Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings rose to prominence in the UK jazz scene in the 2010s as a member of not one but three groups: Shabaka and the Ancestors, The Comet is Coming and Sons of Kemet. Shabaka and the Ancestors is an African/spiritual jazz hybrid which documents his collaboration with South African musicians. The Comet is Coming meshes Shabaka’s sax playing with more modern, improvisational sounds provided by a live drummer and keyboardist, almost melding dance music/electronica with spiritual jazz. Sons of Kemet, my personal favorite, is a dynamic, frenetic Afro-Caribbean jazz juggernaut consisting of Shabaka, two drummers and a tuba player.
All three groups were on smaller, independent British labels which put Shabaka on the radar of legendary jazz imprint Impulse Records (John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, etc.), who proceeded to sign all three groups as well as Shabaka as a solo artist. Impulse proceeded to release multiple records by each group (and one as a solo artist) from 2018 to 2022, adeptly showcasing Shabaka’s immense talent and catapulting him into the public eye, garnishing international praise and recognition.
In 2022, he announced that Sons of Kemet was breaking up but released a solo album, Afrikan Culture. Afrikan Culture was a left turn, with no saxophone but almost all flutes and African instruments, as referenced in my previous post: https://refractingsound.substack.com/p/record-store-day-yay-or-nay In 2023, he announced that Comet is Coming was disbanding as well, explaining that he was taking a hiatus from saxophone due to the physical and emotional strain that came from playing the instrument on tour.
One of my jazz friends hipped me to the Kofi Flexxx project “Flowers in the Dark” on Shabaka Hutchings’ label, Native Rebel. There isn’t much info on the outside cover, just a picture of someone (Shabaka?) wearing a primitive-looking mask and no info about who is playing or what they’re playing other than the guest vocalists. Judging by the info on the inside of the record, Hutchings is listed as producer and “creative principle”, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he lended some instrumentation and/or songwriting to this, as there are elements here that sound like his previous projects denoted above.
Shabaka leads a four piece band (Drums, bass, piano, flute), creating fairly diverse musical backdrops for the six guest vocalists across the nine track album. Kofi Flexxx sounds like ⅓ classic 90s era hip hop with the standup bass work and vocal contributions, ⅓ the Afro-Caribbean rhythms Shabaka experimented with in Sons of Kemet and ⅓ Britain’s “ranting poet” scene of the 1980s. An early track on the record, ”It Was All a Dream” crashes with a Sons of Kemet rhythm… in fact, the whole track sounds like it could’ve been off the last SOK album, “Black To the Future”.
Most of Shabaka’s material with his past three groups was primarily instrumental, but the occasional forays into vocals garnished varying results. With Kofi Flexx, the vocalists/rappers aren’t the strength as none of them have the grit of Raekwon, the flow of Nas or even the avant-garde weirdness of El-P. Some of the tracks seem to feel like dark, gritty, independent hip hop, like brief freestyles or interludes on a 1990s/2000s underground rap release but, in the context of this album, they leave you wondering why they were included. Fortunately, “Flowers in the Dark” makes a stark upswing in the final third, where it really hits it’s stride.
“Babylon Dun Topple” is an ominous, tribal instrumental, rife with unease, until it descends into fluttering flute passages. “Increase Awareness” might be the best track, a rolling spiritual journey with haunting vocals by Indian artist Ganavya. “Aim” is a quieter moment with piano and vocals, later punctured by throbbing bass and flutes and building to a crescendo. The closer instrumental “Fire” offers a stark, melodic contemplative coda to the album.
“Flowers in the Dark” comes across like a curated compilation or project, but uneven and perhaps a bit unfocused compared to Hutchings’ previous output. I admire that Hutchings is doing what he wants musically and it’s interesting that Kofi Flexxx makes a not-so-commercial group like Sons of Kemet actually sound a little commercial. I’m not sure if the Kofi Flexxx project will continue but I’m curious to hear where he will take this.
Kofi Flexxx “Flowers in the Dark” is available on 2LP from Bandcamp.