Nduduzo Makhathini likes to present himself as a pianist and shaman. For this South African jazzman, everything goes together: music and spirituality. Music is an offering and a healing, a dialogue with the elders. A blessing.
He was born ten years before the end of apartheid, in the early 1980s, in the Eastern Cape, in the heart of Zulu territory, where music plays a central role. In the past, it motivated warriors, today it accompanies healing.
This South African pianist-composer, award-winning major artist and author of eight albums in his country, comes from this tradition. To these roots should be added the music of the great elders, musicians and singers from Hugh Masekela to Miriam Makeba, who opened the royal road of South African jazz. Two years ago, Nduduzo Makhathini, professor and researcher at the university, joined the very prestigious Blue Note label. The jazz record company, and especially that of McCoy Tyner, a legendary pianist, one of Nduduzo Makhathini’s models.
Today, it is he who carries the torch of South African jazz. A jazz that is at peace, rich in new experiences, flamboyant and inventive, free but with both feet firmly anchored in its African roots.
Copyright © DR
