Shabaka - Afrikan Culture (2023 US Impulse! Vinyl 12" Mini-Album)

A bold artistic statement from one of contemporary jazz's most visionary voices, Afrikan Culture marks Shabaka Hutchings' first release under his given name alone, stepping away from his celebrated groups Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka and the Ancestors. Released March 2023 on the legendary Impulse! label, this mini-album presents eight compositions that blend spiritual searching, political consciousness, and sonic innovation into a deeply personal meditation on Black culture, identity, and liberation.

Recorded across multiple London studios including Snap Studios, The Neve Church Studios, and mixed at The Crush by Dilip Harris (who also co-produced and recorded portions), Afrikan Culture showcases Hutchings' evolving musical vision. While best known as a saxophonist, clarinetist, and bass clarinetist, Hutchings arranged and composed all eight pieces here, creating sonic landscapes that range from meditative minimalism to explosive collective improvisation.

The album opens with "Black Meditation", immediately establishing the album's spiritual and political dimensions. Hutchings' concern with consciousness, interiority, and liberation through meditation aligns with a long tradition in Black music from Alice Coltrane to Sun Ra. "Call It A European Paradox" addresses the contradictions of European culture claiming universalism while perpetuating colonialism and racism, its title alone a provocative challenge.

"Ital Is Vital" references Rastafarian concepts of natural living and rejection of Babylon's systems, continuing the album's engagement with African diasporic spirituality and resistance. "Memories Don't Live Like People Do" takes its title from a Prince lyric, exploring how memory, history, and cultural transmission function differently than individual lives, carrying collective experience across generations.

Side two opens with "Ritual Awakening", suggesting music as ceremonial practice rather than mere performance. "Explore Inner Space" turns attention inward, the title evoking both meditation and the cosmic explorations of spiritual jazz pioneers. "The Dimension Of Subtle Awareness" continues this contemplative trajectory before the album closes with "Rebirth", offering hope and renewal after the journey through consciousness, critique, and searching.

Throughout, Hutchings demonstrates his gifts as arranger and conceptualist, not merely saxophonist. The personnel and specific instrumentation aren't detailed in the standard credits, but the album's sound suggests varied ensemble configurations and potentially overdubbed layers, with Hutchings' arranging vision tying disparate elements into coherent wholes.

This US pressing, manufactured by UMG Commercial Services and distributed through UMG, features lacquer cutting by JN-H at the renowned Sterling Sound facility. The standard black vinyl edition includes a 12-inch square insert with a portrait photograph by Gareth Jarvis on one side and full credits on the reverse. Ana Pryor's creative direction and design present the album with the visual sophistication befitting Impulse!'s legacy and Hutchings' artistic ambitions.

The release on Impulse!, the label of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and other spiritual jazz giants, carries symbolic weight. Hutchings explicitly positions himself within this lineage while addressing contemporary concerns about race, consciousness, and liberation in a global context marked by ongoing struggles against racism, colonialism, and capitalism.