Nduduzo Makhathini's healing sounds will be at Fest this year

“Besides the fact that it’s one of the greatest platforms to perform one’s music, it allows room to participate in new collaborative 

possibilities for musicians, and it allows open interaction between students and professional musicians.”

His sound is intoxicating and rooted in love for his mother, who first taught him how to stroke the 88 keys. He expalins, "My mother was my first piano teacher and, indirectly, was instrumental in my falling in love with this instrument."

Since 2014, he has been thinking about how the piano connects with his culture."Though the piano is a Western classical instrument, it does have its prehistories in Africa through the mbira [thumb piano], which predates it by 1 000 years. Furthermore, in my journey of ubungoma [healing and divination], the ivory that forms the piano keys is instrumental in certain styles of divining within ubungoma practices."

Since his birth, he"s had to find ways to improvise, which is a pillar of jazz culture. Although he's only been playing jazz for 17 years, he feels his connection to the music is a mature one, and he fuses his technical talents with a piercing sense of consciousness about his work. This is everything to his sound.It often feels as though all sounds are derived for the depths of our consciousness. I feel the same way about listening and appreciating music", he says

 Jazz musicians are, by and large, meticulous and the same can be said of Nduduzo. He says the most crucial elements of his sound are his culture and belief system. What people hear is the result of trying to navigate between these two ideas. At a more sonic and textural level, my sound is built on a standard jazz quartet/quintet configuration, although it varies with different performances. It often comprises piano, double bass, drums, tenor saxophone and trumpet, singer, trombone, flute and alto saxophone.

We will be at the festival and most certainly at his performance at the DSG Hall on July 4. Nduduzo says the music he plays doesn’t allow him to predict what will emerge on the day.“But I do have an idea of the repertoire. It will comprise various materials from my last three albums, with a special focus on Ikhambi and some of the new music I am exploring.”

. Catch him in Grahamstown on July 4
and 5. Get tickets at nationalartsfestival.co.za