Young trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni is redefining the art of jazz by reflecting the hurtful past and the beauty of South Africa through his horn.  

Born in 1986 in Soweto, the son of  politician and lawyer Bheki Mlangeni, sets to present The Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth at the Market Theatre in Newtown on Saturday and Sunday. The concerts are a concept that he and his Amandla Freedom Ensemble created to showcase a combination of beautiful indigenous sounds fused with classical music to create a new jazz form.

Mlangeni said the concept started nine years ago and premiered in Cape Town and has been presented at different spaces including the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, Eastern Cape. The multidisciplinary collaborative performance is the echo of the 1976 youth resistance and enthusiastic chants for change using poetry, classical music among other instruments, said Mlangeni who won the 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz.

The Oratorio features acclaimed sand artists like Tawanda Mu Afrika, pianist Yonela Mnana and a libretto by award-winning poet and theatre practitioner Lesego Rampolokeng. The Amandla Freedom Ensemble consists of Mlangeni, Michael Nkuna, Ofentse Sebula, Kgetsi Nkotsi and Junior Matsila, Mark Fransman, Dalisu Ndlazi and Siphiwe Shiburi on drums.

“The production commemorates June 16 and Fees Must Fall events through a musical and theatrical narrative, reflects the turbulence that South Africa finds itself in. Looking at how we do things, we seem to suffer from collective amnesia. We forget about the lives we lost while achieving this freedom and the many roads we had to travel to achieve it.

“The presentation is more of playing against the conventions of what the genre holds. Oratorio is a classical form and the combination of the two sounds, and we are activating a new form particularly relating to jazz and indigenous music. We are also bringing it to the fore in telling our own stories,” says Mlangeni.

“Our foray into the classical world is an opportunity to give voice to new expression within the structural confines of Western Art, while also drawing from the deep well of indigenous music by creating cultural avenues that allow for audiences to tap into new and unimagined worlds.”  

According to Mlangeni the presentation will create new and interesting narratives, juxtaposed with choral renditions of the struggles of our past while swinging through the perplexities of our present day and cementing the foundations of our future.

“The concept of Oratorio  started a while ago when I was with working other practitioners, because there was a space African Freedom Station in Westdene [in Joburg]. Working there got me thinking about those forms that we only hear about from Western guys and actually they have been on dispensation for some time. But there has not been any real inroads made with regards putting this in a formative jazz way. It is important to contextualisation to speak about my personal history in writing his music.”

Apart from working on music of the Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth, Mlangeni and his team called Tune Recreation Committee (TRC) have dropped a third album titled The Future Is Now. In this project, one is presented with the sounds of his soft trumpet.

Co-produced by the formidable jazz pianist Afrika Mkhize, Mlangeni says the album represents a new direction for the sound of the ensemble as they create a canvas on which musical ideas are expressed freely and honestly, whilst drawing inspiration from a myriad of influencers and compositional styles.

“The idea behind the album was more towards achieving a group sound that represents a fresh approach to the canon of South African music, particularly jazz. We fused the influences of those who came before us such as Moses Molelekwa, Bra Hugh Masekela, Busi Mhlongo, with elements of the jazz tradition in America and what that means to us.”

The 10-track album was recorded on the eve of the 2020 lockdown and took almost two years to complete and some of Mlangeni’s highlights include a dedication to Bra Hugh Masekela, a primary musical influence, entitled Wena Fela. The song is also an ode to Masekela’s collaborator and music activist, the late Fela Kuti of Nigeria.