All that jazz
JOBURG – A prominent musician from Soweto tours South Africa in hopes of preserving and promoting jazz music.
Following in the footsteps of the greats, Mandla Mlangeni continues to develop jazz in South Africa.
The Afrikan Freedom Principle is a concert series that was initially set up in Cape Town in 2013, but in recent years has functioned as an umbrella movement under which collaborations with luminaries such as Louis Tebogo Moholo-Moholo (of the highly influential Blue Notes and Brotherhood of Breath), Shabaka Hutchings (winner of the 2013 Mobo award for Jazz), Dizu Plaatjies (founding member of Amampondo) and Errol Dyers (pioneer of goema music which is influenced by the Cape minstrels) have taken place.
In its 2017 incarnation, the Afrikan Freedom Principle travels to a number of local and international cities including Johannesburg, to investigate how these types of collaborations can be rearticulated into educational models for aspiring musicians.
The Afrikan Freedom Principle presents a program facilitated by musicians Matchume Zango in Mozambique, Cara Stacey in Swaziland and Mandla Mlangeni in Joburg.
These three regional composers of different musical backgrounds will meet to create music together and to facilitate workshops and performances with local students. In these, the importance of experimentation, improvisation, research techniques and locally-derived foundational compositional methods will be emphasised in keeping with the focus of the Afrikan Freedom Principle; which is respectfully drawing on local, southern African cultural legacy to inform new, innovative musical practice.
Spread out across various venues and educational institutions across Johannesburg, the Afrikan Freedom Principle aims to facilitate cultural participation at all levels through music and the arts.
These workshops are facilitated by the South African Music Rights Organisation, and other organisations, to bring the tour to Wits Music Department from 15 to 19 May and present a concert at the the Wits Great Hall on 17 May, in addition to another concert at Niki’s Oasis in Newtown on 19 May.
Read: Joburg’s Stanley Beer Yard has your weekly jazz fix
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