Nduduzo Makhathini signs to Blue Note Records

Legendary Blue Note Records sign South African Jazz maestro.

Weshe weshe, Dintshang?

Ke dintho!!!

The S.A. Jazz scene has been recently lit up by a multi talented musician who has the whole world up in awe at the sounds of his amazing riddims as Rasta-mahn would say about

producer and acclaimed pianist "Nduduzo Makhatini".

The maestro after a show in Basel.

His name rang a bell from all the Sunday radio shows like sis Brenda Sisane's which I was introduced to by my partner.

 I ddnt even know what exactly the legend did or who he was beginning of 2019 till my fiance roped me in on one of her nights out to the market theatre to witness some Jazz music by the a certain musician she so dearly adores.

Needles to say, like everyone else I have come to converse with in the wonderful space of African spiritual Jazz, was left in astonishment of the profoundness of the artists ability to tap others into higher level dimensions of consciousness because that is one of my own aims in writing these HeArticles, social media posts and or HipHop RAP (Rhythm Applied Poetry) music.

"Man oh man" my breath was taken away by how the new Blue Note Signee could do this without vocals only instruments, proud to say "even I am now a huge fan".

"When the Gods play"

Below is a press release from his team with all contact information at the end.

PRESS RELEASE

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 2020.

Nduduzo Makhathini is the first South African to sign to American Jazz Label, Blue Note Records.

Makhathini has released the album’s lead track “Yehlisan’uMoya” (Spirit Come Down) which is available now 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 Nduduzo’s wife 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.

Nduduzo Makhathini grew up in the lush and rugged hillscapes of umGungundlovu in 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 kingdom between 1828 and 1840. It’s important to note that the Zulu, in fact the African warrior code, is deeply reliant on music 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 including 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 3-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 including Logan Richardson, Nasheet Waits, Tarus Mateen, Stefon Harris, Billy Harper, Azar Lawrence, and Ernest Dawkins.

NduduzoMakhathini’s show at the Untitled Basement on Thursday night was a cause for celebration, a ritual and a summoning of ancestral wisdom. Flanked by his usual cast of magicians - Ayanda Sikade (drums), Linda Sikhakhane (tenor saxophone), Ndabo Zulu (trumpet), Kagiso Ramela (saxophone), Nhlanhla Radebe (bass) and Gontse Makhene (percussion) - the improviser and composer gently guided the nighttime musical cruise ship for close to two hours, breaking briefly to address the audience to connect, to come back to earth, as it were.

Omagugu Makhathini, whose vocals floated in and out of the technical and spiritual masterpiece, added a depth to the bandstand that transcended mysticism, time and space. Her searing interventions ensured that the music sashayed beautifully in interstellar orbits. Makhathini presented songs picked from his impressive catalogue, with eight albums thus far, he threw in cuts from his forthcoming ninth album in that galactic mix. ‘Modes of communication’ were stretched to their absolute limits and fed back to an audience that showed its appreciation by cheering merrily at every opportunity. 

One was left in awe of the technical proficiency on display; nothing was left unsaid, and everything was in plain sight for all to see. As he shared towards the end of the spiritual trip: “We are fellow seekers. We seek every day -- in our lives, in music. It’s such a beautiful thing that we co-create the very existence that we want to see [realized] around us. This kind of approach, this sharing, spills over into our lives [too]”.

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 (SAMA) in 2018. 

His Blue Note debut, Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds will be released in 2020.

Follow Nduduzo Makhathini:

Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

(Article written and edited by A.P Mogotsi except for press release)