Nduduzo Makhathini
It conjures church songs, like Charlie Haden and Hank Jones on Steal Away, with its multidimensional layering of jazz that tells the story of how we overcome, how we swing low, how we wade in the water. Then there is the church of John Coltrane and his later work that brims with spirituality, ecstatic in his piercing sheets of sound. Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Water from an Ancient Well” (which he reinterprets on his new album 3) is so deep as to be bottomless.
From this same deep well comes Nduduzo Makhathini – a sangoma – one who channels ancestors from the spirit world. Whether you believe this is possible or not, at its core there is a vibration in this music, an essence that sits in a space that is difficult to access and requires guidance to get there. On this album, Makhathini is your guide.
Musician, composer, educator and shaman, Makhathini was born in uMgungundlovu, South Africa and is deeply steeped in the traditional sounds of the region. He also has embraced Western jazz and claims Andrew Hill, Randy Weston and Don Pullen as significant influences. Makhathini’s ability to create a worldwind on the piano is a reference to these types of pianists who use elements of avant-garde jazz to elevate their work.
There is a perfectly delivered piano solo 29 seconds into “Uxolo.” It is a captivating sliver of wordless joy with a distant ancestor whispering the lyrics. The song conjures a feeling of nostalgia, a backward glance, a perfect tug of emotion from the past. It stays there for only a minute and then flickers aways. It will stay with you.
The album title calls forth the daughter of the Zulu god uMvelikuqala (the one who came first). uNomkhubulwane can bring rain to parched South African countryside, in other words, mother earth. Makhathini invokes this goddess in recognition of the mother song he heard during his initiation process to become a healer.
There are three suites to the album, Libations, Water Spirits and Inner Attainment. And yes, there are many suites in jazz, the greatest of which is in fact spiritual jazz in Duke Ellington’s Black Brown and Beige and its magnum opus “Come Sunday.” “Please look down and see my people through.”
A standout in these suites is “Omnyama,” a reference to a South African performer who died young from pancreatic cancer. There is a groove here, one that carries you along with the bass of Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere and the drums of Francesco Mela. The latter is a welcome and well known addition to this album, having played with Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano and McCoy Tyner. His drumming on this album is also reminiscent of Jimmy Garrison’s touch against Coltrane’s ethereal sax.
In the Water Spirits section of the three suites, “Izinkonjana” is so beautiful in its simplicity, in the way it walks you up a few emotional stairs, lets you rest and then takes you up additional flights, each more lovely than the previous. The name references migratory birds that appear during the rainy season in South Africa.
There is a collective memory among these musicians that becomes particularly evident in the final suite, Inner Attainment. It is a crepuscule with Makhathini. You walk and the sun seeps away into twilight. The opening is “Izibingelelo,” dark with Mela’s drums inhabiting the down beat of sacred music and Makathini’s piano roiling along with it. This spreads out into an opening where the dancing begins. It is dark and lovely and dramatic with a level of moral authority that sounds like an anthem.
The delicate “Amanzi Ngobhoko” features Makhathini’s vocal work beneath a very deep bass and a chanting cymbal. The song develops into a march with a very distinctive piano beat that, like so much of his music, could be committed to memory. You will find this melody joyously in your head for days to come.
This is Makhathini’s third album for Blue Note under Don Was’ direction and his 11th album as a leader. His Blue Note album In the Spirit of Ntu is equally arresting.
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In the smallest, most silent voice that rises up in mystical jazz, there is a sense of there it is and there it is not" or an all that is seen and unseen vibe. You may notice it but only as it gently resides beneath the music, a sort of underworld that speaks in a murmur. 
