That level of trust and intuition between performers was extraordinary
“Shabaka & Friends” took to the stage at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall to offer an evening of experimental jazz that demanded patience and rewarded the audience’s engaged ears. The music asked the crowd to not simply hear, but to sit with its sound and to absorb the constant transformation as it unfolded in real time, writes Leo Dunlop.
Acclaimed British musician Shabaka, performing on an array of flute instruments, was joined by Sebastian Rochford on drums, Dudù Kouate on percussion, and Dan Nicholls on synths and piano. And each of these musicians possessed a different style, a clear silhouette – all distinct from one another. Yet together the quartet forged something greater than the sum of its parts, a kind of sonic alchemy taking place in front of the audiences eyes (and ears).
The concert was concerned as much with creation as it was performance: a lens into the musical process where the sound began to reveal itself not only to those sat watching but to the musicians themselves on stage.
What at times felt chaotic was always entirely within the musicians’ control. Witnessing that level of trust and intuition between performers was extraordinary. As someone who does not play much music, this communication feels almost alien, like watching people converse fluently in another language. Yet somehow that language was translated effortlessly to the audience.
The music evoked shifting landscapes and imagined worlds. At moments, it felt as though the quartet were improvising a film score to a movie unfolding inside the listener’s mind.
The result was immersive, meditative, and often beautiful; a reminder that music can create spaces for thought as much as entertainment.
This show was part of Harry Styles’ Meltdown.
