Jazz Night with Khaya Mahlangu

The Alliance Française du Cap and Jazz in the Native Yards present Khaya Mahlangu.

With a career spanning over four decades, jazz composer and saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu is a veteran adept at playing different instruments, with a pennywhistle being the first instrument he played when he was around seven years old.

Growing up in Soweto during the heady days of apartheid, music proved to be a welcome escape for Mahlangu. He had a “brief spell” with The Beaters, a popular disco band formed in 1968, and later changed its name to Harari. The band paved the way for numerous bands, notably Sakhile, a trailblazing group he formed together with Don Laka and the late Sipho Gumede.

Not the one to be defined by one skill, Mahlangu plays the trumpet, flute and piano but the saxophone is his primary instrument. He was part of a jazz-fusion outfit, Spirit Rejoice, which incorporated the late Bheki Mseleku and once again, Sipho Gumede. He describes Spirit Rejoice as “one of the first seminal bands to come out of this country”. The band backed for Joy, a popular vocal group of Paradise Road fame.

When he is not on stage, he spends his time at the University of the Witwatersrand giving saxophone lessons to Music students.

“If I slow down, I am going to die. I have a zest for life,” he says.

He has also devoted his time with the Gauteng Jazz Music Orchestra, where he was musical director between 2009 and 2014.

BOOKING ON QUICKET : https://qkt.io/Uflhs1

FEES: R150 / R100 Students / R60 Alliance Française students