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Mandla Mlangeni

trumpet

Raised in Soweto, Mandla Mlangeni is a graduate from the University of Cape Town. As a composer, arranger, bandleader and trumpeter, he has toured internationally with the Tune Recreation Committee, Amandla Freedom Ensemble and the Native Groove Collective. As a collaborator, he has performed with Hugh Masekela, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Steve Dyer, Susana Baca, Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse and many more. Mandla is the curator of a concert series in Cape Town called the Afrikan Freedom Principle, which has hosted a list of great South African luminaries. His original music can be described as ‘combing church music with American post-bop and the bounding interwoven cycles of Eastern Cape music’, and he also experiments with pop, rock, big band, salsa, Balkan beats and R&B.