TRC OF SOUND VISION
THE Tune Recreation Committee (TRC) have announced their much-anticipated national tour of their debut album titled Voices Of Our Vision. The tour will kick off with two performances on Thursday, July 27 and Friday, July 28 at the SABC Auditorium in Sea Point from 7.30pm.
TRC, a formidable quintet comprising some of Cape Town’s finest young musicians, feature Clement Benny on drums, Nicholas Williams on bass, Keenan Ahrends on guitar, Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet and special guest Mark Fransman on alto saxophone, flute and accordion. The unit has also performed at this year’s 18th annual Cape Town Jazz Festival.
The Cape Town-based TRC take original tunes and reinvent nods from their influences to embracing the vibrant underground music scene of drum and bass and fusing imported sounds and exporting to their own flavour. Either going into a Ghoema-tinged feel or just improvising around the melody.
TRC form a playground for the interrogation, assimilation and extemporisation from the canon of South African jazz heritage.
Mandla Mlangeni, a young vibrant trumpeter from Joburg’s township of Soweto, is the catalyst behind the band. He rose from being a graduate of music composition at UCT to being a notable innovative trumpeter in today’s South African jazz panorama.
Besides being founding member of TRC, Mlangeni also formed a brass band, the Native Groove Collective (NGC), and the newly established Amandla Freedom Ensemble based in Joburg.
He also performs regularly as a freelance musician, as well as leading the TRC. He has been active in many other projects in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Israel, Britain and Botswana, where he performed a wide variety of music ranging from classical, jazz, pop and indigenous African music.
He has also performed with many celebrated musicians, including Barney Rachabane, Marcus Wyatt, John Davies, Hugh Masekela, Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, Susana Baca (Peru), Mark Fransman, Louis Moholo, Dizu Plaatjies and Khaya Mahlangu.
“I am a strong believer in giving back to the community”, says Mlangeni. “This is why I have chosen in my student days, voluntarily, to teach music at Manenberg High School as well as Alex Sinton High School.”
“In 2006, I was selected as part of the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band which toured South Africa and Sweden and performed at several Jazz festivals including The Cape Town Jazz Festival, Joburg Joy of Jazz Festival and the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. I performed regularly with the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, UCT Big Band, Moreira Chonguica and Hilton Schilder.”
In 2007/2008 he participated in an exchange programme in Oslo at the Norwegian Music Academy, toured Europe with a Balkan Rock band Under Dogs International (UDI). In 2009, he toured Germany with the Miagi Youth Orchestra. He had a successful tour in the UK and Israel with Cape Town Opera, and has composed music for the Cape
I can contribute immensely to the music scene in South Africa and beyond. I envisage my music integrated into the very fabric of contemporary music culture.
Town Ghoema Orchestra.
“I am the founder and curator of a concert series in Cape Town called the Afrikan Freedom Principle, which has hosted and collaborated with a list of South African luminaries such as Tebogo Louis Moholo Moholo, Dizu Plaatjies, Andile Yenana and Errol Dyers with my Cape Town-based initiatives such as the TRC and the NGC.”
Mlangeni is embarking on a multitude of projects designed to showcase his original music and still collaborate with celebrated musicians.
“I am an adept musician in many styles of music and believe I can contribute immensely to the music scene in South Africa and beyond.” The TRC (its name is a sidelong reference to the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission) avoids the most common pitfalls in South African jazz,” Mlangeni says.
The event takes place at the SABC Auditorium, 209 Beach Road in Sea Point on July 28 at 7.30pm. For more information, call Luvuyo Kakaza on 060 960 8935.