SHABAKA & Nduduzo Makhathini (49. Leipziger Jazztage)

Top-class duo debut in search of new music.

Double concert with Patricia Brennan.

It is surprising why the paths of these two leading lights of contemporary jazz have not crossed more often. Because the directions and the speed in which and with which they both progress are astonishingly similar: with spiritual and ambient jazz, they talk about their own origins and are so eclectic that even traces point in the direction of new age music. Anticipation trumps astonishment, because SHABAKA and Nduduzo Makhatini are now meeting live as a duo for the first time!

Some time ago, London-born SHABAKA made an instrumental U-turn when he announced that in the foreseeable future he would only play flutes such as the Japanese shakuhachi in public. His saxophone playing in bands such as Sons of Kemet, which previously impressed with its rhythmic strength, is given a quieter, meditative ambient accent on his first solo album "Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace". He impressively performs his sound poems with various woodwind voices.

These are now joined by South African-born Nduduzo Makhatini, who, in addition to his virtuoso keyboard playing, has a whole compendium of singing voices at his disposal: sometimes whispering and evocative, then softly crooning, and finally rhythmically speaking. On his latest album "uNomkhubulwane", the Zulu healer says that he uses improvised music to make contact with supernatural voices and an elsewhere in order to come to terms with the colonial past and apartheid and ultimately stand up for freedom.

Crossroads are places for the legendary. A glimpse of this can be caught on the joint song "Reaching Back Towards Eternity", in whose calm and in the clarinet played with extreme tenderness something deeply healing takes effect.

Previously: Patricia Brennan