Nduduzo Makhathini: The Myth We Choose

With the spirit winds and the sounds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo at his back, pianist/composer/shaman/philosopher Nduduzo Makhathini embarks, throughout the whole of The Myth We Choose, with an inspired, ancestral magic. Chanting, speaking, conjuring. Elegant but never stand-offish, it is the joyful music of a resilient, triumphant, spiritual people. It is the music of a people equidistant to Heaven and Earth.

The Myth We Choose is certainly that and never, ever hard to listen to, absorb, and manifest. Makhathini's innate understanding of making space and time sound so good, so warm, so here and now, is on full display. But there is a spoiler alert that, if there is any moment where The Myth We Choose loses its hold, it is songs presented in English, "What People Say," the otherwise exquisite "Tethered," and "What People Say, (reprise)" that breaks the trance

Sure, this is how Makhathini and his fellow mischief makers, bassist Dalisu Ndlazi and drummer Lukmil Perez approached the music: Relaxed, but incantatory. Immersive, mystic. But it breaks the spell woven by The Myth We Choose, and that is all that can be said that could be taken (by a jury of peers) as objectionable in the overall critique. From the very beginning—"Kuzodlula," contemplating forgiveness. "Ekuqaleni" is the neo-classical roiling thunder giving way to honest homage to legendary piano jams of our collective pasts.

Makhathini's voice, like his piano, courses with a healing power only a soul knowing how much its heart can take knows. Then takes it many steps further. "Ḽiṅwalo ḽa Mubebi," imbued with that wisdom, the free flight of Shabaka Hutchings' nomadic flute, and vocalists Thando Zide, Munyei, and Omagugu, (Makhathini's spouse and collaborator), becomes operatic. "Ḽiṅwalo ḽa Mubebi (reprise)" a hymn.

If it is at all possible in this world torn asunder that moments of sheer bliss and beauty exist, The Myth We Choose is this moment's hymnal. It is an open door to the heights we can and do achieve as a collaborative people, the cubicle life they are succeeding in boxing us into, and the doom-scrolling that ensues. Co-produced with his 18-year-old son, Thingo, Makhathini's fifth gift for Blue Note soothes on every physical and metaphysical level a human can inhabit. Even with the pianist's liberal and lyrical use of electronics and programming, The Myth We Choose is an organic transcendence to which we all should ascend.