Sons Of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Sons Of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:29 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Impulse!

For his début on the label impulse!, Shabaka Hutchings is performing with Sons Of Kemet, the group which probably resembles him the most. A prestigious orange and black label, at one time very politically engaged: it seems impulse! and Hutchings were meant for each other. “So many of my musical heroes including John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders have been housed under this record label, it’s an honour to join the family.”, the star said of the blossoming contemporary British jazz scene…

The brilliant saxophonist is turning out project and pieces one after another, (Sun Ra Arkestra, Heliocentrics, Anthony Joseph, Floating Points) and is voraciously working his way through bands: The Comet Is Coming, Melt Yourself Down, Shabaka And The Ancestors, and now Sons Of Kemet, which have been going since 2011. Born in London in 1984, Hutchings spent his youth in Barbados where he studied classical clarinet before playing in calypso and reggae groups, later to be joined by Soweto Kinch, who plays here with co-conspirators Theon Cross on tuba and two drummers, Tom Skinner and Eddie Hick. His quartet’s atypical jazz pays little heed to stylistic boundaries as it celebrates the way that they Caribbean diaspora in the UK constantly explores its identity. Recorded in London with guests like Jungle legend Congo Natty or poet Joshua Idehen, this third album from Sons Of Kemet is also a manifesto denouncing what Hutchings and his friends call the injustice of the British monarchy, an oppressive political system that they say underpins social inequalities and racial discrimination. Rejecting the unequal system embodied by the Queen of England, they propose an alternative, celebrating other Queens. “Our Queens walked among us. Our Queens led by action, by example, our Queens listened. Our Queens made bright futures out of cruel and unfair pasts.” Every composition on the album pays homage to a different queen: My Queen is Ada Eastman, My Queen is Harriet Tubman, My Queen is Angela Davis, My Queen is Yaa Asantewaa.

Tracklist:
1-01. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Ada Eastman (06:41)
1-02. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Mamie Phipps Clark (05:31)
1-03. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Harriet Tubman (05:40)
1-04. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Anna Julia Cooper (05:06)
1-05. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Angela Davis (06:35)
1-06. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Nanny Of The Maroons (06:43)
1-07. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Yaa Asantewaa (07:04)
1-08. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu (05:19)
1-09. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Doreen Lawrence (06:47)

Personnel:
Shabaka Hutchings, saxophone
Pete Wareham, saxophone (track 4)
Nubya Garcia, saxophone (track 7)
Theon Cross, tuba
Tom Skinner, drums
Seb Rochford, drums (tracks 1, 2, 4-6, 8, 9)
Moses Boyd, drums (tracks 3, 7, 8)
Eddie Hick, drums (tracks 3, 7)
Maxwell Hallett, drums (track 9)
Josh Idehen, vocals (tracks 1, 9)
Congo Natty, vocals (track 2)

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