Founded in 2011, Sons of Kemet is one of Britain's most exciting jazz formations. They ingeniously combine Caribbean, West African and Middle Eastern music with the energy of rock, and won the Best Jazz Act award with their debut album at the MOBO Awards (Music Of Black Origin), while both of their albums to date (Burn, 2013; Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do, 2015) made it onto Gilles Peterson's Album of the Year lists.
The band members of Barbadian origin are led by the saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Shabaka Hutchings, who was born in London in 1984 and previously played with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Courtney Pine, and Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics. Shabaka got his name from a Nubian pharoah, and his band is named after an ancient word for Egypt, Kemet, which means "the black land”. Sons of Kemet is nonetheless a modern band to the core and reflects the latest topics and impulses, in which the fiery saxophone themes are accompanied by the bombastic tuba of Theon Cross and a pair of drummers: Tom Skinner, a founding member of the rhythm section, and Eddie Hick, who replaced Seb Rochford earlier this year while working with a host of other line-ups, sharing the stage with - along with jazz and Afrobeat acts - singer/pianist Alicia Keys and the singer, songwriter and producer Mark Ronson.

In the Festival Theatre, Shabaka Hutchings and his bandmates will also play tracks from their long-awaited third album, due for release in early 2018.



Presented by: Müpa Budapest