Watch Sons of Kemet Recorded Live at Big Ears Festival
"Jazz built for arenas." A friend and former rock critic shared this admiring assessment of Sons of Kemet, after seeing the band for the first time at this year's Big Ears Festival. There's obviously truth in it: Over the last eight years, Sons of Kemet has not only fueled the fires of a raging London jazz scene; it has also scaled up the pyrotechnics, in strictly musical terms.
With Shabaka Hutchings on tenor saxophone, Theon Cross on tuba, and Nache Edward and Tom Skinner on drums, it's a hardy combustion engine that also feels like a breathing organism. Arenas, sure, but this is also jazz built for street parties. And certain proudly eclectic fests.
At Big Ears in Knoxville, Tenn., Sons of Kemet brought its exultant blend of carnival rhythm, club abandon and jazz improv to a midnight show that packed The Mill & Mine, a cavernous room that once housed the Industrial Belting and Supply Company. The set drew from a knockout recent album, Your Queen Is a Reptile, but with a spirit of freedom in the moment - whatever setting you think suits it best, it's music made for a perpetual now. -- NATE CHINEN
This concert was recorded at The Mill & Mine on March 24, 2019, as part of the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn.
SET LIST
0:44 - "My Queen is Ada Eastman"
6:01 - "My Queen is Angela Davis"
21:26 - "The Itis"
26:43 - "Breadfruit"
33:12 - "Mo' Wiser"
40:53 - "My Queen is Harriet Tubman"
47:32 - "My Queen is Mamie Phipps Clark"
57:11 - "Inner Babylon"
01:01:16 - "My Queen is Berta Cáceres"
01:10:48 - "My Queen is Albertina Sisulu"
01:15:32 - "Afrofuturism"
MUSICIANS
Shabaka Hutchings (saxophone)
Theon Cross (tuba)
Tom Skinner (drums)
Eddie Hicks (drums)
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