Shabaka

Shabaka plays The Castle & Falcon on Sunday 8 November, presented by Leftfoot. If you've followed the London jazz scene over the last decade, you'll know the name. He first came to prominence as a multi-instrumentalist and composer, playing with Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming, and Shabaka and the Ancestors — three very different bands that collectively put a huge stamp on the city's sound.

But this isn't the saxophone work you might be expecting. At the start of 2024, Shabaka announced a hiatus from the sax, and since then he's been composing for the various flutes he's studying. That's what you'll hear here: flute-led material rather than the brassy, high-energy sets of his earlier groups. He describes collaboration and the idea of developmental change as central to his practice, and says his live sets are constantly evolving, so the night will be shaped by what he's working on right now.

The venue is one of Birmingham's grass-roots rooms — a small-capacity space where the audience stands close to the stage and the bill changes every week. Leftfoot's booking defines a grass-roots gig as a UK show at an independent venue, typically capped under 600 capacity, by an artist not on a major-label arena tour, played in pubs, basement bars, indie clubs, community halls and small folk, jazz or punk festivals. The Castle & Falcon fits that description to a T.

Doors open at 19:00, and the night runs until 22:30. Tickets are £30.24, which includes the booking fee.