Another exceptionally strong release from South Africa, another - hard on the heels of the extraordinary uNomkhubulwane - involving Nduduzo Makhathini who not only plays piano but produces. Tenor saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane and Makhathini go way back, Sikhakhane appearing on Makhathini's 2014 album, Mother Tongue.
It's two years on from the also very good Ropeadope release Isambulo.
That Sikhakhane predecessor had the core rhythm section of pianist Lucca Fries, bassist Fabien Iannone and drummer Jonas Ruther - and like it Iladi, which has even more of a spiritual jazz and Coltranian/McCoy Tyner-esque underpinning to it from the get go on iGosa, is full of firm, characterful sax lines that speak out soul to soul.
It's a stripped down setting that finds the South African with Makhathini, Johannesburg born bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere who went on to study in the States at the New England Conservatory in Boston and drummer Kweku Sumbry who was on US alto sax avatar Immanuel Wilkins' astonishing 2020 release, Omega.
Winston Mankunku Ngozi-influenced
All originals of Sikhakhane's that build on South African sounds and the progressive quartal harmony of Coltranian 1960s pre free-form jazz traditions, a graduate of the Brubeckian University of KwaZulu-Natal and who comes from Umlazi Township near Durban, the title refers to a Zulu ritual ceremony. He is influenced by John Coltrane and Winston Mankunku Ngozi of the Mankunku Quartet known for 1960s anthem 'Yakhal' Inkomo.'
Fundamentally a deep and refreshing conversation between saxophone and piano there's seriousness but there's also a lightness and a joy - you get that latter aspect on 'Indatshana' where bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere's bass line punctuation enlives the syntax of the piece immeasurably - and there's a serene gratitude elsewhere especially on 'Mama.'
Linda Sikhakhane, photo: Malwandla Rikhotso
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