If jazz is looking to reinvent itself — or catch its breath and take stock of how much it already has in the past 10 years or so — the music of Shabaka and the Ancestors might be a good place to start.

A relatively recent partnership between the British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, 35, and a group of South African musicians from the same generation, the Ancestors’ music isn’t like any other jazz being played today — even in South Africa — but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a model. Their second album, “We Are Sent Here by History,” due Friday, seems to argue that by escaping any single context or outside expectation, a group can hit upon a kind of liberation that’s fresh enough to be useful.

“One thing that’s come up in our conversations, and has been transmitted into the narrative of the album, is the fact that we need to try to imagine what the future can hold idealistically,” Mr. Hutchings said from London in a phone interview. “We need to start articulating our utopias, articulating what needs to be burned and what needs to be saved.”