The encounter between jazz vocalist, pianist, and composer
Thandi Ntuli and multi-instrumentalist, producer, and conceptualist
Carlos Nino was a long time coming. The latter caught a soundcheck performance by South African pianist
Ntuli on Instagram.
Ntuli is a seasoned jazz veteran whose debut,
The Offering, appeared in 2014, followed by several other acclaimed though self-issued titles including
Exiled (2018) and 2022's glorious
Blk Elijah & the Children of Meroe.
Nino -- a musical polymath, culture worker, and collaborator with a formidable discography -- contacted her in 2018 wanting to remix and/or re-record "Rainbow" from her live gig
Thandi Ntuli Live at Jazzwerkstatt. They tried to meet but were thwarted until 2019 when
Ntuli played Jazz at Lincoln Center and L.A.'s Ford Theater. They spent two days in a Venice Beach recording studio and cut
Rainbow Revisited.
International Anthem released it.
Ntuli sings, plays piano, synthesizer, and the Tongo, a percussion instrument.
Nino produced and mixed the sessions and appears on percussion, cymbals, and "plants" (this is no joke, the natural world is central to his abundant creativity).
Shabaka Hutchings contributed the album art.
These ten tunes feature
Ntuli playing and singing.
Nino added his treatments and parts later. That said, it sounds live: it is playful but continually seeks to touch the realm of the sacred. Opener "Sunrise (In California)," an instrumental, wanders between
James Francies' and
Robert Glasper's open, winding chord progressions, while its counterpart, "Sunset (In California)," references the glorious phrasing and harmonies of the plaintive South African father of piano jazz
Abdullah Ibrahim.
The title track offers a shining example of
Ntuli's scat-like vocal approach. She claims that, in contrast to "sung singing," scat is direct, a free conveyance of emotion to get a message through. The original version was an indictment of South Africa's betrayed promises of inclusion and racial and economic equality. With
Nino's unintrusive, natural-sounding embellishments,
Ntuli allows her righteous, circular pianism to enter an improvisational space, and her voice underscores the piano's assertions though they are more existentially inquisitive than sacred. "Breath and Synth Experiment" is wildly unencumbered yet intimate. The producer's layered ambient sounds find
Ntuli's synths offering various flute voicings and soothing unidentifiable sounds as she whisper/scats into the mysterious sounds. "Nomayoyo" was written by her late grandfather. It's a wake-up call to a subject who delivers it as a folk song, elegantly and with tenderness. On the two-part "One,"
Ntuli's wordless vocal conveys longing and heartbreak, emotional devastation, serenity, and spiritual ecstasy buoyed by intricate, circular piano chords and a gentle ambience from
Nino.
Rainbow Revisited is quite different in creative vibe, scope, and emotion than her earlier recordings. While producer
Nino can be credited with creating the vibe on this recording, it would be inaccurate. This glorious, vulnerable set offers pure collaborative inspiration at once strident and vulnerable, minimal, and aesthetically expansive. ~ Thom Jurek
![Roforofo Fight [LP]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0720841206682_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Roforofo Fight [LP]")
![Confusion [LP]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0720841207016_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Confusion [LP]")
