The adventurous London jazz trio the Comet Is Coming have been around for a decade, and they released Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, their third album, last year. In May, the group announced plans to break up: “We will return when the stars align and the planet needs us.” Bandleader Shabaka Hutchings says that he’s “taking a hiatus” from the saxophone, his instrument, after this year. The Comet Is Coming were planning to play one more show tonight at the Bratislava Jazz Days festival in Slovakia. They have now cancelled that show as a gesture of support for Palestine.

For the past two weeks, as you are almost certainly aware, there have been massive global protests against Israel’s gruesome and bloodthirsty attacks on civilians in Gaza. Yesterday, organizations like Jewish Voice For Peace called for a one-day global strike in solidarity with the people of Palestine. In observance of that strike, the Comet Is Coming have cancelled their farewell show. In a statement, the band writes:

We have decided to cancel our concert tonight in Bratislava. We stand in solidarity with the global call to strike by our Palestinian brothers and sister who are in the midst of a genocidal assault.

This was to be our final show. Our last statement is a call for immediate ceasefire, an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and routine violence against the Palestinian people.