Jazz maestro, Shabaka Hutchings took up the clarinet from age nine, playing in calypso bands while studying classical repertoire, and often practising over hip hop beats and music native to Barbados, where he spent much of his childhood.

Since then, Shabaka has collaborated with a range of luminaries including Mulatu Astatke, Andre 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento. He’s also composed pieces for the BBC Concert Orchestra and London Sinfonietta.

Over the past decade, the focus of SHABAKA's touring and recorded work has been with three bands: Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka and the Ancestors, which have seen him explore Afro-Caribbean fusions, London dance music club culture and South African jazz.

SHABAKA's first solo album Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace sees the British jazz lynchpin putting down his saxophone to devote his energies toward the flute for a questing, mediative journey. The show will highlight his new album and a broader musical scope and a captivating body of work that places SHABAKA's mastery of global flutes at the forefront. Combining his flute work with the talents of creative improvisers (including two harpists), experience SHABAKA weaving together a rich, textural world that is both beautiful and serene.

Switched On