Shabaka — the multi-instrumentalist and former bandleader for heralded groups such as Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka and the Ancestors — has shared a new single/visualizer for “I’ll Do Whatever You Want.”
The track will be featured on his forthcoming solo album Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, out April 12 via Impulse!.
Featuring Shabaka on the Shakuhachi — an ancient Japanese end-blown flute made of bamboo — the piece features vocals from Laraaji alongside contributions from André 3000 (Teotihuacan drone flute), Floating Points (Rhodes Chroma synthesizer, vibraphone), Esperanza Spalding (bass), Tom Herbert (bass), Dave Okumu (guitar), Marcus Gilmore (drums), and Carlos Niño (percussion).
“‘I’ll Do Whatever You Want’ is about surrender and the intimate space we go to within the grasp of possession,” said Shabaka of the track.
Additionally, Shabaka has announced a performance in Los Angeles at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Sunday, April 28. Tickets are on sale now. Shabaka previously announced a performance at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on Tuesday, April 23, and will be performing this weekend at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival.
Having put the saxophone down to devote his studies and energies towards softer woodwinds, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career.
It represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days. With contributions on the record from Moses Sumney, Brandee Younger, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, ELUCID, André 3000, Esperanza Spalding, Laraaji, Floating Points, and more, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace is a grand artistic statement from Shabaka, impossible to classify into genre, and bottomless in its exploratory curiosity.
Pre-order Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace.