Last week's New Master was London's Shabaka Hutchings and his band The Comet Is Coming. This week's New Master is Shabaka again, but this time for his band Sons of Kemet. Consisting of sax, tuba and tandem drums, Sons of Kemet became one of 2018’s breakout bands, and their third album, Your Queen is a Reptile, made the end-of-year lists on many music sites. Sons of Kemet add chunks of Caribbean influence and hip-hop to horn-and-drum marches as rich as the best of New Orleans, taking modern jazz into new directions.
But here's the exciting part - we're going to get to see Shabaka next month! Sons of Kemet will be playing at The Mill & Mine in Knoxville, Tennessee at midnight on Saturday, March 24 as a part of the Big Ears Festival. This will be after a performance by the legendary Harold Budd at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, about a mile away, and if we've timed it right, we can stop in at the Tennessee Theater on the way between those two venues to catch the end of Nils Frahm's set.
But wait, there's more! On March 22, before the Sons show, The Comet Is Coming will also play The Mill & Mine. We should be excited about that, but at the same time, as a part of the festival's ECM showcase, the legendary jazz guitarist Ralph Towner will be playing at St. John's. That's unfortunate - we've never seen Towner perform live but we'll choose the new over the old, and besides, logistics: before The Comet Is Coming, we'll be watching Alien Flower Sutra at The Standard, which is much closer to The Mill & Mine than to St. John's, and after The Comet we're going to have to hump it over to the Bijou Theater to see Evan Parker's trio with Paul Lytton and Alexander von Schlippenbach. Busy day, and sorry Ralph.
And who knows? With free time over the rest of the festival, Shabaka will be free to drop in for guest spots throughout the festival, which includes many other like-minded musicians, some of whom he's recorded with and some of whom he hasn't. It should be interesting.
But here's the exciting part - we're going to get to see Shabaka next month! Sons of Kemet will be playing at The Mill & Mine in Knoxville, Tennessee at midnight on Saturday, March 24 as a part of the Big Ears Festival. This will be after a performance by the legendary Harold Budd at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, about a mile away, and if we've timed it right, we can stop in at the Tennessee Theater on the way between those two venues to catch the end of Nils Frahm's set.
But wait, there's more! On March 22, before the Sons show, The Comet Is Coming will also play The Mill & Mine. We should be excited about that, but at the same time, as a part of the festival's ECM showcase, the legendary jazz guitarist Ralph Towner will be playing at St. John's. That's unfortunate - we've never seen Towner perform live but we'll choose the new over the old, and besides, logistics: before The Comet Is Coming, we'll be watching Alien Flower Sutra at The Standard, which is much closer to The Mill & Mine than to St. John's, and after The Comet we're going to have to hump it over to the Bijou Theater to see Evan Parker's trio with Paul Lytton and Alexander von Schlippenbach. Busy day, and sorry Ralph.
And who knows? With free time over the rest of the festival, Shabaka will be free to drop in for guest spots throughout the festival, which includes many other like-minded musicians, some of whom he's recorded with and some of whom he hasn't. It should be interesting.
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