The visionary South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini is set to release his Blue Note Records debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds in April 2020. The American jazz record label, founded in 1939, is the recording stable where celebrated stars like John Coltrane, Dianne Reeves, Norah Jones and Anita Baker made their mark – and Makhathini is the first-ever South African artist signed to Blue Note Records. Listen to his single ‘Yehlisan’uMoya’ below:
Nduduzo Makhathini grew up in the lush and rugged hillscapes of umGungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a peri-urban landscape in which music and ritual practices were symbiotically linked. The area is significant historically as the site of the Zulu King Dingane’s kingdom between 1828 and 1840. It’s also important to note the significance of music in Zulu traditions, where it is used for motivation and healing. This deeply embedded symbiosis is key to understanding Makhathini’s vision.
The church also played a role in Makhathini’s musical understanding, as he hopped from church to church in his younger days in search of only the music. The legends of South African jazz are deep influences as well, in particular, Bheki Mseleku, Moses Molelekwa, and Abdullah Ibrahim. ‘The earlier musicians put a lot of emotions in the music they played,’ he says. ‘I think it may also be linked to the political climate of those days. I also feel there is a uniqueness about South African jazz that created an interest all around the world and we are slowly losing that too in our music today. I personally feel that our generation has to be very conscious about retaining these nuances in the music we play today.’
Through his mentor Mseleku, Makhathini was also introduced to the music of John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner. ‘I came to understand my voice as a pianist through John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme,’ he says. ‘As someone who started playing jazz very late, I had always been looking for a kind of playing that could mirror or evoke the way my people danced, sung, and spoke. Tyner provided that and still does in meaningful ways.’ Makhathini also cites American jazz pianists Andrew Hill, Randy Weston and Don Pullen as significant influences.
Active as an educator and researcher, Makhathini is the head of the music department at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape. He has performed at renowned festivals including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the Essence Festival (in both New Orleans and South Africa), and in 2019 made his debut appearances at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center where he was a featured guest with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on their three-night musical celebration The South African Songbook in Rose Theater. He is a member of Shabaka Hutchings’ band Shabaka and the Ancestors, appearing on their 2016 album Wisdom of Elders, and has also collaborated with artists like Logan Richardson, Nasheet Waits, Tarus Mateen, Stefon Harris, Billy Harper, Azar Lawrence and Ernest Dawkins.
In addition to producing albums for his peers (such as Thandiswa Mazwai’s Belede and Tumi Mogorosi’s Project Elo), Makhathini has released eight albums of his own since 2014, when he founded the label Gundu Entertainment in partnership with his wife and vocalist Omagugu Makhathini. Those albums earned him multiple awards and include Sketches of Tomorrow (2014), Mother Tongue (2014), Listening to the Ground (2015), Matunda Ya Kwanza (2015), Icilongo: The African Peace Suite (2016), Inner Dimensions (2016), and Reflections (2016). His 2017 album Ikhambi was the first to be released on Universal Music South Africa and won Best Jazz Album at the South African Music Awards in 2018. His Blue Note debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds will be released in April 2020.
Makhathini has released the album’s lead track ‘Yehlisan’uMoya’ (Spirit Come Down) which is now available to stream or download. The song represents a search for the light of the ancestral realms and an acknowledgement of a parallel existence between a world we see and those unseen. ‘Yehlisan’uMoya’ features impassioned vocals by Omagugu Makhathini and a band that includes alto saxophonist Logan Richardson, tenor saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, trumpeter Ndabo Zulu, bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere, drummer Ayanda Sikade, and percussionist Gontse Makhene.
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