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Gontse Makhene
Nduduzo Makhathini: In The Spirit Of Ntu
by Chris May
There are strong links between London's alternative jazz scene and the parallel and burgeoning one in South Africa. A case in point is the connection between South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and British tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings. Makhathini and Hutchings' similar ages and overlapping, cosmologically informed takes on jazz meant they were almost certain to meet on the international stage at some point, and having met, would take things further. Indeed, that happened, and serendipity brought ...
read moreMalcolm Jiyane Tree-O: Umdali
by Ian Patterson
Umdali may be the debut as leader of South African trombonist and visual artist Malcolm Jiyane (Tree-O is the name of his band), but one listen to the music--somber and uplifting in turn, gossamer soft and rousing at the poles--is sufficient to recognize his singular talent. Recorded in Johannesburg at the tail end of 2018 with some of Soweto's finest young jazz musicians, Jiyane's soulful, richly layered compositions are deeply rooted in African traditions, though with obvious knowledge of, and ...
read moreLinda Sikhakhane: An Open Dialogue
by Dan Bilawsky
When tenor saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane released Two Sides, One Mirror (Skay Music, 2017), it was a statement of arrival, marking his ascendancy within the jazz ranks in his native South Africa, and departure, signaling a move to the United States that would result in studies with tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, trumpeter Charles Tolliver, bassist Reggie Workman and a host of other greats at The New School. This eagerly awaited follow-up, recorded as part of his senior recital at that venerable ...
read moreShabaka And The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here by History
by Karl Ackermann
Even as Shabaka Hutchings moves the evolution of jazz forward, We Are Sent Here By History laments the present-day conditions of conflict, suffering, parity, and the struggle to survive. The saxophonist's breakthrough album came with his Sons of Kemet on Your Queen Is A Reptile (Impulse! Records, 2018). He also leads the jazz/electronica hybrid The Comet Is Coming. Shabaka and the Ancestors' debut, Wisdom of Elders (Brownswood Recordings, 2016) essentially featured the same group of South African musicians, but here ...
read moreShabaka & the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here by History
by Serena Antinucci
Siamo stati spediti qui dalla Storia inconsapevoli di ciò che sarebbe accaduto. Avevamo un compito, l'abbiamo disatteso. Avevamo uno scopo, l'abbiamo dimenticato. Abbiamo disimparato la lingua della natura, sopraffatti dal potere e dall'egemonia capitalista. Oggi siamo stati chiamati ad afferrare la mano degli spiriti antenati, che tentano di soccorrerci, indicandoci una nuova strada della creazione, originata dalla distruzione. Questi spiriti non sono tornati per caso, è stata la musica a invocarli. We Are Sent Here By History è ...
read moreShabaka & the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History
by Chris May
Reed player Shabaka Hutchings became the first British musician to sign to the iconic (for once the word is justified) Impulse! label when his band Sons of Kemet did so in 2018. It was a deal for which his management could rightly be proud. It was also an affirmation which Hutchings felt deeply, for in the 1960s and 1970s Impulse! had recorded many of his formative influences, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders among them. In 2019 Hutchings took ...
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