{"id":2305,"date":"2021-12-24T01:02:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T06:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2022-01-31T20:57:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T01:57:54","slug":"2305","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/index.php\/2021\/12\/24\/2305\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit’s Son’s Of Kemet Win BEST JAZZ ACT at the 2021 MOBO Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The MOBO Awards \u2013 which celebrates Black music and culture \u2013 have announced their 2021 winners. This year\u2019s victors included Cleo Sol, who picked up best \u2018R&B\/Soul Act\u2019, and the Shabaka Hutchings-led Son’s of Kemet won \u2018Best Jazz Act\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sons of Kemet are a British jazz group formed by Shabaka Hutchings, Oren Marshall, Seb Rochford, and Tom Skinner, the quartet founded by Shabaka Hutchings, and boasts a somewhat unorthodox lineup\u2014saxophone, tuba, and two drummers\u2014but for Saxman Hutchings it\u2019s a natural arrangement. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen it as unconventional,\u201d he says of the group\u2019s instrumentation. \u201cIt\u2019s just been that I wanted to play with those two drummers. In some ways it was split between a desire to play with the two individuals and also a desire to take away the function of the drums as being the thing that provides the rhythm. When you\u2019ve got two drummers they converse with each other. It takes the onus off any one particular drummer to provide the beat, because there\u2019s going to be a forward momentum just from them expressing together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in London, Hutchings moved to Birmingham at age two, then relocated to Barbados at six, remaining there til he was 16 (after which he returned to England). He began to play clarinet in the school band, and the calypso and soca music of Barbados\u2019 Carnival not only provided Hutching\u2019s first musical memories but informs Sons of Kemet\u2019s kinetic intensity. \u201cEveryone comes out on the street and it\u2019s a massive party,\u201d says Hutchings of Carnival, \u201cand in some ways that\u2019s the core feeling that we\u2019re trying to get in Sons of Kemet. As someone from the Caribbean diaspora imagining that feeling, how I remember that feeling as a youngster, I want everyone in the room being so connected to that jubilant feeling of really just enjoying the celebration of music. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to get with the performances, the situation where every single person in that room can feel this energy that brings us all together. And once we are together, for me that\u2019s when the transcendence can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Son’s Of Kemet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his teens, Hutchings was obsessed with reggae and hip-hop, especially Tupac, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and E-40, and still practices by playing his saxophone along to rap albums like the Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s Ready To Die. \u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do a lot of times on the saxophone is provide that role of the MC, not from a narrative perspective but from the perspective of someone trying to provide this rhythmic relentlessness,\u201d says Hutchings. \u201cWhen I step on the stage in Sons of Kemet I\u2019m not trying to be Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane, I\u2019m trying to be someone like Capleton or Anthony B or Sizzla, in terms of just the energy that I\u2019m coming up with: That\u2019s who I want to be. My core vocabulary is jazz, but I\u2019m not trying to have the energy of someone in a suit standing stationary in front of a microphone giving a nice round sound, I\u2019m trying to just spit out fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in his young 30’s, Hutchings first began garnering attention as a member of Melt Yourself Down, the \u201cNubian party punk\u201d band led by fellow saxophonist Pete Wareham. Sons of Kemet (\u201cKemet\u201d being the pronunciation of the ancient name of Egypt) marked his first group as a bandleader, and 2013\u2019s Burn and 2015\u2019s Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do, both released by the UK label Naim Jazz, received significant acclaim, including a nod from influential DJ Gillles Peterson. Sons of Kemet\u2019s new album, Your Queen Is a Reptile, their first record for Impulse!, is the band\u2019s most fully realized creation yet, powered by Hutchings\u2019 blazing, incendiary saxophone, Theon Cross\u2019 tuba blasts, which sound like funky bass lines, and the high-octane interplay between multiple drummers (a revolving cast that includes Tom Skinner, Seb Rochford, and Eddie Hick).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For 25 years, the MOBO Awards has remained a significant cultural event in the British music industry, celebrating excellence in Black music. Its enduring legacy as the premiere outlet for recognizing and honoring the artistic achievement of exceptional British and international talent in Hip-Hop, Grime, R&B and Soul, Reggae, Jazz, Gospel and African music has been unparalleled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While jazz can tend to be obsessed with its past, Hutchings\u2019 music is distinctly and defiantly forward- (and outward-)looking, which he feels owes a great deal to its makers\u2019 Britishness. \u201cI guess that\u2019s an aspect of being a part of a musical diaspora,\u201d says Hutchings. \u201cNot being from the place that jazz is born from means that I don\u2019t feel any ultimate reverence to it. It\u2019s just about finding ways of reinterpreting how we\u2019re thinking about the music, re-envisioning it, just like completely decontextualizing it and saying it\u2019s up for grabs. For me, the history of jazz is a perspective. Obviously some perspectives may be worth more than others because the perspective of someone who came up in the land where it was formulated may have more weight than someone who just views it from outside, but it\u2019s still just a perspective. Life is just a series of perspectives, and if we can sometimes trust the perspectives of others, to me then that\u2019s where the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Complete Listing of MOBO Awards 2021 winners were as follows<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALBUM OF THE YEAR<\/strong> \u2013 DAVE \u201cWE\u2019RE ALL ALONE IN THIS TOGETHER\u201d
BEST FEMALE ACT IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND<\/strong> \u2013 LITTLE SIMZ
BEST MALE ACT<\/strong> \u2013 GHETTS
BEST NEWCOMER IN ASSOCIATION WITH ASOS<\/strong> \u2013 CENTRAL CEE
SONG OF THE YEAR IN ASSOCIATION WITH COVENTRY BUILDING SOCIETY ARENA<\/strong> -TION WAYNE & RUSS MILLIONS FEAT. ARRDEE, BUGZY MALONE, BUNI, DARKOO, E1 (3X3), FIVIO FOREIGN & ZT (3X3)<\/strong> \u2013 \u2018BODY (REMIX)\u2019
VIDEO OF THE YEAR \u2013 M1LLIONZ<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cLAGGA\u201d (DIRECTED BY TEEEEZY C)
BEST GRIME ACT<\/strong> \u2013 SKEPTA
BEST R&B\/SOUL ACT<\/strong> \u2013 CLEO SOL
BEST HIP HOP ACT<\/strong> \u2013 D. BLOCK EUROPE
BEST DRILL ACT IN ASSOCIATION WITH TRENCH<\/strong> \u2013 CENTRAL CEE
BEST INTERNATIONAL ACT<\/strong> \u2013 WIZKID
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A TV SHOW\/FILM<\/strong> \u2013 MICHEAL WARD AS FRANKLYN IN \u2018SMALL AXE\u2019
BEST MEDIA PERSONALITY<\/strong> \u2013 CHUNKZ & YUNG FILLY
BEST GOSPEL ACT IN ASSOCIATION WITH PREMIER GOSPEL<\/strong> \u2013 GUVNA B
BEST AFRICAN MUSIC ACT IN ASSOCIATION WITH AFROZONS WITH SHEILA O<\/strong> \u2013 WIZKID
BEST REGGAE ACT<\/strong> \u2013 SHENSEEA
BEST JAZZ ACT IN ASSOCIATION WITH BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC<\/strong> \u2013 SONS OF KEMET
BEST PRODUCER IN ASSOCIATION WITH COMPLEX UK<\/strong> \u2013 JAE5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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