Shabaka Hutchings

Shabaka Hutchings (b 1984) is one of the most eclectic and musically adventurous instrumentalists on the London jazz scene. He is motivated by the aesthetics governing musical styles (especially jazz and contemporary classical music) and how these relate to improvisation, the treatment and movement of sound, and the essential purpose or meanings behind the will to create. His conceptualisation of the creative process has made Hutchings equally at home performing a broad array of styles whilst retaining a unique voice within them.
Born in England and raised in Barbados, he completed an undergraduate degree in classical clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music in 2007. There he studied principally under Joy Farrall and Andrew Webster but also received jazz tuition from Tim Garland and Jean Toussaint.
Highly regarded as a jazz soloist, Hutchings has performed with many new and established groups including Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Jack Dejohnette, Polar Bear and Red Snapper. He has recorded with Courtney Pine, Mulatu Astatke/The Heliocentrics and Soweto Kinch, among others.
Hutchings is involved with London's thriving free improvising scene and is a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra. He has also performed in small groups with Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Butcher and Louis Moholo, and has his own trio with John Edwards (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums).
His other main project is Zed-U, with Tom Skinner (drums/electronics) and Neil Charles (electric bass/electronics) whose debut album Night-time on the Middle Passage was released on Babel Records in 2009.
'Shabaka is a veritable cauldron of creativity . an emerging Brit-jazz star if ever there was one' Jazzwise
'A towering figure both physically and musically' Time Out
'A jazz all-rounder … equally at home delivering a highlight moment on Guy Barker's Big Band Britannia as he is with the decidedly left-field London Improvisers Orchestra' Financial Times