In The Spirit Of Ntu

On his milestone 10th album, pianist, composer, improviser and healer Nduduzo Makhathini distils a decade’s worth of creative output into an offering that reflects upon both his and his forebearer’s footsteps. “This whole journey started in 2012, when I went to studio to record my debut album,” he tells Apple Music. “This is me summarising my journey. This is the moment for a bird’s-eye view of the recurring themes and dialoguing that’s been taking place.” In the Spirit of Ntu muses on various ideas—from a range of disciplines—that collectively shape us. “An underpinning concept of ubuntu is that everything that lives carries vital force, and this vital force is what counts as ‘Ntu’,” Makhatini explains. “I’ve found that the hinge that connects all African art, music, religions, worldviews and histories is this notion of Ntu. This is the part the colonial system was not able to erase. This album is an intervention to hold on to the things that refused to be removed.” Crafted by a talented young lineup, these 10 tracks situate Makhathini’s ideas in the realm of sound. “I was grappling with what it means to locate the sonic inside of these conversations,” he says. “You exist in the context of the whole, and that became the underpinning conceptual view towards the bandstand—all the musicians are younger than me, to build continuity within that shared ‘insideness’ of this cultural sphere.” Here, Makhathini breaks down key tracks from the album. “Unonkanyamba” “When I was growing up, there was this myth that if there were heavy quakes, Inkanyamba [the serpent] was emerging from beneath the earth. When it emerges, there’s no way you can survive, and we were told we couldn’t see it cause we’d die immediately. As a kid, I’d internalised this as a masculine energy. Here, I use the idea of ‘Uno’ as pointing towards a different polarity. What if these energies were feminine? Anything that has to do with water, we consult Nomkhubulwane—that’s a deity or divinity for rain.