Global Music Column – November

Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño – Rainbow Revisited

South African jazz has taken a maximal turn in recent years. Artists such as the collective Spaza and drummers Tumi Mogorosi and Asher Gamedze have each released records that channel free jazz to produce a collective cacophony of sound. It is a social statement as much as a sonic one, an effort to connect with a sense of Black community consciousness through the emotive openness of improvisation.

Pianist and vocalist Thandi Ntuli has been forging her own quiet path. Since her 2014 debut album The Offering and the 2018 follow-up Exiled, Ntuli’s music has found its strength in soft melodies and delicate arrangements, conveying a joyful message through a whisper rather than a shout.

Read the review in the Guardian.

[This piece was published on 10/11/23]