Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$7USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
2022 repress of the 1971 South African/Bay Area spiritual jazz masterpiece.
Pressed on heavy 160gm vinyl at Smashed Plastic in Chicago, including booklet with rare photographs and concert bills, personal recollections from Plunky Branch, and extensive liner notes by Francis Golding and the great Thulani Davis.
Ndikho Xaba left South Africa in 1964, an exile from his homeland who eventually found his place in San Francisco’s vibrant spiritual jazz scene of the late 60s. A songwriter, bandleader, pianist, and inventor of percussion and woodwind instruments, Xaba played alongside contemporaries like Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, and Sun Ra. But it was on the single album he recorded in the US, self-released in an edition of 100 copies in 1971, that Xaba realized his unique vision.
Backed by a band that included Plunky Branch and Lon Moshe (Oneness of Juju and Black Fire label), Xaba bridged the Black Atlantic, connecting the music of Africa with the most brilliant lights of the Diaspora, and drawing a line between the Black Power movement of the US and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Across five songs, Xaba and the band move through spiritual invocations, wrenching soul, and dizzying layers of rhythm knocked out on homemade instruments. The album is a critical political and historical document, and one of our favorite spiritual jazz albums of all time.
Licensed from Nomusa Xaba, Ndikho's partner, a poet, storyteller, album-cover artist, and namesake of the stunning track immortalizing her name. This is a re-issue of the remastered 2015 release by Matsuli Music, pressed on 160gm vinyl, including booklet with rare photographs and concert bills, personal recollections from Plunky Branch, and extensive liner notes by Francis Golding and the great Thulani Davis, who was a part of Xaba's musical community.
Available from Mississippi Records in North America and Matsuli Music in the rest of the world.
Arranged by
NDIKHO
Produced by
THE NATIVES
Re-recorded / Edited by
AUSTIN MCCOY
Photography: PHILLIP PRICE/PLUNKY
Art Conception: NOMUSA XABA
Album Design: EDDIE HORAN
supported by 52 fans who also own “Ndikho Xaba and the Natives”
Magic in its purest form. I love Floating Points, I love Pharoah Sanders, I love The London Symphony Orchestra. It's a match made in heaven, and the result is absolutely gorgeous. I have loved this record since its release, and realized I don't own it for some reason. So its time to change that. 9.5/10 honestly could become a 10/10 on an indepth vinyl relisten. angrypizza98
An absolutely killer spiritual jazz record from South African drummer and composer Tumi Mogorosi that moves hearts & lifts souls. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 16, 2022
On “Finish the Sun,” Shane Cooper & MABUTA explore the many musical influences that make up their native South Africa. Bandcamp New & Notable May 16, 2022