Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño - Rainbow Revisited

2023

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.

Her latest release, Rainbow Revisited, is her most minimal effort yet, comprising 10 tracks of piano and voice, with light touches of additional percussion and production from LA multi-instrumentalist Carlos Niño. It is a remarkably exposing record that showcases Ntuli’s mastery of her instruments. Opener Sunrise (In California) sets the tone, shifting through Robert Glasper-style chord progressions, while its counterpart Sunset (In California) taps into the plaintive phrasing crafted by the father of South African piano jazz, Abdullah Ibrahim

Niño’s leftfield influence is apparent on the percussive Breath and Synth Experiment and stark Voice and Tongo Experiment, yet their sparse sonics don’t fit with the rest of the record’s luscious acoustic sound. Instead, Ntuli soars when let loose on the keys and mic, galloping over speedy changes on two-part album highlight The One. Vocalising wordlessly, here Ntuli conveys everything from longing to ecstasy in the perfect cadence of her voice and her melodic piano choices. It is a masterclass in the eloquent potential of the solo, a quiet storm of expression at Ntuli’s new frontier of South African jazz.