Shabaka and the Ancestors have announced their new album "We Are Sent Here By History"

Shabaka & the Ancestors announce new album "We Are Sent Here By History", it will be their debut on Impulse! Records. The album is out on 13 March.

Shabaka & The Ancestors will make their Impulse! debut with the band’s sophomore album "We Are Sent Here By History". Their breakout 2016 album, "Wisdom of Elders", established the band as a sudden force in spiritual jazz. Shabaka refers to the album as a “meditation on the fact of our coming extinction as a species. It is a reflection from the ruins, from the burning.” The album attempt to express the spiritual concerns of improvisational music of the African Diaspora — specifically, SA’s rich tradition of gospel melody, community outspokenness, and jazz power — in the context of today’s world. On the lead single “Go My Heart, Go To Heaven,” band's vocalist Siyabonga Mthembu pays homage to his father’s favorite South African church song.

Watch Shabaka & the Ancestors new single “Go My Heart, Go To Heaven" from the new album "We Are Sent Here By History" below:

Shabaka & The Ancestors was formed in 2016, when Shabaka had been flying to Johannesburg to play with trumpeter/bandleader Mandla Mlangeni. Mlangeni connected him to a group of South African jazz musicians that Hutchings admired. After several sessions, their first album "Wisdom of Elders" was made. This follow-up record reunites the group, who recorded again in Johannesburg and Cape Town last year (2019). This album is more urgent, more unrelenting, darker and energetic and presents a major social commentary in the context of ancient traditions. Shabaka explains this is “what happens after that point when life as we know it can’t continue.”

Listen to Shabaka & the Ancestors new single “Go My Heart, Go To Heaven" from the new album "We Are Sent Here By History" below: