Doors: 5:30pm
Tickets: $10-$30
Advance tickets can only be purchased online-we do not sell advance tickets at the venue. Refunds are not available within 48 hours of the event. Tickets do not guarantee seating during shows at the Royal Room.
We are now accepting reservations for diners! After purchasing tickets, please visit the Reservations page to book a table. Table reservations require advance tickets, and are only for guests who plan to dine at the Royal Room. We do not take reservations over the phone.
Seating for non-diners is first come, first served. Please arrive early to guarantee a seat!
Hailing from uMgungundlovu, in South Africa Nduduzo Makhathini is an award-winning pianist, improvisor, healer and scholar and an important change-maker in South Africa’s jazz and wider music scene. Makhathini draws influences from his hometown—a place of significant history as the 19th century royal capital of the Zulu King Dingane, and a place where music and its essential healing powers are both integral to the community. Further influenced by the music he absorbed from the church and from important South African jazz figures such as Bheki Mseleku, Moses Molelekwa, and Abdullah Ibrahim, Makhathini cites John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, along with American jazz pianists Andrew Hill, Randy Weston, and Don Pullen as significant influences in his musical journey. Eager to record his work for the wider world, he founded the label Gundu Entertainment in partnership with his wife and vocalist Omagugu Makhathini, with many of those albums garnering awards. His 2017 album Ikhambi was the first to be released on Universal Music South Africa and won Best Jazz Album at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in 2018. His Blue Note debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds was named one of the “Best Jazz Albums of 2020” by The New York TImes. Makhathini’s latest album on Blue Note Records, In the Spirit of NTU was released in 2022. JazzTimes praises that album as “deeply human, a potent brew of fury, joy, and solidarity.”
Makhathini is a well-respected collaborator as a member of Shabaka Hutchings’ band Shabaka and the Ancestors, as well as in formations with Wynton Marsalis, Nasheet Waits, and Stefon Harris among others. For this concert with Earshot, Makhathini will be working with Francisco Mela on drums and Swelakhe Duma Bell Le Pere on bass.
Nduduzo Makathini photo courtesy of Nicola Adriani Music