Mthunzi Mvubu

Mthunzi Mvubu is an alto saxophonist, flutist, and composer from South Africa. Possessed of a reedy yet smooth, nearly mellifluous tone on the horn, his playing style draws on the North American and African jazz traditions; he also has an extensive post-bop vocabulary. Playing professionally since he was 14, Mvubu has traveled globally with jazz luminaries since he was 18. He is also a member of Londoner Shabaka Hutchings' Shabaka & the Ancestors. Mvubu is a founding member of the Amandla Freedom Ensemble and has played in drummer Tumi Mogorosi's band since 2013, appearing on 2014's Project Elo and 2022's Group Theory: Black Music. In 2019, Mvubu led a South African sextet and recorded the Ropeadope album The 1st Gospel. It appeared in May 2023. Mvubu was born in Daveyton, in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng in South Africa, 43 kilometers northeast of Johannesburg. He began teaching himself to read and write music while in elementary school and discovered an affinity for it. At 14, he got a chance to attend the Music Academy of Gauteng under the mentorship of the late Johnny Mekoa. There he studied music theory and piano; he later switched to alto saxophone and flute. Mvubu won the right to play first chair alto in the Music Academy of Gauteng Youth Jazz Orchestra. In 2002, at 16, he made his first recording with the orchestra on the album Song for Ekurhuleni. With the group, he toured Western Europe, the U.K., the U.S., and Russia. During the South African Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival, he played in a big band that backed the O'Jays, the Temptations, and Clarence Carter on their South African tours. After graduating from the Academy, Mvubu became a freelance session and touring jazz musician and taught saxophone. He worked the road with Abdullah Ibrahim, Nduduzo Makhathini, Feya Faku, Herbie Tsoaeli, and Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, to name a few. The year 2014 was prolific for Mvubu. He joined drummer/composer Tumi Mogorosi's sextet and appeared on his influential Project Elo. Mvubu also played on Sketches of Tomorrow and Mother Tongue, the first two albums by Makhathini, as well as Thandi Ntuli's The Offering. Mvubu was off and running. The following year, with Mogorosi, Ariel Zamonsky, and Ganesh Geymeier, he formed the Amandla Freedom Ensemble and released the celebrated album Bhekisizwe ("Look at Us"). In 2016, Barbados-born, South London-based saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings visited South Africa to play on Makhathini's Icilongo (The African Peace Suite), and he formed Shabaka & the Ancestors with all South African musicians, Mvubu, Makhathini, and Mogorosi among them. They entered a Johannesburg recording studio, and in a single day emerged with the Brownswood album Wisdom of Elders. The record was met with global acclaim and the band became a regular recording and touring concern. In addition to working live with Hutchings and Mogorosi, Mvubu appeared with pianist Kyle Shepherd's quintet (which also included guitarist Lionel Loueke) on the 2017 album SWR New Jazz Meeting 2016: Sound Portraits from Contemporary Africa. Mvubu was also quite busy in 2018. In addition to touring with the Ancestors, he played live with Mogorosi and appeared on three albums: pianist Mvuzo Dimba-Fophe's A Pre-Sent, drummer Ayanda Sikade's Movements, and Ntuli's Exiled. The Ancestors also contributed a cover of "Good Morning, Good Morning" to A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper, Brownswood's jazz tribute to the Beatles. In August 2019, Mvubu took his own sextet into the studio. Shabaka & the Ancestors issued We Are Sent Here by History for Impulse! in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the globe. Remarkably, despite having no means to support it on the road, the album sold better than its predecessor. Mvubu spent most of 2021 rehearsing and recording with Mogorosi. In July 2022, the latter's provocative second album, Group Theory: Black Music, appeared as a collaborative release from South Africa's Mushroom Hour and London's New Soil. Mvubu proved a key component in the drummer's work; his alto playing served as the sextet's primary foil for its nine-voice choir and vocal soloists. In May 2023, Mvubu' released The 1st Gospel, his leader debut, on Ropeadope. Recorded in 2019 before the pandemic, it showcased his sophisticated writing and arranging skills in addition to his playing on flute and alto. He composed eight of its ten tunes (pianist Afrika Mkhize wrote the other two) and arranged them all for a sextet that included tenor saxophonists Tobias Meinhart and Mpumi Dhlamini (who also plays a Hammond B-3 organ on one track), drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko, and bassist Dalisu Ndlazi. Everybody sang and chanted. Mvubu also appeared as a guest on Bokani Dyer's 2023 album Radio Sechaba; it was released on the same day in May as The 1st Gospel.
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