It Could Be A Caribbean Thing To Express Something With Deep Meaning About Society That Might Come From Having Experienced Trauma Within A Form That Might Feel Quite Light-Hearted. You Get The Same Thing In Calypso Music.’ The Expansive Roots Of Lest We Forget… Also Reflect Hutchings’s Personal History. ‘I Do See This As My Baby ’ He Admits. He Was Raised In Birmingham But Spent His Years Between The Ages Of 6 And 16 In Barbados Where He First Picked Up An Instrument – In His School’s Recorder Group Aged 9. ‘I Was Quite Staid ’ He Laughs. ‘I Thought I Was Going To Be In An Orchestra It Was All About Classical And Calypso Bands For Me. When I Was In The Caribbean Kids My Age Saw Jazz As Music For Old People Or Rich People.’ That Perspective Shifted Radically Back In Birmingham When Hutchings Befriended Alto-Sax And MC Talent Soweto Kinch At The Latter’s Weekly Live Jam Sessions. ‘It Was Incredible To Hear Jazz Being Played Live And Mixed With Hip Hop By Someone Who Was Close To Me And Cool ’ He Recalls. Hutchings Began To Delve Into The Jazz Music Catalogue At Birmingham Library While Constantly Sharpening His Own Skills Winning A Place To Study Clarinet And Then Saxophone At London’s Prestigious Guildhall School Of Music And Drama. Just As Burn Blazed Through Unpredictable Atmospheres And Effects Hutchings Incorporates Far-Reaching Influences On Lest We Forget… These Range From His Relationship With Classical Concepts Mo’ Wiser To Literary Inspirations On Tracks Such As In The Castle Of My Skin Named After Barbadian Author George Lamming’s 1953 Novel About Post-Colonial Identity And The Long Night Of Octavia Butler In Homage To The Award-Winning African-American Sci-Fi Writer. ‘When I Read Books I Love They Kind Of Put A Trance Over Me And Octavia Butler Particularly Has That Effect ’ Says Hutchings. ‘I Was Thinking About Her 1998 Novel Parable Of The Talents It Presents A Futuristic Vision That Is Just Close Enough To Normality To Make You Unsettled.’ Meanwhile The Album’s Exceptionally Resonant Opening Track Reflects An Unsettling Modern Reality In Memory Of Samir Awad Was Written To Commemorate A Palestinian Teen Killed By Israeli Forces As He Fled Their Gunfire In 2013. ‘We’re Trying To Immortalise An Everyday Youth And An Occurrence That Is Everyday In That Region Of The World And To Say That It Is Significant ’ Says Huchings. ‘I Wanted An Intensity That Continued Throughout The Piece. It’s A Taut Existence And The Low Notes Symbolise The Bombings Or Eruptions In “normal” Life Under Occupation.’ The Album’s Overall ‘restless And Trancey’ Energy Is Definitely A Collective Achievement And Hutchings Is Full Of Enthusiasm For His Bandmates’ Powerful And Intuitive Dynamics. ‘All Of The Other Members Are Composers Of Music In Their Own Right And I Think That’s Really Important ’ He Says. ‘I Can Give Them The Bare Roots And They’re Thinking About The Balance How The Grand Structure Of The Piece Hangs. Everyone’s Focused And I Can Dig Into My Own Role.’ Sons Of Kemet Have Seeped This Latest Material Into Their Irrepressible Live Sets Over The Past Year And A Half. Now It Comes Into Its Own As Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do – And The Possibilities Are Still Exhilarating ‘On Some Level Our Duty Is To Give The Audience What They Want ’ Says Hutchings. ‘On Another It’s To Prise Open Those Expectations And Put Something Else In There – And On Another Level It’s To Forget All Of That And Just Create Euphoria.’
Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do Is Released On Naim Jazz The Band Disbanded In 2022 Following Their Live Shows That Year. read less