On stage: Thandi Ntuli and her seven-piece band will perform at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival taking place in Johannesburg next weekend. Photo: Ndumiso Sibanda
Thandi Ntuli’s name has become synonymous with the current wave of South African jazz. For more than a decade she’s been one of the artists reshaping how we hear, feel and even imagine, the possibilities of the genre.
Born and raised in Soshanguve, Tshwane, she began playing piano at just four years old, but it was only in high school that she found the desire to pursue music professionally.
Her debut album The Offering, released in 2014, immediately positioned her as a force to be reckoned with — it earned a Metro FM Award nomination in 2015 and won the Arts & Culture Trust Impact Award the following year.
Over the years, she has led some of the most exciting new talents in jazz, including Sisonke Xonti, Mthunzi Mvubu, Keenan Ahrends, Sphelelo Mazibuko, Benjamin Jephta and Spha Mdlalose, demonstrating not only her skill as a pianist and vocalist but also as a visionary bandleader.
Her sophomore album Exiled, released in 2018, coincided with her being named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz, one of the country’s most prestigious awards for emerging talent.
Beyond recordings, she has shared stages with iconic figures like Thandiswa Mazwai, The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and internationally with Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center, while also collaborating on genre-blending projects with artists like DJ Kenzhero and Rebirth of Cool.
Festivals both at home and abroad — from the Cape Town International Jazz Festival to the Calabar International Jazz Festival in Nigeria — have hosted her performances, solidifying her role as an ambassador of modern South African jazz.
Her career is a testament to the power of combining technical mastery, creativity and a commitment to cultural heritage.
At this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival, in Joburg from 26 to 28 September, Ntuli will be on stage with her seven-piece band, joined by two towering figures of South African music: Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse and Alec Khaoli.
For most, those names conjure legends in their own right. For Ntuli, they carry something more intimate.
Mabuse and Khaoli were founding members of Harare, the band her father, and later her uncle, were part of, a group that became one of the most influential outfits of the Seventies. That family connection gives this performance the weight of heritage as well as artistry.
I spoke to Ntuli the day after her birthday. She laughed when I asked if she had celebrated, telling me she was happy to take the day off but wasn’t ready for serious festivities yet.
“I’ll leave everything till late September after the Joy of Jazz,” she said. “I’m still deep in prep mode, so I don’t have the focus to think about partying.”
It made sense. With a show of this scale, with this much history behind it, she’s locked in.
But she’s also in a reflective mood. “Last year, I celebrated 10 years since my debut album came out,” she says. “And I think, at this stage in my career, I’m at a place of really refining my artistic vision and my purpose. Part of that vision is heritage.”
For Ntuli, heritage is not nostalgia. It’s about grounding her work in the lessons and textures of the past while remaining rooted in the present.
“I’ve found so much value in being a musician and how it has helped me as a young person who’s figuring out what her identity is.
“We grew up in townships and we didn’t really have a sense of what our culture is based on the environment we grew up in. Music has been such a place of learning for me.
“And so I feel, like, for an artist who is conscious about the fact that their music has an impact on people, it becomes important to refine what kind of artist you want to be.
“Bringing in Baba Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse and Alec Khaoli is my way of grounding that vision, of saying I want to express myself but also really draw from the past to learn from the best aspects of it.”
Poses: Thandi Ntuli practises yoga to relieve stress and ground herself. Photo: Ndumiso Sibanda
This idea of conscious artistry, of asking again and again what kind of artist you want to be, is central to Ntuli’s approach. It extends beyond her music to her daily practices, the inner work she does to sustain herself for the long haul. She admits even with passion, discouragement is inevitable.
“A lot of people think that just because you’re doing something you’re passionate about, you don’t ever come into feeling discouraged.
“But we do go through slumps. For me, I’m aware that sometimes you just ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But, at the same time, when I don’t do this, I cannot cope.
“For longevity, the work is many things. [It] has included doing work on myself. In 2021, I started with therapy and, it seems completely unrelated, but I can see how certain things from that experience have helped me become a better person and bring different parts of myself to music.
“It’s also helped me have more compassion for myself as an artist, because we can be very hard on ourselves, creatives.”
Yoga has become another cornerstone, a way to relieve stress and re-centre. Ntuli points out that many of the elders she admires had similar grounding practices: Abdullah Ibrahim, in his nineties and still performing, with martial arts; Hugh Masekela with tai chi.
“Musicians need to do something that keeps their spirit rejuvenated and alive,” she says. “That’s been very important for me in terms of staying motivated, of renewing my vision.”
She likens it to the way companies have annual strategy meetings.
“When people have a business, every year there are team meetings to establish where the company is going. I think those same things are important for artists — to come back to the drawing board, to ask yourself the same questions in different ways.”
Renewal, for Ntuli, also comes from living outside of music. Picking up hobbies, finding joy in small discoveries, giving herself permission to be a whole person beyond her art.
“Living is a very good thing,” she laughs. “Just enjoying things, because that always feeds back into my creative life.”
She recalls reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and being struck by the idea of “artist dates” — taking yourself out alone, cultivating curiosity.
“Through that I realised there was so much I hadn’t been doing that seems obvious. When I travel, I’m so curious about things. But when we’re at home, we lose that curiosity.
“So now I try to bring it into my life here, whether it’s visiting a museum or even just jumping on the red bus to see Jozi. Small things that change your perspective. You meet people you wouldn’t have met, you overhear conversations. We’re always drawing content from life, but if we keep doing the same things, it limits what we can express.”
This balance, between grounding herself in heritage and staying open to curiosity, is what animates Ntuli.
After Joy of Jazz, she’s preparing for another major performance — a duo concert with pianist Nduduzo Makhathini in Cape Town next month, bringing together two of the country’s most adventurous jazz voices.
For Ntuli, it’s another chance to refine and stretch her artistry, to deepen her vision of what South African jazz can be in dialogue with the world: “I want to be an artist who expresses myself but also who draws on the best aspects of our past. That’s where I’m at right now.”
As we wrap up, I’m struck by how Ntuli talks about her work with the same language she uses to talk about living. Heritage, renewal, curiosity — these are not abstract concepts. They’re practices, folded into daily life, shaping her music from the inside out.
It’s why she can sit at the piano and summon not just notes but worlds; why she can stand on a festival stage and carry the weight of lineage and still make it feel light, urgent, new.
Ntuli is refining her vision and reminding us of what artistry can be — a way of grounding ourselves in the best of who we are, while staying curious about what’s still to come.