Interview: Umgidi – celebrating – award winning jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini talks about his 2022 South African Heritage Month concerts in the Cape

Nduduzo Makhathini – 2022 thanksgiving concerts in the Cape, South Africa

~ Friday September 16, 8pm, Fismer Hall, Konservatorium Stellenbosch University
A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi
Featuring: Mbuso Khoza (vocals and poetry) backed by top Cape jazz musicians, including Justin Bellairs (saxophone), Stephen de Souza (double bass) and Dane Paris on drums
Booking link: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/177470-a-thanksgiving-ritual-umgidi-nduduzo-

~  Saturday September, 17, 7pm, The Blue Room, Grub and Vine, Bree Street, Cape Town
Nduduzo Makhathini -In the Spirit of Ntu
Featuring: Mbuso Khoza (vocals, poetry), Justin Bellairs (saxophone), Dane Paris (drums), Stephen de Souza (bass)
Booking link: https://www.grubandvine.co.za/events/artist-line-up-september/

~  Sunday September, 18, 8pm, The Olympia Bakery, Kalk Bay
Nduduzo Makhathini -In the Spirit of Ntu – presented by Slow Life and Likwezi Arts
Featuring: Mbuso Khoza (vocals, poetry), Justin Bellairs (saxophone), Dane Paris (drums), Stephen de Souza (bass)
Booking link: https://qkt.io/IoGS46

After captivating audiences on a tour of the USA and Europe [2022], South African jazz pianist, Nduduzo Makhathini, is performing in a series of celebratory and thanksgiving concerts in the Cape, during September, Heritage Month, South Africa. The internationally acclaimed pianist and academic, is elated to have the opportunity to commune once again in his home country and perform in a spread of venues, across the Cape- Stellenbosch, Cape CBD and Kalk Bay. There are two concerts, being presented on the tour: A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi and Nduduzo Makhathini -In the Spirit of Ntu.

A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi, is taking place in Stellenbosch on Friday September 16 and is in partial fulfilment of Makhathini’s Integrated PhD in Music, which he is doing at Stellenbosch University. In the Spirit of Ntu references Makhathini’s album, of the same name, released this year [2022] by Blue Note Records and is being presented at two venues -September 17 in The Blue Room, Cape Town CBD and on September 18- at the Olympia Café, Kalk Bay.  Nduduzo Makhathini in conversation with TheCapeRobyn:

Umgidi – thanksgiving concert

Your Heritage Month SA 2022 conc­ert tour starts on Sept­ember 16, with: Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi. This concert is in partial fulfilment of your Integrated PhD in Music, Stellenbo­sch University?

Nduduzo Makhathini: “This is an important moment for me taking place in uMandulo (September) regarded as the beginning on the African calendar. This celebration (umgidi) is part of honouring the being that is situated in unique worldviews and time concepts here in Africa. In this sense, writing happens within this cosmic alignment and I felt a need to be thankful -for everything.”

Healing at a cosmic level through music


There is a lot of des­pair at the moment- South Africa and glo­bally. Your thoughts on heal­ing through communing with others in mus­ic?

Nduduzo Makhathini:I think healing at a cosmic level and this feeling of despair is partly due to a lack of fundamental principles of being such as ‘care’. Thus, our approaches to healing also need to take seriously the issues of balance in the world. There is enough space for everyone but we have to start by acknowledging the very existence of beings, environment, time, space and all spirit beings as a network that functions from a collective core.”

Connecting with audiences abroad


This year 2022- has been a busy for you – with international touring. You were in France – at Marseille Jazz. You posted on Facebook: “It was beyond words, there is no langua­ge for the beyond ex­cept the experience of ‘being’ in that moment. Watch frame two ‘Omanyama’ even the birds started sin­ging with us — an in­vitation to whole….​” That was July 2022. Over 230 000 attended the festival. You spe­ak about “the importance of a community -in the fo­rm of a large ensemb­le with an audience- in music-making as a collective process­.” I can imagine what it was like in Fra­nce, to have this cr­owd, connecting with you?

Nduduzo Makhathini: “The orientation for music making, has always been communal for me. Sound is a spiritual form of holding hands. That’s the feeling I get when I’m on the road, I get reminded of our likeliness. There is a deep sense of belonging that is share that is much higher that cultural, geographical or even racial lines. Sound reaches that place, I’m grateful that when it reaches, and I am always there. So it’s really about being available for this planetary work.” 

Displacement and how that relates to thinking about sound and home

In 2022, you also to­ured the USA – some insights and the reception as a jazz art­ist from South Afric­a? 

Nduduzo Makhathini: “The US has a deep culture for this music. I had a concert in Los Angeles where the entire jazz community came out. A similar thing happened in Kansas and many other places as well. When I went to the Jazz at Lincoln Center, Maestro Wynton Marsalis and brother, Jason Moran came to see my concert. This was a humbling moment. I also got to perform an entire A Love Supreme suite in Harlem, New York. Parallel to this I was doing lectures on South Africa jazz histories. One took place at Stanford University in California. The parallels between SA and US histories are worth noting always; particularly surrounding notions of displacement and how that relates to thinking about sound and home.”

Jazz as music of liberation


Your music is person­al and political and intensely spiritual. You are cognisant of making music/sound in post-colonial Africa and jazz as “a music of li­beration”? 

Nduduzo Makhathini: “Music is a result of being in the world and it’s bound to interact with everything that surrounds us. But it also important to note that sounds are mystical they come from a spirit dimension and in silence they return. Being a jazz musician and improvisation, in my opinion, is to be sensitive to such cosmological dynamics.”

Home


You are head of the music department at the University of Fort Hare and a PHD candidate at Stellenbosch University. Where do you live- September 2022?

Nduduzo Makhathini: “I really live everywhere but we have a home in East London, where my wife and I spend most of our time.”

Zulu traditions and theorisations


You grew up in uMgun­gundlovu, in a rural setting? Are you are an urban person or do the hil­ls still call you?

Nduduzo Makhathini: “I’m fundamentally rural in a sense that my relationship to the world is really based on the teachings from the elders. I practice traditional rituals too. In fact, my approaches to sound are anchored in Zulu traditions and theorisations.”


In the Spirit of Ntu

Your most recent rel­ease was, In the Spirit of Ntu [Blue Note Records, 2022]. There has been a rapturous response to your music in the Europe and the US. Music transcends languag­e, geography, demogr­aphics? 

Nduduzo Makhathini: “All I can say is I’m grateful. It is a thing of alignment that starts with a vision, a song and people. I am blessed is all these departments. Blue Note Records felt attracted to my music so is my booking agent. Magic happens when the time is right and gratitude is the posture I prefer.” 

Looking towards 2023

Any new releases on the cards and tours abroad?

Nduduzo Makhathini: “Yes, I’m touring the East, then South America and then a stretch in Europe, then the US again next year.” 

Ntu: Internationally acclaimed pianist, Nduduzo Makhathini says: “Music is a result of being in the world and it’s bound to interact with everything that surrounds us. But it also important to note that sounds are mystical they come from a spirit dimension and in silence they return. Being a jazz musician and improvisation, in my opinion, is to be sensitive to such cosmological dynamics.” See interview, on this page. Image supplied.
Nduduzo Makhathini – 2022 thanksgiving concerts in the Cape – uMandulo – September-Heritage Month, South Africa  

There are two concerts on this tour: A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi and Nduduzo Makhathini -In the Spirit of Ntu In the Spirit of Ntu  

About: A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi

This concert is in partial fulfilment of Makhathini’s Integrated PhD in Music, Stellenbosch University. Mbuso Khoza will be on vocals and poetry. The line-up of renowned Cape jazz musicians, includes, Justin Bellairs (saxophone,) Stephen de Souza (double bass and Dane Paris on drums. This performance is a “thanksgiving ritual to pay gratitude to the spirit guides”, who collaborated with Makhathini in creating this work.  Makhathini: “At the core of this sonic ritual/meditation, I demonstrate the importance of a community-in the form of a large ensemble with an audience- in music-making as a collective process. Here, I work inside the concepts of ngoma and ntu as invocations of wholeness. This performance forms part of locating my own approaches in improvisation, which I call ingoma-sbhulo -a divining sound-field that points towards revealing an elsewhere. Part of what this meditation does, is to (re)contextualize the piano in an African context, both within African music practices/repertoire and as a ritual object performing in ritual technology. Parallel to that, I seek in this event to juxtapose the idea of multiple-voices to that of ‘the throwing of the bones’ during divination. In this sense, improvisation enters the realm of prophetic knowledge via a meditation sequence: known-unkown-newknowing.”

About: In the Spirit of Ntu

In the Spirit of Ntu – is Makhathini’s 10th album and was released in 2022 by Blue Note Records. Ntu may be loosely translated as “vital force” and “confronts the problems of our time, explores how we have lost our culture and values and how we can re-instil them”, says Makhathini. See: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/live-and-online-nduduzo-makhathini-in-the-spirit-of-ntu-in-concert-at-the-norval-foundation/

More on Nduduzo Makhathini

Makhathini won the 2015 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz, at the National Arts Festival -the largest arts festival in Africa, held in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. In 2017, Makhathini won the Best Jazz Artist award at the All Africa Awards. His many other awards and accolades include: Sennheiser/Neumann Artist, SAMA -South African Music Awards (2017 and 2018), Afrima Award Winner (2017), Mzantsi Jazz Award Winner (2017 and 2018).  

Website: http://www.bluenote.com/artist/nduduzo-makhathini/ 
Instagram: http://@nduduzomakhathini
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nduduzomakhathinimusic/    

Concert producers- a shout-out – bravo in making this tour happen

The concert at the University of Stellenbosch (September 16), has been organised by the University of Stellenbosch. The Blue Room concert (September 17) has been curated by Buddy Wells. The concert at The Olympia Café in Kalk Bay (September 18) has been organised by LikweziArts and Slow Life. The director of LikweziArts is Luvuyo Kakaza (https://www.facebook.com/luvuyo.kakaza) and he is responsible for publicity for the concerts at Stellenbosch University and Olympia Bakery. In partnership with Paul Kahanovitz of Slow Life, he has curated the Olympia Bakery gig. Slow Life -music – with a jazz focus was started in 2013 (https://www.facebook.com/slowlifesouthafrica).  

✳ Featured image: Nduduzo Makhathini. Pic: Nunu Ngema. Supplied.