{"id":121,"date":"2020-03-15T21:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T02:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=121"},"modified":"2020-03-15T23:50:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T04:50:59","slug":"nduduzo-makhathinis-modes-of-communication-letters-from-the-underworlds-album-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/nduduzo-makhathinis-modes-of-communication-letters-from-the-underworlds-album-reviewed\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Nduduzo Makhathini\u2019s ‘Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Due to the nation\u2019s rich jazz history, it may appear surprising that a 2020 release – Nduduzo Makhathini\u2019s Modes of Communication<\/em>: Letters from the Underworlds <\/em>(Blue Note Records, 2020) – <\/em>is long-standing labels\u2019 first by a South African musician. While the pianist will receive much coverage based on this fact alone, that singular focus improperly distracts from the album\u2019s enormous efforts in eroding the historical separation between American and Cape jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some degree, both scenes can be viewed as originating from the African warrior code, under which songs played a central role in motivating and healing. In one, the music was significantly in response to Jim Crow, while in the other it was largely to apartheid. During the 1950s, musical ideas flowed fairly freely between the two countries. One of the most famous of Cape Town\u2019s bands, the Jazz Epistles, became famous in part due to their ability to mix the township sounds of their homeland with the ideas of Gillespie, Parker, and Monk. By the turn of the next decade, this changed drastically. <\/p>\n\n\n

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