Arts Writer
BANDLEADER Mike Makhubele is back, staging his legendary outfit at Tagore’s at 42 Trill Road in Observatory on Friday at 8pm. Musicians in the lineup are Makhubele on guitar and vocals, Wakhile Xhalisa on bass, Khaya Mhlauli on drums and Ricky Bushula on keyboards.
Makhubele was born in Tzaneen in 1960 into a musical family. His father was a saxophonist, and his uncle a guitar player.
Mike picked up his guitar chops from his uncle, with whom he’d listen to the likes of Osibisa, Hugh Masekela, Elton John, and other British and American pop musicians. Over the years he travelled to Europe with his music, performing alongside the likes of Lucky Dube, Manu Dibango and Ziggy Marley.
Also on the Tagores bill is multi-instrumentalist Hilton Schilder and his brother Aldred Schilder – they’re up on Saturday at 8pm.
The mastermind behind musical projects such as Iconoclast, African Dream Rock Art, respected composer and soloist Hilton Schilder first rose to prominence as one of the founding members of the cult 80’s rebel rock band The Genuines.
He is the son of esteemed pianist Tony Schilder (1937-2010) and nephew of Chris Schilder of Cape Town’s groundbreaking jazz-fusion group of the 1970s, Pacific Express. He was given his first instrument – a drum, at the age of three. Hilton’s musical trajectory has taken him through a variety of groups and collaborations in the capacity of both a composer and a performer. He partnered with Mac McKenzie in the mid-80s to form The Genuines, a rock outfit that channelled the folk music of the Cape through punk.
He plays several instruments, though the keyboard is his main instrument of choice – from grand piano to synthesizers and computer sequencers, Hilton is at home on all.
Post-Genuines, Hilton immersed himself more deeply into jazz and was a member and contributing composer to Robbie Jansen’s Sons of Table Mountain.
In the early 2000s, he performed with the Goema Captains of Cape Town and released his first solo album entitled No Turning Back on the Mountain Records label in 2003.
He was also the project leader of the South African/Swiss jazz ensemble.
In 2010, Hilton fought cancer, losing a kidney in the process. While in hospital, he heard what would become a composition, titled Rebirth, during a lucid dream. it became the title track of his 2015 album.
Schilder refers to his style as landscape music, urban Khoi and crossover electronic. Hilton will be joined by Aldred Schilder at this particular showcase. The gigs are a Concerts SA venture.
l www.concertssa.co.za, www. facebook.com/pages/Tagores/196657533678635, makwerhu.wix.com /makwerhu-music