Great jazz from a South African piano player with a fierce soul. That is really all you need to know going in, but Nduduzo Makhathini's fourth Blue Note album gives you plenty more to sit with once the needle drops.
Makhathini is a pianist, composer, and, by his own description, a healer, and The Myth We Choose treats a listening session the way he treats a live performance, as something closer to a ritual than background music. The album was co-produced by his son, Thingo Makhathini, and brings in a striking range of collaborators, from saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings to producer Black Coffee to Makhathini's spouse and longtime musical partner, the vocalist Omagugu. The result moves between hymn-like piano trio pieces and bolder, more electronic textures without ever losing the thread.
The focus track, “Liyoze Line Nangakithi,” is a good place to start. It is a hymn to the blessings that come with rain, built as a gently probing conversation between Makhathini and a longtime collaborator. It is patient in a way that rewards a good system. The kind of track where you notice a system's dynamics, or lack of them, almost immediately.
Makhathini has said he thinks of songs as something closer to prophecy than entertainment, a way a culture chooses what gets remembered. That is a big idea for an album to carry, and on The Myth We Choose, he mostly earns it.
If you want to hear it live, Makhathini brings the album to San Francisco this fall, with two nights at SFJAZZ on September 12 and 13.