Concert2 #IfYouCantSeeMe Mandla Mlangeni & the Tune Recreation Committee
The 2nd concert in the series featured Mandla Mlangeni and the Tune Recreation Committee.
The featured artists were:
- Mandla Mlangeni, trumpet and compositions
- Romy Brauteseth, double bass
- Zoe Modiga, vocals
- Abraham Mennen, saxophone
Catch parts of the concert below from the live video and live audio streams.
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Mandla Mlangeni and the Tune Recreation Committee
feat Mandla Mlangeni (trumpet & compositions), Brydon Bolton (bass), Zoe Modiga (vocals)
Thursday 30 July 2015
At Coffeebeans Routes, 22 Hope St Cape Town
The 2nd in the 10 part concert series called #IfYouCantSeeMe features the Soweto born and raised trumpeter and composer Mandla Mlangeni, playing as a trio with his Tune Recreation Committee, or TRC.
Mandla is a voracious music maker. He performs his own works with four different outfits – as the brass band Native Groove Collective, best known in Cape Town as part of the City All Sessions, bringing the cobblestones to life on Greenmarket Square; in Jozi he leads the collective of young musicians called Amandla Freedom Station; the Tune Recreation Committee is his Cape Town ensemble, and over the last two years he has been working symphonic with Mac McKenzie’s Cape Town Goema Orchestra, conducting his own original works with a 25 piece orchestra.
His performances are as energetic as his intentions – this is the great can’t-sit-still musician. When he’s on stage, Mandla is all moving parts, even when conducting orchestra, where he must be one of the few rock and roll conductors in the world.
His genetic and emotional energy insists that whatever music he is playing, it is never one thing. The essence of Mandla is the immersion of many musics in each other. There’s township gospel, Soweto jazz, Cape jazz, rock, afrobeat… Mandla plays his environment, presently and historically. His dress style is reminiscent of the 1950s Drum Magazine era, his music plays with elements of the musical idioms and narratives of that era, yet Mandla is not simply a celebrant of heritage. He is writing the future, his future, maybe also our collective future. As he puts it, “I am writing my experiences, and writing what I want to play”. As his career grows, so he becomes more and more a soundtrack to the South Africa’s emotional development. His approach is the proof of his mantra – “to integrate my music into the very fabric of contemporary music culture”.
Mandla has yet to record an album.
Here’s some of the headlines of his music career:
He has played in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Israel, France, Britain and Botswana, performing a wide variety of music ranging from Classical, Jazz, Pop, Balkan and Indigenous African Music.
He has played with celebrated musicians such as Barney Rachabane, Marcus Wyatt, John Davies, Hugh Masekela, Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, Louis Tebogo Moholo Moholo, Andile Yenana, and Khaya Mahlangu, to name a few.
