Elements of jazz music appear in nearly every sonic sector in music from Southern Africa, and for South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhatini, the genre is inseparable from African culture. “Jazz is an undefinable word that was given to a music that symbolised a refusal to disconnect with origin in Africa,” Makhatini tells Apple Music. “It is therefore a product of black memory and solidarities over the Atlantic. It is a way of being free, an opportunity to co-create one’s reality.” For Makhatini, jazz is not just a vehicle of transmission for African sounds, but also African culture. “All black musics are African musics and any successes of these musics are, by extension, successes of an African project,” he explains. “This is then beyond music; it is about how these sounds have kept Africa ‘visible’, and I also add, audible. In IsiZulu, we say “ingane engakhali ifela embelekweni” which, in this context suggests: “With no sound comes some form of death”—thus, the success is to stay alive.” To celebrate the enduring inspirations of jazz music upon modern musical soundscapes, Makhatini assembles a master syllabus of seminal jazz hits from The Soul Jazzmen, Busi Mhlongo, Zim Ngqawana, Miriam Makeba, The Elite Swingsters, Dorothy Masuka, Letta Mbulu, Abdullah Ibrahim and more. As Makhatini explains, “The premise of jazz is really to explore the unknown under what we call improvisation. This means dealing with a situation in real-time. This is how I hope jazz can inspire any generation that encounters it—to be fearless in exploring your fullest potential.”