The Myth We Chose, the entrancing new album by South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, foregrounds hope and healing, and a conviction in the redemptive power of connection. It’s a song-forward statement for Makhathini, who is also a composer, vocalist, philosopher, and ambassador for the Global South.
This summer, he brought his trio to Solar Myth ahead of an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. On the first of two nights, he joined Josh Jackson for an onstage conversation about ritual, responsibility, and why he prefers the term “encounter” to “discovery” when describing a person’s formative contact with improvised music.
Chapters
00:00 — Intro: South African jazz
05:00 — Zulu language, myth & musicality
11:30 — Music education, colonialism & Indigenous knowledge
15:30 — Growing up during apartheid
21:00 — Encountering John Coltrane & the roots of jazz
23:30 — The identity and sound of South African jazz
28:45 — Collective memory & the African diaspora
35:15 — Myth, ancestral memory & sonic creation
38:15 — Ndu cosmology, time & musical continuity
41:00 — Artificial intelligence, knowledge & human experience
45:15 — Nate and Josh on music, healing & ancestral knowledge
49:30 — “This I Dig”
53:15 — South African music, cultural boycotts & current debates
56:15 — Closing credits
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