Exiled

2018’s Standard Bank Young Artist for jazz Thandi Ntuli promised that her sophomore release was going to be “risky and experimental”. Exiled certainly is—and the results are delightfully surprising. The album finds the Soshanguve-born jazz pianist and bandleader further establishing herself as a cerebral composer, modern musician and intuitive vocalist who cannot be ignored. This is definitely music written to better showcase those vocals too, compared to her first album, and it’s shown to brilliantly atmospheric effect in “What’s Left?”, an elegantly understated ballad that ponders broken hearts and dreams. Ntuli’s joined on Exiled by a few familiar faces—including legendary drummer Tlale Makhene (“Abyssinia”) and performance poet Lebo Mashile (“The Void”), making this exploration of isolation richly multi-layered and deeply rewarding.