Flying colours
South African pianist reclaims ‘rainbow nation’ via improvs with California’s cosmic jazz force. By Andy Cowan.
Thandi Ntuli: succeeding through intimacy and freshness.
Thandi Ntuli With Carlos Niño
★★★★
Rainbow Revisited
INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM. CD/DL/LP
THE CONCEPT of post-apartheid South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’ is hard to reconcile with the reality. Thirty years since Archbishop Desmond Tutu coined the term, crime is abundant and racial disparities are still rife, with millions of South Africans still lacking access to food, clean water, proper healthcare or adequate housing. Johannesburg-based pianist Thandi Ntuli expressed her discontent with Rainbow (Skit) on 2019’s second album Exiled, an all-too-brief explosion of chants, organ and piano that chimed with the LP’s themes of identity and womanhood. It became the starting point for improvisational sessions with Carlos Niño, California’s go-to doyen of New Age spirituality and cosmic jazz.