Label: Blue Note Records, 2026

Personnel - Nduduzo Makhathini: piano, vocals, vocoder, synth; Dalisu Ndlazi: double bass; Lukmil Perez: drums + Guests - Robin Fassie: trumpet (#1); Shabaka: flute (#5); Omagugu: vocals (#6,14); Ayanda Sikade: drums (#7,16); Muneyi: vocals (#9,11); Keenan Ahrends: guitar (#10); Black Coffee; drum programming (#14); Thando Zide: vocals (#12).

South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini returns with The Myths We Choose, an album whose music advocates for a better world and greater responsibility toward the future. Working with his South African trio at the core, Makhathini invites a number of relevant guests for a program comprising thirteen original compositions (three of them with reprises). Here, he explores new sounds and genres, with several tracks signaling a shift in mindset while retaining the rooted spirituality that has become his trademark signature.

“Kuzodlula”, a soaring 3/4 ballad inspired by the difficulty of forgiveness, opens the album with a delicate compromise between light and dark tones. Resonant bowed bass turning to pizzicato, Makhathini’s chordal sequences and vocals, understated drumming, and the sultry trumpet work of Robin Fassie form the framework. “Imvunge KaNtu”, a tribute to roots and ancestral wisdom, is deeply ritualistic, encompassing asymmetrical odd-metered fluxes, handclaps, and vocals in praise of the Zulu Kingdom and the murmuring spirit of Ntu.

As a healer, moonscape practitioner, and steward of state-of-the-art Afro-jazz, Makhathini delivers “Liyoze Line Nangakithi” with spiritual transcendence, engaging in lucid improvisational passages while interacting with the digressive, serpentine flute of Shabaka. The piece concludes with incantatory chants over subtle percussive patterns, calling for rain and the immaterial. It pairs beautifully with “Ekuqaleni”, a methodical exercise in five packed with invigorating energy, where Makhathini employs the vocoder to impart a contemporary feel.

Three vocalists are featured on the album: Makhathini’s wife and longtime collaborator Onogugu on the English-language, gently grooving “What People Say”; Thando Zide on the neo-soul-tinged “Tethered”; and Muneyi on the beautiful “Linwalo Ia Mubebi”, a tribute to fatherly love sung in the Tshivenda language. There is also a particularly interesting reprise of “What People Say”, featuring the club/dance spin of DJ Black Coffee.

“Primordial Egg” unfolds in rubato fashion, providing a comfortable sonic cushion for drummer Ayanda Sikade’s cymbal mastery; “Kwamability”, a duet with bassist Dalisu Ndlazi, is a nocturnal meditation with vulnerable lyricism dedicated to Zulu shaman Credo Muthwa; and “Unembeza” evokes the folk sensibilities of Abdullah Ibrahim in a profound and tightly articulated manner.

Makhathini takes myth as a point of departure and delivers a varied, blissfully melodic experience rich in character and atmosphere. This is an album that continues to reveal itself, captivating more deeply as it progresses.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Imvunge KaNtu ► 05 - Liyoze Line Nangakithi ► 08 - Ekuqaleni ► 09 - Linwalo Ia Mubebi

Label: Blue Note Records, 2022

Personnel - Nduduzo Makhathini: piano; Linda Sikhakhane: saxophone; Robin Fassie Kock: trumpet; Dylan Tabisher: vibraphone; Stephen de Souza: bass; Gontse Makhene: percussion; Dane Paris: drums.
Guests - Omagugu: vocals (#2); Anna Widauer: vocals (#6); Jaleel Shaw: alto saxophone (#5).

There’s an abundance of fascinating material in Nduduzo Makhathini’s new recording, In the Spirit of Ntu. The distinguished South African pianist and composer has been releasing excellent albums, touting a blend of mature post-bop and deeply rooted African jazz currents that transfixes as much as marvels. For his 10th album as a leader, he draws inspiration in Ntu, an ancient African philosophy centered on collectiveness, and gathers a killing group to back him on another rewarding spiritual journey.

Makhathini infuses an impetuous and majestic Afro-centric pulse on the opener, “Unonkanyamba”. The laid-back posture of the horn players against this rhythmic verve creates an infectious polyrhythmic feel. Gliding atop the texture, the soloists succeed one another. The confident tenorist Linda Sikhakhane is followed by Makhatini, whose taste in the note choices is both disconcerting and beautiful, and then by trumpeter Robin Fassie Kock, who invites us to search while posing as narratively sober. “Amathongo” is motivated by Zulu traditions, a component that is not so strange if we take into consideration that the bandleader’s hometown was a Zulu kingdom. The bass figure that drives the piece is renewed at every 16-beat cycle, having a shimmering stream of percussion echoing throughout.

Guest vocalists Omagugu (Nduduzo’s wife) and Anna Widauer shine on “Mama” and “Re-Amathambo”, respectively. The former tune is a resplendent intersection of cool modal jazz and African spiritual balladry delivered with a three time flow; while the latter, a rework of a tune originally included on his 2018 album Ikhambi, is sung in English by the abovementioned Austrian singer and revolves around a twinkling modal vamp and chanting riffery.

Powerful choir-like chants and darkly hued tenor sounds populate “Senze Nina”, a prayerful ballad in five that is intended as a meditation on the renewal of a South Africa marked by the violence of apartheid and gender-related hostility. Also painted with darker shades, “Nyonini Le” nods to Zulu princess Magogo kaDinuzulu and Monk’s music alike, whereas “Emlilweni”, a modal effort in six, guests American saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, whose fluid post-bop idiom with plenty of outside contractions dominates the spotlight.

Makhathini marvels, daubing his music in color and rhythm, liveliness and poignancy, spirituality and emotion. In the Spirit of Ntu is not to be missed.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Mama ► 05 - Emlilweni ► 09 - Senze Nina