Shabaka Hutchings, or just plain SHABAKA is the UK-based saxophonist and clarinetist, band leader, and jazz fusion music innovator who has shown he is neither inert nor sedentary. Without irony, he released two new works in 2024, which signaled a transformative transition into the realm of quiet and “not being tense.” In late 2024, Shabaka released his new EP Possession on Impulse! Records with new and very relaxed energy (I confess that I hadn’t been on top of this until now).

Possession reveals a significant artistic sea change as Shabaka has placed aside his saxophone and its relatively upbeat, whirlwind, punctuating style to settle into a more mellow and reflective genre. Centered around various manifestations of the flute of other traditional East Asian and Native American cultures, a more relaxed sound which I can only describe as “new age” explorations with more quiet, meditative sensibilities. Possession is also an interesting collaboration with several other artists, many of whom I was not familiar with.

1. “Timepieces” featuring Billy Woods of the underground hip-hop scene. Probably meant to be both soothing and confident, after several seconds into the piece, Woods starts, “Been fifteen years since the decision, I don't think about it much, never regretted it once...” Does this refer to Shabaka’s musical shift?

2. “I’ve Been Listening” featuring Elucid, another American hip-hop artist whom I was not familiar with. With a background of fluctuating flutes and harps, and Esperanza Spalding’s bass provides a solidified heartbeat, Elucid’s husky declarations that “I’ve been listening...” and “I can feel it all over...”

3. “To The Moon” featuring André 3000. I thought... space travel? Naw. With Shabka on Shakuhachi, it's a pleasant cacophony of overlapping flutes and guitar -- creating a slow and then brisk walk through a soundful rainforest with the André 3000 on a drone flute. Interesting. (See my “distractive side note” below.)

4. “Cycles of Growth” featuring Esperanza Spalding who has been on the jazz scene as a bassist and vocalist. Not needing lyrics, Spalding vocalizes calls on top of Shabaka’s thrusting sonics from his flute.

5. “Reaching Back Towards Eternity” featuring Nduduzo Makhathini, a South African jazz pianist. The piano music is minimalist with Shabaka on clarinet with a soothing yet droning backdrop.


It is discovered (by me) that since 2023, Shabaka has been transitioning away from the saxophone and has taken up flutes in various configurations. In that transition, the Afrocentric Shabaka has retired from his previous bands like “The Sons of Kemet”, “Shabaka and the Ancestors”, and “The Comet Is Coming”, and has entered a world in solo performance and collaborations grounded in flute-centered music that is worlds away from his driving saxophone sonics which often concentrates intense urgency through its chaotic blaring screams (Sons of Kemet, the Comet Is Coming).

Possession has created ambient mood-changer blending spoken word, rap, and Shabaka’s flute-driven compositions. Stepping into new territory, Shabaka had shared in an interview that learning new instruments such as the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) was a challenge to master. We will find it delightful that he has assimilated flutes masterfully in this EP and opening new territory.
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Distractive side note: In regards to André 3000, he is from the hip-hop Outkast fame. Recall he was the actor who played Dabu, the (hilarious) itchy-fingered gun-toting gangsta who was second fiddle to Cedric the Entertainer’s Sin Lasalle, the no-nonsense music producer, in 2005’s Be Cool!