Mandisi Dyantyis taking music to the next level with his upcoming two-nights show
In an effort to always elevate his music and his delivery, multitalented musician Mandisi Dyantyis will be reimagining his art with his two upcoming performances.
The award-winning Jazz singer/composer/trumpeter, together with his newly formed 18-piece Jazz orchestra, will be painting Joburg’s Emperors Palace red on the 11th and 12th November where audiences will be treated to a new experience of his music.
And while this is an approach he has never taken before, pushing the envelope with every show that he stages – Mandisi admits that such shows require a lot of hard work, planning and arranging. But it is this hard work that he is willing to invest in order to see a vision of bringing something new to his audience.
A musical performance that keeps moving forward to new heights with every show.
“Shows like these are generally your cabarets or shows that we see overseas or presented as your swing bands. You know like your typical jazz swing band, that’s how people have come to equate that style of playing music. But I think it is also important that our music generally is seen in this light and that our audiences get to experience that in its fullness.
“Being able to present such a show is also an indication of growth, for the mere fact that we are not complacent about where we are and that we understand that there are bigger things out there that we are striving to achieve is an indication of growth and moving the music forward.”
Since releasing his first album in 2018, Mandisi has touched the souls of many music lovers with his emotive and relatable music that tells a story with every melody. Reimagining those songs while backed by an 18-piece Jazz orchestra promises a musical feast like no other.
“What will be seen on stage is something that we normally talk about but now it’s in practice. And there’s a fine line when you do these kinds of shows because the audience has already fallen in love with the songs that will be performed but also don’t want to hear them the same way,” he said laughing.
“They know what they want to hear but they don’t know what they want to hear. And that’s scary for us to create such dynamic programmes but it’s also interesting and it is a good challenge,” he said adding that for artists to break ground – it is also made possible by the audience’s buy-in. And he commends the South African audience for always being agile.
Mandisi will be putting on a performance of a lifetime.
“For this performance, it is going to be a tough task for the audiences because they are going to be asked to sit down at some point but we will give them the time to do what they normally do,” and that is dancing.
Mandisi’s impressive music collection includes songs such as Molo, Olwethu, Nimthanda and Ingoma Yenkedama which made him a household name, not only in South Africa but abroad. His second album “Cwaka ” was nothing short of brilliant, making the Gqeberha-born star absolutely peerless.
And while artists create the music to be consumed by audiences, this very artform is very personal to so many of them. For Mandisi, his relationship with music has evolved into different forms of love for him.
“There was a point where I knew music was a really important part of my life but I didn’t know the technicalities of it. And sometimes I sit back and I look at the trajectory of my life and while the data shows that I should not be here – looking at where I come from and the life that was – but because of music and being obsessed with this art form, and trying to be better and going to school to make sense of these ideas and melodies that were deep within me, I have made it to where I am.
“Music makes me connect to things that I don’t even know. I always get the sense that when I am in the art of making music, I always connect to a people. Those who were there before me, stand on stages where people I look up to used to stand/perform and communicate their stories. Being able to do that connects me to a lineage of greatness in music,” he said.
He describes the art of his type of music as high-risk-high-reward, where one needs to be completely invested in the music.
“Expect music that is more highlighted, where things are bigger, denser, harmonies and melodies, the rhymes are bigger. This is basically Mandisi with a lot more toys than before and that will create an equally big show,” hes said.