Blindfold Test: Nduduzo Makhathini

Live, From the Magazine, Nduduzo Makhathini

By Michael Jackson I Jan. 2, 2024

“I really respect people who could learn this vocabulary and find a way to express it in a way that is so unique,” Nduduzo Makhathini said of the late pianist Don Pullen during his live Blindfold Test.
(Photo: Mark Sheldon)

Much powerful and resonant music has emanated from South Africa and, in part due to the reprehensible cultural scatter and exile caused by apartheid, only occasionally has the world paid enough attention. The blend of bittersweet serenity, melancholy and inner-mounting flame in the oeuvres of Abdullah Ibrahim and Bheki Mseleku — back-filtered through the transatlantic diaspora and Ellington, Monk and McCoy Tyner — has been absorbed by Nduduzo Makhathini, who has emerged over the course of 10 leader albums into a perennially questing, paradoxically grounded force. His sophomore album on Blue Note, In The Spirit Of Ntu, strives to distill spiritual essence and cleave closer to universal truths. A philosopher wont to deliver articulate thesis statements between bouts at the piano, Makhathini is, onstage and in person, uncommonly warm and receptive. His first Blindfold Test mixed curveballs and shoe-ins at the Detroit Jazz Festival, where he triumphantly culminated a U.S. tour with drummer Francisco Mela and bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere.

Sean Bergin & Ernst Reijseger

“For The Folks Back Home” (Mistakes, Broken, 1979) Bergin, tenor saxophone; Reijseger, cello.

Nduduzo Makhathini: That’s from South Africa, definitely.

Michael Jackson: It was recorded in Cornwall in the ’70s, though. The saxophone player is from Durban, and it’s not guitar but cello played sideways, by a Dutchman.

Makhathini: Not Dudu Pukwana, right? The flavor was obvious in a second, pointing to us. I never heard him but can tell he’s from South Africa and came from the sound of (saxophonist) Kippie Moeketsi.

Bheki Mseleku

“Melancholy In Cologne” (Star Seeding, Polygram, 1995) Mseleku, piano; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

Makhathini: [after only a few notes] “Melancholy In Cologne,” Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins. [Bheki Mseleku] was my teacher and would be very disappointed if I didn’t guess his sound in the first three seconds. He had a way of thinking about music and philosophy that informed his compositional technique around his ideas of an afterlife. He always wanted to compose music that he called “endlessness,” that produces this energy of continuity, and he played with Pharoah Sanders, Elvin Jones, here with Billy Higgins, and he toured with Joe Henderson. Bheki ended up frustrated. He put out the album Home At Last but was having difficulty with the notions of home after exile. When South African musicians, including [Hugh] Masekela and [Miriam] Makeba, returned post-apartheid in 1994, they were well received due to speaking exclusively about politics and societal ills. Instead, he was talking in a different language about spirituality, didn’t get a single gig and returned to London.

Muhal Richard Abrams

“Imagine” (Song For All, Black Saint, 1997) Abrams, synthesizer.

Makhathini: The arrangement made me think of Anthony Braxton and the AACM movement.

Jackson: It’s the éminence grise of the AACM, the mastermind behind the operation.

Makhathini: The one who wrote the book?

Jackson: George Lewis? No, but that’s a good guess given Lewis’ pioneering work with synthetic sounds and interactive computer music.

Makhathini: [afterwards] Ah, yes, he is featured in the book.

Don Pullen

“Endangered Species–African American Youth” (Random Thoughts, Blue Note, 1990) Pullen, piano: Lewis Nash, drums; James Genus, bass.

Makhathini: Hmm, might have been influenced by Don Pullen.

Jackson: I knew you’d get it, as soon as the elbows came into play with the keyboard.

Makhathini: Haha, I heard it from the beginning! An incredible piano player. Do you know his “Ode To Life”? One of the most beautiful tracks I know.

Jackson: Tell us something else you like about Pullen.

Makhathini: There’s the lexicon, what we think of as the jazz language. It’s got such a gravitation that to find anything new as a pianist is difficult. Almost everything was done in the ’60s already. So I really respect people who could learn this vocabulary and find a way to express it in a way that is so unique. Maybe in one note you can tell it is Don Pullen. I guess you could say the same about Randy Weston, Monk, all these pianists that have not so much transcended the canon as dialogued with it.

Johnny Dyani

“Radebe” (Witchdoctor’s Son, Steeplechase, 1978) Dyani, bass; John Tchicai, Dudu Pukwana, alto saxophone; Alfred do Nascimento, guitar; Luis Carlos de Sequeira, drums; Mohammed al Jabry, percussion.

Makhathini: This song is called “MRA.”

Jackson: No, it isn’t, smarty pants!

Makhathini: “Radebe!” Definitely Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana.

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya

“Sotho Blue” (Sotho Blue, Sunnyside, 2011) Ibrahim, piano; Jason Marshall, baritone saxophone; Keith Loftis, tenor saxophone; Cleave Guyton, alto saxophone, flute; Andrae Murchison, trombone; Belden Bullock, bass; George Gray, drums.

Makhathini: I’ve definitely heard that before, it’s going to come. … The arrangement is by Abdullah Ibrahim. I just met him recently for the first time. He has some origins there, from the north of the country, the Besotho people who were led by King Moshoeshoe. They have this brilliant music with really unique scales and rhythm. The language they speak, Sesotho, informs the way they articulate the sound. It’s really interesting when you meet musicians from different geographies in South Africa.

Jackson: You know what? We’ve been preoccupied enjoying the music and egregiously failed to allocate any stars! How many stars, out of 5, for this one?

Makhathini: A million stars! DB

The “Blindfold Test” is a listening test that challenges the featured artist to discuss and identify the music and musicians who performed on selected recordings. The artist is then asked to rate each tune using a 5-star system. No information is given to the artist prior to the test.