Jazz linchpin Shabaka Hutchings is known for being the saxophonist with acclaimed groups such as The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet. But he has evolved into a mystical multi-instrumentalist, ambitious producer and visionary solo artist beyond the confines of genre or form, collaborating with everyone from hip-hop heavyweight André 3000 to ambient pioneer Laraaji. Two years ago, he stepped away from his sax and took up the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute usually mastered by monks, which he used on his first two solo albums. He’s back this month with a third, Of the Earth – now going by just his first name, like Madonna – where he returns to the saxophone and the clarinet he grew up playing in Barbados, alongside adventures in rapping, making dancehall beats and mixing everything himself.

No one really knows this guy outside of the Caribbean, but he’s one of the greatest artists. It’s not like a load of his artworks come up when you type his name into Google, which is quite shocking. But I got this book of his artwork, Revelations … Cogitative Dimensions [from an exhibition of the same name], from one of the greatest bookshops in the world, Black Rock Books in Barbados. It’s a magical place, like something out of a storybook, which stocks a lot of rare journals and periodicals from around the Caribbean. I guess the easiest term to describe LeRoy Clarke’s art would be Afrofuturist. I don’t use the word lightly, but if I try to think of a definition of Afrofuturism, it’s work that takes an idea of the past and wraps it in a poetry that allows it to seem futuristic. And that’s what I get when I see his work: it looks so futuristic but it also goes back to ancient African traditions of painting.

F.D Signifier does videos about a lot of Black racial issues, a lot of hip-hop and just general pop culture, but he takes this deep, sociological stance. The videos are normally long and incredibly well-researched – he’s got a four-hour Tyler Perry video, or he’ll do things like “Sinners and the Death of Black Art”. It feels like you’re speaking to your intelligent uncle. [I listen to it] late at night and I’m washing the dishes, or brushing my teeth. If I don’t feel like listening to music, especially if I’m in the midst of making an album, I’ll put on podcasts while walking around or being on trains or other transport. It’s a good way of having someone talk to you.

I saw this as a one-minute clip on Instagram and it was so good that I went straight to YouTube for the whole thing. It’s these little dudes from Ghana who are making this kind of highlife-inspired brass – they’re a brass band. This video just reminded me of the energy that I used to be around when I was in school in Barbados. There’s something special that happens when groups of teenagers are into music and really enjoying the music that they’re playing. That’s what music is about, for me. I had it on loop for an hour while I was going about my business – I don’t have that reaction to music a lot. 

I’m in Morocco right now and I’m observing Ramadan. I’ve tried it before but I gave up after five days, whereas this time, being in a place where everyone is doing it around you makes you feel this solidarity. Everyone’s going through the same struggle – and there’s this joy of reuniting with food when everyone gets ready to eat in the evenings.

I read poems all the time, but this one really affected me – about why we’re doing art, the function of art and actually, in some ways, the futility of art at a point where people are dying, genocides are happening, and the world is going crazy. It doesn’t try to offer solutions. It’s not telling you that there’s more appropriate art to be done. It’s just letting you know that your art, and the lofty ideals of art, or even the sentimental detachment that art can afford, is within a context of its opposite. I found this poem on Instagram – it’s interesting that you get out of [Instagram] what you put in, depending on what way you go. It’s like the sea: there’s tranquil parts, there’s beautiful parts, there’s the rough, dirty, polluted parts. You can drown in it or end up being washed away. But occasionally, you might discover a pearl.

Of the Earth is out on 6 March and Shabaka performs at Village Underground , London EC2 on 7 April. He is nominated for “Instrumentalist of the Year” at this year’s Jazz FM Awards.

Interview by Kate Hutchinson