Well seen Shabaka a few times, always very impressed with his bass clarinet, but this was a revelation. Maybe all bands with 2 drummers are awesome (pace Nils Petter Molvaer and Khmer) but here we had 2 drummers, a tuba, and Shabaka. Wow! They are called The Sons of Kemet.

Of course it helps if one of the drummers is Seb Rochford, already a legend on the modern London Jazz scene with Acoustic Ladyland and the other, Tom Skinner, is highly experienced with Matthew Herbert. Meanwhile Oren Marshall is a tuba player to compete with the legendary Bob Stewart of Arthur Blythe‘s Lenox Avenue Breakdown – who was actually the last tuba player I saw really holding down the bass seat. But wait, the best was yet to come, since at several points there were 7 Tuba players, which as you can imagine was awesome!

So in one overpowering sax moment (probably a version of Beware, from the yet to be released album) Shabaka went from the broken melody of Ornette to the wails of Coltrane, finishing on some bass notes from Hamiet Bluiett. Just on a Tenor, I believe. There is a remarkable sense of melody to his improvisations as he weaves like a snake and then chirrups like a bird, entrancing the listener. In the background there is a pulsating double drummer tuba rhythm shaking the foundations and at the front Britain’s new jazz master. I couldn’t ask for more.

The Finale was with the 7 tubas (alumni of Oren) which swept us away on a crazy wave, followed by an improvised Rivers of Babylon with the tubas requested to drone an E Flat. Awesome!

All happened at The Forge, 3-7 Delancey Street, London, NW1 7NL

Photos taken on iPhone 5, next time I hope to use a proper camera…

UPDATE : Saw Shabaka at the great Boat-Ting and took some proper photos