Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Nhlanhla Daniel Mahlangu was born on the May 12th,1989 in
one of South Africa’s most vibrant townships, Mamelodi.
Mahlangu was a fine art enthusiast before discovering his love
and interest for music for which the clarinet was his first
instrument. He was discovered by Jesse Mogale who runs a
music education program named CAFCA. Although he first took
up the clarinet, alto saxophone has always been his voice of
choice. Mahlangu started playing the saxophone in 2006 under
the tutorship of Koos Washington Jele who’s also known as
“Bra Vus’ ” who hails from Alexandra township. Some of
Mahlangu’s early influences range from Charlie Parker,
Abdulah Ibrahim, Barney Rachabane, Kenny Garrett, Benjamin
Dube, Arthur Mafokate, Donny & Lala Hathaway but to name a
few. It is due to this broad pallet of musical tastes that
Mahlangu has developed into a versatile and well-rounded
musician.
Nhlanhla Mahlangu has worked with and has been
mentored by both the top South African and
international jazz greats. He has performed at most of
the major festivals in the country including Standard
Bank Joy of jazz, Makhanda (Grahamstown) Jazz festival,
Cape Town Jazz Festival but to name a few. During the
inaugural Tshwane international big band festival, one
of the headliners, the Grammy nominated Stefon Harris
(then Dean of Manhattan School of Music), invited
Mahlangu to study in New York based on his stellar
performance. By 2017 Nhlanhla Mahlangu had
composed a body of multi- discipline work entitled
DaniMali which is aimed at
narrating the story of an identity of a people during an
era of transition. This project produced his debut album
entitled DaniMali in 2019. The groundbreaking project
did a countrywide tour that packed South Africa’s
premier jazz venues to capacity

Collaborations

Some of the great artists that we had the privilege and honor of collaborating with include Jon Faddis, Feya Faku, Stefon Harris, Dr. James Saltzman, Sean Jones, Don Laka, Dr. Abdulah Ibrahim, Prof. Rufus Reid (USA), Sibongile Khumalo, Dr. Yusef Latif (USA), Prof Lein Ariel (USA), Barney Rachabane, Themba Mkhize, Andile Yenana, Herbie Tsoaeli, Moss Mogale, Zwelakhe Duma Bell-Le Pere, Victor Masondo, Ringo Madlingozi, Zulu Boy, Skwata Kamp, Victor Masondo, Vusi Mahlasela and Italo Dlamini (Swaziland) but to name a few. We also recorded albums with the likes of: Afrika Mkhize, Mahlatse Matlala, Ayanda Sikade, Feya Faku, Nduduzo Makhathini and Tumi Mogorosi.

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