Rainbow Revisited

Thandi Ntuli has been at the forefront of South Africa’s vibrant jazz scene since the release of her 2014 debut album The Offering, and her music has become increasingly ambitious with each release, showcasing her incredible compositional talent through elaborate arrangements stretched across jazz, pop, and gospel and even ethio-jazz compositions. Rainbow Revisited — which builds upon “Rainbow (Skit)” from her 2018 record Exiled — peels it all back, leaving only Ntuli’s delicate piano playing and her incredibly powerful voice to do the emotive heavy lifting, while Carlos Niño builds upon Ntuli’s world through light rhythmic textures and subtle production. Across the album’s ten tracks what stands out the most is Ntuli’s ability to convey profound emotion with just a minimal touch, whether through her (mostly) scat vocals or the way she flies across her piano keys, unconstrained and free.