Linda Sikhakhane details self-titled Blue Note LP Linda
South African saxophonist and composer Linda Sikhakhane has announced his fifth album, a self-titled set arriving 4 September via Blue Note Records and produced by legendary jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini.
The record’s first single, “Days Begin To Sing”, is out now. Featuring vocalist Omagugu, the track sets the album’s tone, framing Sikhakhane’s search for purpose as an expression of transcendent love. Further guests include rapper Zuluboy on “Ilanga”, trumpeter and younger brother Thabo Sikhakhane on the lineage-focused “Uzalo”, and rising singer Ovuyonke on “Izibusiso”, a track built around a Makhathini composition.
Recorded with an ensemble drawn from Sikhakhane’s close musical community, the album uses the saxophonist’s own name as a starting point for meditations on heritage, spirituality, and belonging. The Umlazi-born, KwaNongoma-descended player has long treated self-discovery as a collaborative act, and Linda extends that approach: Thabo Sikhakhane’s “Uzalo” examines the passing of legacies across generations, while Zuluboy’s verse on “Ilanga” reaches for a guiding light “as people under the sun.”
Sikhakhane is a 2022 Standard Bank Young Jazz Artist honouree, and has spent the years since his debut refining a sound that revives the archives of South African jazz. Linda folds the rhythms of contemporary club music into a musical language that remains rooted in improvisation.
The album marks Sikhakhane’s first release for Blue Note, a label with its own long history of documenting South African jazz.
Linda is released on 4 September via Blue Note Records
Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture