A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi - Nduduzo Makhathini

ABOUT

A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi

Nduduzo Makhathini

(in partial fulfilment of an Integrated PhD in Music, Stellenbosch University)

Personnel:

Piano and Spoken Word: Nduduzo Makhathini 

Vocals and Poetry: Mbuso Khoza

Alto Saxophone: Justin Bellairs 

Double Bass: Stephen de Souza

Drums: Dane Paris

Background:

At the core of this sonic ritual/meditation, I demonstrate the importance of a community (in the form of a large ensemble with an audience) in music-making as a collective process. Here I work inside the concepts of ngoma and ntu as invocations of wholeness. This performance forms part of locating my own approaches in improvisation, which I call ingoma-sbhulo (a divining sound-field that points towards revealing an elsewhere). Part of what this meditation does, is to (re)contextualize the piano in an African context, both within African music practices/repertoire and as a ritual object performing in ritual technology. Parallel to that, I seek in this event to juxtapose the idea of multiple-voices to that of ‘the throwing of the bones’ during divination. In this sense, improvisation enters the realm of prophetic knowledge via a meditation sequence: known-unknown-newknowing

Ultimately, this performance will be a thanksgiving ritual to pay gratitude to the spirit guides that collaborated with me in creating this work. 

Siyathokoza Makhosi Amakhulu

DIRECTIONS