Shabaka & the Ancestors—We Are Sent Here By History/Vinyl Me Please Edition

2020 is shaping up to be a fine year for humanity to collectively ponder our mortality as a species. The global coronavirus pandemic, climate change, violent political unrest, accelerating wealth inequality and—for those of us in California—good old fashioned wildfires foreshadow how the end might come about. But what would the end times sound like? Shabaka & The Ancestors have the answer. On their epic double LP We Are Sent Here By History, Shabaka Hutchings, leading his octet of South Africa based musicians, channels the tradition of the african griot to narrate the extinction of the human race from a future perspective. Heavy, right?

Within the universe of jazz, We Are Sent Here By History is a momentous record released with appropriately high expectations. After all, it is the most ambitious record yet from the biggest name in the most exciting jazz scene in the world. Shabaka Hutchings, and his global collective of three groups, The Ancestors, Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, are the de facto torchbearers of the fertile South London jazz scene.

Together they have the unique ability to create music that is unequivocally ‘jazz’ yet connects with young, diverse audiences in a visceral way. Indeed, mosh pits have been reported to occur at their shows. Their talent, combined with the powerful and timely thematic content of We Are Sent Here By History, give the record the rare potential to reach beyond the sphere of jazz and inject itself permanently into the mainstream consciousness. 

In 2018 Hutchings found quite a suitable home for all three of his groups on the re-launched Impulse! label. His groups are essentially the flagship artists for Impulse! making We Are Sent Here By History a key release from a commercial perspective. I’ve been streaming the album since its widespread release in March and it was a no-brainer to spring for a limited edition pressing of 1000 by Vinyl Me, Please (VMP). 

Shabaka Hutchings. Photo: Michelle Helena Janssen/Crack Magazine

Let’s start with the obvious: this is an ambitious record. It certainly isn’t a bunch of guys laying down a clever theme and taking turns soloing. As expected, there are some advanced arrangements here, perhaps approaching Mingus-level. Spellbinding melodies evolve into headbanging frantic grooves and fade into spaced out explorations with plenty of vocals and bass solos. 

One characteristic of all Hutching’s records that instantly stands out are the unique rhythms, and there is no exception here. An accurate description is beyond the reach of my technical knowledge but I do hear the commonly mentioned connection to rhythms of SoCa music (Soul/Calypso). To my ears, these rhythms are so fresh that when Hutchings adds even a subtle melody on saxophone it's like a whole new language.

There are a wide range of tones from Hutchings on saxophone, all supremely expressive but the playing of the rest of musicians do the arrangements justice as well. The showstopper, though, is Ariel Zamonsky on bass. His aggressive lines are the musical backbone carrying humanity toward extinction. 

The opening track, ‘Those Who Must Die’ lays the groundwork for the ensuing four sides of mystic revelation with a heady jam which opens up for The Ancestors to declare ‘We are sent here by history’ so we can all brace ourselves. 

A personal highlight, ‘Go My Heart, Go to Heaven’ begins with a relentless bass line followed by a breathy and intoxicating saxophone melody from Hutchings. Strangely, at the onset the sax melody briefly recalls the eerily sweet sound of Ernie Watts on Charlie Haden’s Quartet West. Quickly though the band descends into a hard, almost dubby groove.

The all too brief ‘Beasts Too Spoke Spoke of Suffering’ is about the freest jam on the album. It begins with some Ornette Coleman-style barely controlled chaos but quickly rolls into a chanting mantra like thousands of fireflies synchronizing their flashing lights in the jungle. How the band can sound so decidedly zoological is truly impressive.   

This is a great record for evaluating a hi-fi system because of the diversity of material it contains: all kinds of vocals, acoustic instruments, some fun Rhodes piano, dense passages, and also some thinned out sections to explore a system's sense of realism.

My streaming service of choice, AmazonHD, offers the album in 24-bit high resolution. On my modest system the mix sounds a bit dense at low volume but more detail becomes apparent when I crank the volume a bit. This is more a reflection of my systems capabilities than the recording quality. 

The standard vinyl release of We Are Sent Here By History is widely available online for around $22 and the VMP pressing is available at premium but inoffensive price of $39. The VMP product is physically quite nice. The matte gatefold jacket is attractive and the translucent Impulse! orange vinyl looks perfect. The vinyl is standard weight, but to be fair, that was clearly specified on the product webpage. My only complaint is with the paper inner sleeves; a premium pressing should come with poly or poly lined inner sleeves. 

The sound of the vinyl has more realism but less detail than the high resolution stream on my system. Soundstage is more expansive if less finely drawn than the digital stream. The true highlight of the vinyl sound is Zamonsky’s bass. I don’t know if it sounds exactly the way it did in the studio but it is perhaps the most exciting acoustic bass I’ve heard on vinyl. It has a convincingly realistic woody character that is supremely satisfying. The tone, the volume and the location of the bass in the mix enable it to effectively drive the music forward. 

Even if the standard version sounds as good as the VMP pressing, the Impulse! orange vinyl is a brilliant product decision that tips the scale in favor of the premium pressing. I say that even though I typically prefer black vinyl. For serious Shabaka fans or collectors the VMP version should be essential. 

We Are Sent Here By History is a well executed whale of a record from Shabaka & The Ancestors. It lives up to the high standard they established as forward thinking leaders in jazz and it is destined to be a classic. Can we be redeemed? Should the human race be saved? Spinning this record as I watch California burn from my hilltop windows I can’t help thinking: if the apocalypse sounds this good, maybe it’s time.