Visionary South African pianist, composer, and healer Nduduzo Makhathini will release In the Spirit of Ntu, his milestone tenth studio album, his second album to be released on Blue Note Records in partnership with Universal Music Group Africa following Modes of Communication (which The New York Times named one of the \u201cBest Jazz Albums of 2020\u201d), and the very first release on the newly formed imprint Blue Note Africa.<\/p>\n
The album is introduced by the powerful lead single \u201cSenze\u2019 Nina\u201d which is available to stream or download now.<\/p>\n
Makhathini condenses the thematic, sonic, and conceptual notions explored over his catalog into a layered yet accessible 10-track album on In the Spirit of Ntu. \u201cI really felt this need to summarize everything I\u2019ve done this far and put it into \u2018some\u2019 context,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A central figure of the country\u2019s vibrant jazz scene, Makhathini assembled a band consisting of some of South Africa\u2019s most exciting young musicians including saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, trumpeter Robin Fassie Kock, vibraphonist Dylan Tabisher, bassist Stephen de Souza, percussionist Gontse Makhene, and drummer Dane Paris, as well as special guests including vocalists Omagugu and Anna Widauer, and American saxophonist Jaleel Shaw.<\/p>\n
Folding a range of concepts such as \u2018minor and major rhythms,\u2019 \u2018guided mobility,\u2019 \u2018active listening,\u2019 and \u2018ritualism\u2019 into the project, Makhathini draws on his background in Zulu traditions and intellectual curiosities to inform his engaging articulations. \u201cI\u2019m grappling with these cosmological ideas as a way of situating jazz in our context,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put out Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds using the letter as a metaphor for the sounds coming from the underworlds. Previously, I had released Listening to the Ground which encored into this idea of listening as knowing. In the Spirit of Ntu is living in that paradigm of listening to the things that emerge from the ground. Ntu is an ancient African philosophy from which the idea of Ubuntu stems out. Ubuntu says: \u2018I am because you are.\u2019 It is a deep invocation of collectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Senze\u2019Nina\u2019 is a meditation on renewal,\u201d explains Makhathini. \u201cWhile a similar phrase \u2018Senzenina?\u2019 (what have we done?) had been invoked to question the brutalities of apartheid South Africa \u2014 \u2018Senze\u2019Nina\u2019 could be read as a plea.<\/p>\n
The theme was born inside of the recent incidents of gender-based violence and witnessing our sisters, daughters, and mothers asking themselves the question: \u2018senzenina?\u2019 As I meditated on this question, I realized a different meaning. I read the word as a kind of hyphenated word with the first part \u2018senze\u2019 (make\/recreate us) and the second part \u2018nina\u2019 (referring to mothers, the makers and carriers).<\/p>\n
In this sense, I\u2019m putting forward an argument that it is us (men) that need to be recreated, there is a part of us that has died for us to cause so much harm. Thus, we need to go back to our essence (Ntu), the womb of a mother and be recreated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project was conceived at a difficult time in South Africa, a time of confusion and conflict,\u201d says Makhathini. \u201cIt was, once more, a period of burning fires, riots and massacres. In this sense, the music that I have composed is not surrounding these fires as a backdrop or soundtrack\u2014these sounds are part of the discourse. They project from the burning fires until the fires stop burning. What remains is what these sounds seek to restore. Ntu as a creative force that seeks to lead us to remember our essence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The South African musician\u2019s new album is the first release on the newly-formed imprint, Blue Note Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":5710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,16],"tags":[7,32,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-5713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"category-news","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-news"},"yoast_head":"\n