On October 13 the Mushroom Hour Half Hour and New Soil labels co-release kwaNTU, a gorgeous album of South African guitar from the duo of Madala Kunene (the elder) and Sibusile Xaba (the protégé). Known as the King of the Zulu Guitar, Kunene is little known outside his home country, while the younger jazz-influenced Xaba is poised to break out even more on the world stage. This 10-track collection is a splendid balm for troubled times, available on vinyl, compact disc, and digital.
That Madala Kunene isn’t better known by international listeners can be chalked up to the difficulties of exposure that befell South African musicians in the waning moments of Apartheid and then immediately after. His self-titled 1990 debut album, originally released by Third Ear Music, is certainly a pleasant experience, if unsurprisingly a wee bit dated in the production department.
Sibusile Xaba’s 2017 debut, the double set Open Letter to Adoniah/Unlearning, was the first release on Mushroom Hour Half Hour, an adventurous Johannesburg-based label that began as a vinyl-only radio show on a pirate radio station. If jazz influenced (Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall are cited as having impacted his style), Xaba is no trad cat; his debut finds him just as moved by South African sounds and also singing, often exuberantly in a sort of dialogue/counterpoint with his guitar playing.
After a meeting and time spent together, Kunene and Xaba became friends, with a budding mentorship to follow, and now comes this collaboration, which is often stunning in its beauty, and immediately so in opener “Umkhulu Omkhulu,” with its exchange of folky and jazz guitar as Xaba sings atop.
kwaNTU isn’t a pure duo album, as percussion, a small string section, and even field recordings broaden the sonic landscape. Flutes, percussion, and backing vocals are featured in “Izimpisi” as Kunene takes the lead vocal. “Mqhelwe” is next, delivering a feast of dual guitar, and “Usho Njalo” follows with a full band intensity courtesy of the hand drums, but no less beautiful as it unravels its charms.
“Wemfana,” with its interweaving of guitars and a lead-backing vocal interplay, recalls the gorgeousness of prime South African stuff, and is an album highlight. Percussion adds heft, and then the string section gushes in with the pure verve of Astral Weeks. But these are ultimately mere reference points, not stylistic debts, as kwaNTU thrives via a timeless quality.
Impressively, “Izimfijoli,” with its field recordings and isitolotolo (mouth bow), is unlike anything else on the record to this point, and yet there’s no strain of diversity. “Inkomo” swings back to guitar and vocal sweetness as a baseline. It and “Tisha” are warmly folky; the latter soars with the lead vocal by guest Fakazile.
“Sesikhona” scales back for the homestretch but gets a little psychedelic in the guitar department in the process. With alusi flute from Daniel “Stompie” Selibe and the return of the string section (violin, viola, cello), “Uhebe” closes kwaNTU by reaching a high beautiful plateau. Kunene and Xaba have gifted listeners with a gem.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
