Whether through his recordings, live in concert or at the Tiny Desk, South African pianist and Zulu healer Nduduzo Makhathini has the ability to transfix an audience with his deeply meditative and engaging music. His work is lush with ancestral invocation, meditations on Blackness and spiritual exploration.
Here, Makhathini presents a cross-section of his works that he has dubbed for the Tiny Desk as the Ntu Sonicities Devotion Suite in Five Movements. His notes on the suite shared with the Tiny Desk team illuminate a thoughtful intentionality that is a hallmark of Makhathini’s work.
Movement One: “Kuzodlula” is a meditation on stillness, an inward invitation towards emptiness and the ability to leave behind the denseness of life.
Movement Two: “Omnyama” is an invocation of “Blackness” through the incarnations of various African deities and divinities.
Movement Three: “Equidistant Passage” is a short reflection on Black aesthetics through three strategies: ritual, an ongoing rehearsal and study.
Movement Four: “Izinkonjana” is a song of grace and transcendence. It launches into a space of “zero gravity” like birds fly effortlessly through the clouds.
Movement Five: “Imvunge” is a protest, a song of victory, it celebrates conquest.
The performance from Makhathini, bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere and drummer Kabelo Mokhatla creates an immersive soundscape, interwoven with sung/spoken reflections in Zulu, sound design elements activated by a laptop and use of a vocoder. All of these elements invite the audience to participate in this act of devotion.
SET LIST
Ntu Sonicities Devotion Suite in Five Movements
- Movement One: “Kuzodlula”
- Movement Two: “Omnyama”
- Movement Three: “Equidistant Passage”
- Movement Four: “Izinkonjana”
- Movement Five: “Imvunge”
MUSICIANS
- Nduduzo Makhathini: piano, vocals
- Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere: bass
- Kabelo Mokhatla: drums
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Mitra I. Arthur
- Director: Kara Frame
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Video Editor: Maia Stern
- Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Zayrha Rodriguez
- Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
- Audio Mix: Maggie Luthar
- Production Assistant: Dora Levite
- Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Photographer: Alanté Serene
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton