A journey of inspiration, transcendent and transfixing.
Shabaka took to the stage in the Barbican hall alongside two harpists (Alina Bzhezhinska and Miriam Adefris), a pianist (Elliott Galvin) and a keyboard player (Hinako Omori), standing centrally alongside a table covered in a myriad of flutes. Bathed in red light, he began a set which undulated, ululated, ebbed and flowed to leave the sold-out audience rapt, mesmerised.
Exploring material from his new album, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, which came out a month ago, Shabaka played a number of different flutes ranging from the distinctive breathy sound of the shakuhachi to the Andean quena and traditional six-hole pifano. A recurring seven-note motif was woven across the different textures, with the two harps, synthesisers, and grand piano choosing their moments to accompany them, filling out harmonies and countermelodies.
Although the music performed had something of a new age meditation about it, the vibrancy of Shabaka’s playing and the urgency of his staccato intonations kept it from descending into merely a pleasant wash of sound. At the crescendo point of the set overall, featuring a guest appearance from guitarist Dave Okumu, Shabaka laid down the flutes entirely, conducting affairs with auxiliary percussion. As he shook two sets of bells, his exuberance caused one to escape his grasp and fly a short distance. No matter, though, as a shaker took its place.
A soft, contrasting moment came in form of the evening’s only vocal performance by guest singer Eska, singing a tightly interleaved duet with Shabaka’s flute. It felt as though it had finished almost as soon as it had begun, a brief excursion into a world of words.
Having undertaken to learn the shakuhachi, Shabaka said towards the end of the concert, had been a humbling experience, but a privilege. That he decided to lay down the saxophone after garnering such a following with it seems to have come as something of a surprise to him, not just his audience. But tonight showed that his distinct musical voice is not limited to the timbre and tone of the saxophone, but can expand to take in the fluttering breaths of the flute. His expression and inspiration are all the richer for it.
