Black Excellence: Nduduzo Makhathini
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/18/g-s1-81562/nduduzo-makhathini-tiny-desk-concert
Whether through his recordings, live in concert or at the Tiny Desk, South African pianist and Zulu healer Nduduzo Makhathini has the ability to transfix an audience with his deeply meditative and engaging music. His work is lush with ancestral invocation, meditations on Blackness and spiritual exploration.
Here, Makhathini presents a cross-section of his works that he has dubbed for the Tiny Desk as the Ntu Sonicities Devotion Suite in Five Movements. His notes on the suite shared with the Tiny Desk team illuminate a thoughtful intentionality that is a hallmark of Makhathini’s work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nduduzo_Makhathini
Nduduzo Makhathini (born 24 September 1982) is a South African jazz musician from Umgungundlovu, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Coming from a musical family, his love for music began at an early age.[1] Makhathini has performed with Zim Ngqawana, Simphiwe Dana, Feya Faku, and McCoy Mrubata. Nduduzo completed his Diploma in Jazz Piano at the Durban University of Technology in 2005,[2][3] and obtained a PhD in music from the University of Stellenbosch in 2023.[4][5]