{"product_id":"the_myth_we_choose","title":"The Myth We Choose","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Myth We Choose is South African pianist, composer, and healer Nduduzo Makhathini’s fourth album for Blue Note Records, a 16‑track, hour‑long double album released in 2026 that he describes as a work made for posterity, even “eternity.” Built around his working trio with bassist Dalisu Ndlazi and drummer Lukmil Perez (with Ayanda Sikade on select tracks) and co‑produced with his 18‑year‑old son Thingo, the album expands his spiritual jazz language with electronics, neo‑soul colors, Afro‑Cuban grooves, and guest contributions from trumpeter Robin Fassie, flutist Shabaka, DJ\/producer Black Coffee, guitarist Keenan Ahrends, and vocalists Omagugu, Muneyi, and Thando Zide. Recorded between Durban and Johannesburg, it unfolds as a continuous ritual theater of sound, where handclaps, chant‑like vocals, bowed bass, and modal piano figures link pieces like Kuzodlula, Imvunge KaNtu, Liyoze Line Nangakithi, Ekuqaleni, Tethered, Linwalo La Mubebi, Primordial Egg, Kwamability, and Unembeza into a single, evolving journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConceptually, Makhathini uses the album to explore how societies “choose” their myths—how songs become tools for myth‑making that shape how future generations will understand history, identity, and responsibility. Tracks move between themes of ancestry, masculinity, remembrance, fatherhood, love, and transcendence; for instance, Imvunge KaNtu invokes Zulu cosmology and ancestral wisdom, Linwalo La Mubebi offers a tender hymn to fatherly love, and Ekuqaleni meditates on the Zulu creation myth using synths and vocoder that nod to Herbie Hancock‑style fusion within a Coltrane–McCoy Tyner‑inspired spiritual framework. Critics emphasize that while the music is dense with philosophy and ritual symbolism, it remains deeply melodic and bodily—rhythms feel dug from the earth, and Makhathini’s piano, voice, and vocoder blur the line between prayer, prophecy, and improvisation in a way that seeks not just to impress, but to heal, confront, and re‑enchant the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Record Store","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl \/ 2LP","offer_id":53704088158522,"sku":"39042","price":54.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/2041\/0682\/files\/Screenshot_2026-07-08_at_2.44.35_PM.jpeg?v=1783536432","url":"https:\/\/recordstore.ca\/products\/the_myth_we_choose","provider":"Record Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}