Nduduzo Makhathini & Universes in THE MATRIX

Nduduzo Makhathini — by the small-world principle — is within 6 degrees of most humanity. The matrix uses the principle behind this phenomenon to position the world's artists within discoverable reach of each other, and the planet.
THESE CURATED NODES are one degree forward from this Nduduzo Makhathini node. Are these Nduduzo Makhathini's curations?

CURATION STATUS

1 degree forward: by The Matrix via ↴

Who & Where

Name: Nduduzo Makhathini
City/Place: Johannesburg
Country: South Africa
Hometown: Umgungundlovu, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Current News

What's Up? The visionary South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini is set to release his Blue Note Records debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds in 2020. Makhathini has released the album’s lead track “Yehlisan’uMoya” (Spirit Come Down) which is available now to stream or download.

The song represents a search for the light of the ancestral realms and an acknowledgement of a parallel existence between a world we see and those unseen. “Yehlisan’uMoya” features impassioned vocals by Nduduzo’s wife Omagugu Makhathini and a band that includes alto saxophonist Logan Richardson, tenor saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, trumpeter Ndabo Zulu, bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere, drummer Ayanda Sikade, and percussionist Gontse Makhene.

Life & Work

Bio: Nduduzo Makhathini grew up in the lush and rugged hillscapes of umGungundlovu in South Africa, a peri-urban landscape in which music and ritual practices were symbiotically linked. The area is significant historically as the site of the Zulu king Dingane kingdom between 1828 and 1840. It’s important to note that the Zulu, in fact the African warrior code, is deeply reliant on music for motivation and healing. This deeply embedded symbiosis is key to understanding Makhathini’s vision.

The church also played a role in Makhathini’s musical understanding, as he hopped from church to church in his younger days in search of only the music. The legends of South African jazz are deep influences as well, in particular Bheki Mseleku, Moses Molelekwa, and Abdullah Ibrahim. “The earlier musicians put a lot of emotions in the music they played,” he says. “I think it may also be linked to the political climate of those days. I also feel there is a uniqueness about South African jazz that created an interest all around the world and we are slowly losing that too in our music today. I personally feel that our generation has to be very conscious about retaining these nuances in the music we play today.”

Through his mentor Mseleku, Makhathini was also introduced to the music of John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner. “I came to understand my voice as a pianist through John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme,” he says. “As someone who started playing jazz very late, I had always been looking for a kind of playing that could mirror or evoke the way my people danced, sung, and spoke. Tyner provided that and still does in meaningful ways.” Makhathini also cites American jazz pianists including Andrew Hill, Randy Weston, and Don Pullen as significant influences.

Active as an educator and researcher, Makhathini is the head of the music department at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape. He has performed at renowned festivals including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the Essence Festival (in both New Orleans and South Africa), and in 2019 made his debut appearances the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center where he was a featured guest with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on their 3-night musical celebration The South African Songbook in Rose Theater. He is a member of Shabaka Hutchings’ band Shabaka and the Ancestors appearing on their 2016 album Wisdom of Elders, and has also collaborated with artists including Logan Richardson, Nasheet Waits, Tarus Mateen, Stefon Harris, Billy Harper, Azar Lawrence, and Ernest Dawkins.

In addition to producing albums for his peers (such as Thandiswa Mazwai’s Belede and Tumi Mogorosi’s Project Elo), Makhathini has released eight albums of his own since 2014 when he founded the label Gundu Entertainment in partnership with his wife and vocalist Omagugu Makhathini. Those albums earned him multiple awards and include Sketches of Tomorrow (2014), Mother Tongue (2014), Listening to the Ground (2015), Matunda Ya Kwanza (2015); Icilongo: The African Peace Suite (2016), Inner Dimensions (2016), and Reflections (2016). His 2017 album Ikhambi was the first to be released on Universal Music South Africa and won Best Jazz Album at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in 2018. His Blue Note debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds will be released in 2020.

- Biography from Blue Note Records

Media & Markets

▶ Twitter: nduduzo_m
▶ Instagram: NduduzoMakhathini
▶ Website: http://revelationsandthoughtsofnduduzomakhathini.com
▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/nduduzo1
▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCXYElO_c-zDyTAOtTuBzCtw
▶ Vimeo Channel: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCXYElO_c-zDyTAOtTuBzCtw
▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/09PKM1xg3fhdAduUr6TxZz
▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/0NZzrW5DxyGk1cYFZYdg0E
▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/2f8SaBfyadkOCijhJn9IXL
▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/4npT1fllB8BhSdiQWmg35M
▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/5UfbdpxVVIOEZWx453zQuP
▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/5bXLVzmoqP1ljGJtu8xuEj
▶ Article: http://www.jazziz.com/10-things-to-know-about-nduduzo-makhathini-blue-notes-new-piano-star/
▶ Article 2: http://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/nduduzo-makhathini-divining-signs/

Clips (more may be added)

A New Look Towards Ubungoma Practices and Articulations | Nduduzo Makhathini | TEDxGaborone
By Nduduzo Makhathini

130 views
Nduduzo Makhathini - Amathambo
By Nduduzo Makhathini

286 views

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THE MATRIX WAS BUILT HERE, inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' El Aleph, that in the pillar in Cairo's Mosque of Amr, where the universe in its entirety throughout all time is perceivable as an infinite hum from deep within the stone.

The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it sings.

w/ David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio

Given the immense untapped power of the small-world phenomenon, from Brazilians the matrix was expanded to include nodes per jazz artists, given jazz's common roots with Brazilian music (nodes based in publicly available information; some artists we informed — Bob Mintzer, Kamasi Washington, David "Fuse" Fiuczynski, Vijay Iyer, Greg Osby — and got thumbs up, others we'll get to), and moved on from there. Artists/academics are welcome to create their own nodes and curate (connect to other artist nodes, so that others may follow). BTW, our logo is a cortador de cana, cane cutter. It was designed by Walter Mariano, professor of design at the Federal University of Bahia to reflect the origins of the music the shop specializes in.

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