{"id":234546,"date":"2022-08-18T22:16:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T20:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/south-african-reedman-linda-sikhakhanes-new-album-is-a-revelation\/"},"modified":"2022-08-18T22:16:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T20:16:40","slug":"south-african-reedman-linda-sikhakhanes-new-album-is-a-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-african-reedman-linda-sikhakhanes-new-album-is-a-revelation\/","title":{"rendered":"South African reedman Linda Sikhakhane’s new album is a revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People were listening to (Duke Ellington<\/a> and Count Basie<\/a>) at home because we felt this is our music and these are our black heroes. The attraction \u2026 was that the rhythms were more like our mbaqanga.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So said<\/a> the late South African jazz trumpeter Johnny Mekoa. He was describing how, in his 1950s childhood, Black South African jazz fans explicitly heard African roots (mbaqanga is a form of South African township jive) in the American jazz they played. <\/p>\n

That sense of shared cultural history has persisted, from the country\u2019s earliest dance bands (the first<\/a> South African jazz record was cut in 1939) up to today. Successive waves of South African jazz innovators have sought fresh ways to bring the sound back home, drawing on diverse sonic, lyrical and spiritual roots.<\/p>\n

Right now, the focus of the new jazz generation in the country is on the spiritual. Pianist Nduduzo Makhathini\u2019s<\/a> 2022 release, In the Spirit of Ntu<\/a>, invokes<\/a> \u201can ancient African philosophy \u2026 where our wholeness resides\u201d. The title of the 2021 compilation<\/a> of new South African jazz, Indaba Is<\/a>, invoked the writings of philosopher and seer Credo Mutwa<\/a>. It is in that lineage that reedman Linda Sikhakhane<\/a>\u2019s third album, Isambulo<\/a> (Revelation) firmly belongs.<\/p>\n

Who is Linda Sikhakhane?<\/h2>\n

Saxophonist and composer Sikhakhane began his music education in his Durban community in KwaZulu-Natal province, in school as a clarinettist, then at trumpeter Brian Thusi\u2019s Siyakhula Music Centre<\/a>. By the end of high school he knew he wanted to pursue university music studies, but his teacher knew there was no jazz clarinet instructor at UKZN (the University of Kwazulu-Natal) and advised that he pick up the saxophone as a second instrument. \u201cAfter a few days of translating all that I knew on the clarinet, my love for the saxophone got deeper in such a way that it became my first instrument,\u201d he says. I interviewed Sikhakhane for this article, part of my ongoing research<\/a> on South African jazz.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\"An<\/div>\n

<\/a>

<\/span> Isambulo\/Linda Sikhakhane<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his university studies he released his debut album Two Sides, One Mirror<\/a> and won an overseas scholarship<\/a>, gaining his Bachelor of Music degree at the New School in New York. His second album, Open Dialogue<\/a>, reflected material from his graduation recital. <\/p>\n

The disruptions of COVID-19 sent Sikhakhane home, where he again worked with Makhathini, and he is now studying further at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.<\/p>\n

Zulu spirituality<\/h2>\n

Isambulo was recorded during Sikhakhane\u2019s six-week residency at the Birds Eye Jazz Club<\/a> in Basel, working with European and African co-players. They are trumpeter Matthias Spillmann, pianist Lucca Fries, bassist Fabien Iannone, drummer Jonas Ruther, vocalists Anna Widauer and Paras (Dlamini), and percussionist El Hadji Ngari Ndong. Says Sikhakhane:<\/p>\n

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Everyone brought originality and entered the space with so much humility \u2013 the qualities that must be central to improvisation. They understood the vision.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That vision focuses on Zulu spirituality, the role of music in ceremonial rites, and the legacy of ancestors, personal and musical. The shared heritage of the music in both jazz and his community \u201cmade jazz a safe space\u201d for him from the start. Working with Makhathini, for instance in the ensemble on his album Listening to the Ground<\/a>, helped him reflect on and appreciate his upbringing \u2013 \u201cwhich hinged on the notion of music as ritual\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ritual seeks new visions as well as looking back to heritage, \u201ca process of constant discovery\u201d. Thus the title track is the most abstract, its improvisation reaching forward into the unknown. It is followed by uNongoma, the album\u2019s most explicit allusion to traditional forms, as singer Paras employs vocalese across jazz horns to allude to Sikhakhane\u2019s place of origin (Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal), and yearn for a parent. \u201cParas wrote those lyrics,\u201d says Sikhakhane, \u201csonically projecting from that place, imagining its histories, landscape and cultural outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Other of the album\u2019s eight tracks reflect the range of Sikhakhane\u2019s current composing. A Day Passed is a quirky, laid-back ode to procrastination. Inner Freedom revisits a melody from his 2017 debut, more richly textured, with Sikhakhane playing soprano and a more prominent role for Fries\u2019s piano; still, like the original, grounded in Ngari Ndong\u2019s compelling percussion. <\/p>\n

Ikhandlela alludes to the light that flickers in darkness, with a gentle bass solo from Iannone. Gog’uldah, in tribute to his grandmother, is a moving, fractured, slow waltz theme with the saxophonist voicing his praises to his ancestor over a saxophone that spirals out into abstraction and finally silence.<\/p>\n

The journey<\/h2>\n

Despite the formal academic requirements that shaped the original recital material on Open Dialogue, and the greater freedom of Isambulo, Sikhakhane says he still feels \u201cstrong continuity\u201d between the two albums. The releases are, for him, \u201cthe continuation of an unending journey\u201d. <\/p>\n

\n

Read more: Spirit of Ntu: South African piano maestro Nduduzo Makhathini on his 10th album<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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He has described<\/a> in an interview with Alljazzradio how his learning journey in music has always been motivated by a desire to shift from an \u201cinternational\u201d saxophone voice to one more radically shaped by South African spaces and sources. In that journey, music has been both a tool for discovery and a tool \u201cto speak my language\u201d.<\/p>\n

Isambulo concludes with a tribute to those sources, Hymn for the Majors. Sikhakhane credits a long roll-call of names, from family members to early teachers such as Thusi, and musicians to whom he listens and with whom he has worked. \u201c(John) Coltrane<\/a>, (Abdullah) Ibrahim<\/a>, (Zim) Ngqawana<\/a> and Makhathini are kindred spirits and a lineage of masters that I follow.\u201d He adds:<\/p>\n

\n

Isambulo speaks about constant discovery and through following any master you\u2019re likely to find revelation: sound is inspired by the journey.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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