This has to be a first. I’ve never heard an artist explaining and developing an idea from his/her Ph.D thesis (*) live on the stage in front of a Ronnie Scott’s audience. Or indeed succeeding in doing it as well as Nduduzo Makhathini did last night. He carried the audience with him on a fascinating train of thought about how practising and working on music are a form of spiritual ‘emptying’, and achieved the remarkable feat of transforming the busy-ness of a jazz club where waiters are darting in all directions delivering meals to the tables, into a thoughtful and reflective space. It was a moment to savour.
With the audience transfixed, Makhathini and his completely played-in and empathetic partners, Dalisu Ndlazi on bass and Lukmil Perez on drums, led straight into a new, slow, spacious, stately, beautiful tune, “Unembeza” (the Zulu word for conscience, with echoes of forgiveness and repentance), with – to my ears – clear echoes of Abdullah Ibrahim.
Another fine moment was the surprise and hitherto unannounced arrival onstage of Shabaka Hutchings to play a tune on alto flute. This brought more lightning reactions from some Ronnie’s staff. Normal mic stands simply don’t work for Shabaka, who must be about 197cm/ 6 foot 6 inches tall, so they leapt into action to construct a taller one and to get it in place. For someone with such huge renown, it is remarkable how self-effacingly Shabaka plays these flutes. He’s not seeking attention in any way, just content to head off in whatever musical direction fits the surroundings and the music, for example a peaceful exploration some microtones and unusual harmonics. And the partnership of these two musicians is visibly something which both of them enjoy.
It was a wonderful, naturally flowing set. And the strength and inner conviction with which all of these musicians pursue their art are refreshing. It is a paradox, but one to take pleasure in, that both Makhathini and Shabaka are artists in the powerful orbit of Universal Music Group, and yet it seems that they are given the freedom to portray musical fragility rather than conquer big festivals and stadiums, they are able to go in search of their personal musical ghosts and be authentic. It seems like the best of all worlds. Here’s hoping it will last.
(*) On page 150 of his thesis “Breaking into Sound: Dis/Locating Ntu Cosmology and Improvisation in South African Jazz”, Makhathini reflects on this idea, as developed by the great genius Bheki Mseleku – an artist mentioned more than 300 times in the thesis.
