Through his expansive solo work—and landmark projects including Sons of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors, and The Comet Is Coming—Shabaka Hutchings is widely regarded as one of the UK’s most influential musicians and a defining figure in contemporary British culture. Over the past decade, he has fundamentally reshaped global perceptions of British jazz and experimental music, moving fluidly between jazz, electronic, spiritual, and diasporic traditions while opening new pathways for creative music worldwide.

Born in London, Shabaka first earned international acclaim as a saxophonist before taking an indefinite hiatus from the instrument to focus on the flute—an evolution crystallized on his acclaimed solo debut Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. The album features an extraordinary circle of collaborators, including Carlos Niño, Esperanza Spalding, Saul Williams, Lianne La Havas, and fellow flute explorer André 3000. Reviewing the release, Pitchfork wrote that Shabaka had “remade his music from the ground up… The incarnation may be new, but the music’s underlying spirit, its animating force, is very much the same.”

Shabaka’s next chapter arrives with the announcement of his new solo album Of The Earth, to be released March 6, 2026 via the newly formed Shabaka Records. Ars Nova Workshop is thrilled to present this moment of transition and renewal—two performances that promise to be immersive, exploratory, and deeply attuned to the spirit of becoming that defines Shabaka’s work.