Listen: Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble live session at BBC Radio 6

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Fiftieth anniversaries call for spectacular celebrations, and that is what Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble are embarking on this year. To commemorate half a century of continuously shifting gears and tempos in the jazz-blues continuum, the band is embarking on a new world tour. Before they do so, they visited the BBC Maida Vale studios for a cosmic live session for BBC Radio 6 with Gilles Peterson, featuring tributes to Sun Ra and Miles Davis.

Last March, the ensemble led by percussionist and composer Kahil El’Zabar released their new album Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit as a joyous honoring of new directions. It’s a visionary journey into deep roots and future routes, channeling traditions old and new. It mixes El’Zabar’s original compositions with timeless classics by Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, and Eugene McDaniels.

A collage of two photos. In one, thee people are posing for a portrait while looking into the camera. On the other one, a percussionist is displayed during a performance while sweat droplets seem to be flying off him.

“Though [‘Open Me’] celebrates 50 years of his first band, it also unpacks the evolution of Black music through the lens of hypnotic soul. ‘All Blues’ reimagines the Miles Davis classic by paring down the horn section and giving it a walking drum line to actually sound like the blues. ‘The Whole World,’ a gospel standard, is modernized through rhythmic funk-adjacent drums and looping horns by the trumpeter Corey Wilkes and the saxophonist Alex Harding. Where Les McCann and Eddie Harris’s ‘Compared to What’ is a grand affair with soaring piano chords and lively vocals, El’Zabar’s version is quiet and introspective, the sound of a man softly taking stock of modern-day America.” —The New York Times

Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble perform at Le Guess Who? 2024 on Thursday, 7 November. Also performing at the festival are a.o. Meshell Ndegeocello, aja monet, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis and many more.