Jazz trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni and the Amandla Freedom Ensemble will launch their long-anticipated album, Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth, a musical reflection on the 1976 student protests and the #FeesMustFall movement with a live concert.
The album, which is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and all major digital platforms from 5 May 2023, is the culmination of an extraordinary collaborative endeavour between some of Jozi’s most formidable jazz, classical and indigenous music artists. It will also be available to purchase on vinyl and CD at the concert.
Released ahead of Youth Month and rooted in the complex legacy of Black Consciousness, Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth reimagines jazz through the lens of poetry and classical musings while evoking the restless spirit of student resistance and echoing the rallying cry for change in these turbulent times, says Mlangeni, the 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz.
He and the Amandla Freedom Ensemble will be joined on stage at Wits Great Hall by a who’s who of featured artists, including performance art ensemble The Brother Moves On, the Vivacious Sounds choir, award-winning poet Lesego Rampolokeng, the Resonance String Quartet, pianist and scholar Yonela Mnana, and sand artist Tawanda MuAfrika.
Expect a powerful multidisciplinary musical experience that incorporates poetry and theatre, audaciously pairing a cutting-edge jazz ensemble with a string quartet and choir.
Explains Mlangeni: “The Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth resonates with the spirit of where South Africa finds itself: At a crossroads of confronting its malignant past so as to heal from the trauma of generational dispossession and the realities of a voiceless majority with little to celebrate in the post-apartheid era. Our project expands on the interdisciplinary piece that has been performed in different formats in recent years, in order to anchor it in the collective memory by means of physical objects that will serve as archival memories. This will be articulated through the creation of a book and vinyl record to accompany the album.”
About the album
The six-track album features the Amandla Freedom Ensemble, which includes Ariel Zamonsky (bass), Yonela Mnana (piano), Thabang Manana (alto sax) and Sisonke Xonti (tenor sax). It also includes contributions from members of The Brother Moves On – Siya Mthembu (vocals), Simphiwe Tshabalala (drums) and Muhammad Dawjee (tenor and baritone sax).
Also featured on the album is the Resonance String Quartet with Kabelo Mothlomi and Kabelo Monnathebe (violin), Tiisetso Mashishi (viola) and Daliwonga Tshangela (cello).
Vivacious Sounds was the featured choir under the direction of Yonela Mnana, alongside members of the Wits Jazz Ensemble – Enoch Marutha (drums), Sibonelo Kodisang (tenor sax) and Mathapelo Wesinyane (alto sax). Special guests on the album include multi-instrumentalist Mark Fransman (flute, bass clarinet, alto sax) and Lesego Rampolokeng, who wrote the libretto and recited the poetry.
With the sum of these creative powerhouses in the mix, expect a nuanced and explosive musical journey into South Africa’s struggle psyche that boldly melds Western Art music and jazz with indigenous sounds.
Mlangeni hopes that Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth will be the springboard for bold new ideas to reimagine spaces for creative discourse, as the different players 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.
Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth was produced by Mlangeni, with the support of the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Wits School of Arts. It was recorded at Soulfire Studios in Johannesburg between September 2021 and April 2022 by Gavan Eckhart, who also mixed and mastered the album.
Tickets for the concert at the Wits Great Hall in Johannesburg on 27 May cost R150 and can be booked at Quicket.
