Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is A Reptile

Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is A Reptile

An London-based jazz outfit with heavy African and Carribean influences, Sons of Kemet play joyful, celebratory, emphatically danceable music built for tearing down the walls of white patriarchy. Each song is dedicated, by title, to power Black women leaders, thinkers and liberators (one of whom is bandleader Shabaka Hutchings’ great grandmother). Most of the songs are instrumental, but the vocals first two tracks make the band’s intentions clear: The music is unquestionably jubilant, but it is also pledged in service to a greater cause, and the fierceness and the power of this music is palpable even in the most festive numbers. Musically the core is avant-jazz but reggae, funk, African folk traditions, grime and modern dance music all join in the fun. Highlights: “My Queen Is Ada Eastman,” “My Queen Is Angela Davis,” “My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu”

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Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

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