Karabo Mohlala

Karabo Mohlala is a South African saxophonist, performer, composer, and cultural practitioner whose career spans music, theatre, film, and community-based artistic work. His musical training began early, completing Grade 3 in music theory in 1993 at the Malimba Institute of African Music, under the guidance of playwright and cultural activist Matsemela Manaka, where he studied saxophone and akadinda. In 1994, he continued his studies at the Gauteng Music Academy under the direction of Johnny Mekoa, completing Grade 5 while performing in the academy’s Big Band on tenor and soprano saxophone. During this period, the band performed notable concerts including a show for Clive Menell, featuring guest artists Abigail Kubeka, Sophie Mgcina, and Cocky Two Bull. In 1995, the ensemble was nominated as the first Youth Jazz Band at the National Arts Festival, marking an early milestone in Mohlala’s performance career.

Throughout the late 1990s Mohlala expanded his practice through theatre, international exchange, and film work. In 1996 he participated in a theatre workshop with Billy Domingo at Sun City. The following year he toured the United States with the academy’s Big Band, visiting the International Association for Jazz Education in Chicago and meeting leading jazz educators Billy Taylor and David Baker. During this period he also recorded saxophone for the film Crossroads under the musical direction of Ben Nomoxi and collaborated with the Dutch theatre company Dogtroep on the travelling theatre production A1 and the theatre project 2 Room 2, which included a ten-week residency in Amsterdam.

In the early 2000s Mohlala’s work expanded into television, recording sessions, and international performance. He appeared in television productions such as Generations and Dead Line, and contributed baritone saxophone recordings to projects by leading South African jazz musicians including Hugh Masekela for the album Time and McCoy Mrubata for the Brasskap Sessions. He also appeared in the music video Temperature Rising by Les Nubians and composed music for the dance theatre work Blame Me Blind by choreographer Moeketsi Koena. Around the same time he performed with reggae artist Don Carlos at the historic Bassline in Newtown.

Between 2001 and 2005, Mohlala joined the internationally touring musical theatre production African Footprint as lead saxophonist and flautist. In 2006, he became a founding member of the 9th Avenue Big Band, a nine-piece ensemble whose repertoire drew on Afrobeat, Motown, and jazz influences. The group performed widely, including appearances for McIntosh & Associates and a performance during the Africa Day celebrations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2008.

His artistic work has also included interdisciplinary collaborations, such as the Autophysiopsychics performances with break-dancer Moshe Maboe during the Sandton Central Open Street Sessions in 2009. In 2010 he performed in Ghana alongside tap dancers in a programme that opened for Senegalese music icon Youssou N’Dour, and later that year participated in celebrations connected to the 2010 FIFA World Cup at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Beyond performance, Mohlala’s life has included periods devoted to spiritual practice, traditional healing, and craft. Between 2012 and 2013 he focused on herbal medicine,...