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regarded as the greatest guitarist Zimbabwe has ever produced in decades. He comes from a musical family where his late brother, William Mhlanga, used to play drums for  the Pied Pipers with Brian Rusike and later for Oliver Mtukudzi and The Black Spirits. Another brother, Shaft, played the keyboards for several bands in Zimbabwe and in Germany.

Louis Mhlanga  was born  on November 10, 1956 in Mbare, Harare. His father was a well- known entrepreneur in Mbare where he owned Jabulani Stores.
Although currently touring the United States as a session musician, Louis is now based in South Africa, where he has established himself as a music star of note. He taught himself to play the guitar at a tender age and is considered one of the best Southern African guitarists.
Mhlanga’s career began in the 1970s. Fronting many bands in Zimbabwe, he mixed American and Zimbabwean influences into his music. Mhlanga became renowned for his guitar skills, and worked with Zimbabwean acts such as Shaka, Talking Drum, Music Ye Africa,  Mudzimu, and  Oliver Mtukudzi.  Louis eventually headed to

South Africa to pursue different musical opportunities, leading to collaborations with renowned South African artistes such as  Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Ray Phiri, Jimmy Dhludhlu, Sipho Mabuse Mlungisi Gegane, Vusi Mahlasela and Busi Mhlongo.
He admired the traditionally derived pop music of local luminaries such as Thomas Mapfumo. Although he worked as a music producer for several record companies in Zimbabwe, his first recording was not recognised for a whole decade until BMG Records released it in South Africa in the early 90s.

However, his 2001 international debut, “Shamwari”’  which includes the hit single “Distant Lover” which Mai Chisamba uses on all her shows, established him as a rare guitarist able to span African traditional pop and jazz genres.
In April 2000, Louis produced Mahlasela’s fourth album and featured on it. Before that, in 1999, a live duo recording with Mahlasela at a popular venue in

Johannesburg, The Bassline, resulted in the album “Vusi and Louis Live at the Bassline”. He was involved with Thandi Klaassen’s album “Two of a Kind”, a project initiated by Dutch singer Stef Bos. Bos featured Louis on the album “De Onderstroom”, for which he co-wrote the music of the title song.
Louis is on  another album called “Place of Hope’’, which is collaborations with renowned American jazz musicians: George Duke, James Ingram, Al Jarreau, Diane

Reeves, among others. Louis is also on “Fire in the Engine Room’ by Andy Narell, and following their South African tour, they released the album “Live in SA”.
Louis has recorded some work under his own name — his solo album “Mukai” and Music Ye Africa with Jethro Shsha, and Jimmy Indi, were both recorded at Shed Studios in Harare. In 2001, he put together a new group, The Louis Mhlanga Band, featuring musicians with a strong jazz influence.

They were invited by SAFM (one of South Africa’s national radio stations) to perform at the Grahamstown Standard Bank National Arts Festival. Subsequently, the group released the album “Shamwari”.
He has produced albums by Thomas Mapfumo, Nigerian King Sunny Ade, South African musician Vusi Mahalasela, and many other artists. When we were performing together in London, King Sunny Ade who was based in Nigeria, was so impressed by Louis’s  guitar antics that he invited Louis to join his band. Louis at first declined, but later decided to move to Nigeria when things got a bit tough in London.

He signed a year’s contract with King Sunny Ade. At the expiry of that contract, King Sunny Ade wanted to renew it, but Louis was home sick. Sunny Ade offered Louis a 5 000-watt PA system to take home with him but Louis did not have enough money to ship it to Zimbabwe. When he told me that news, I offered to go back to Nigeria with him so that we could make arrangements to ship it to Beira. That plan did not materialise as Louis had gone to South Africa on the planned departure date.

During my days with Louis in London, he was admired by many a musician. Gary Wallis, the drummer who played with a band called Duran Duran and later with Pink Floyd, came to me one day and asked if Louis could play a session with an English Rock band, “The Kinks” because their lead guitarist had been hospitalised.
The band itself was sceptical as they had never heard of Louis before. They gave him the tape with their recordings. The next day, during the gig, they were amazed to hear the rock sounds that came out of an African man from Zimbabwe and wanted to keep him permanently in the band.

Louis, despite the big monetary offer and pleas from The Kinks, said that  theirs was not the type of music he enjoyed playing on a daily basis. A former director of Zimbabwe’s musical theatre, Mhlanga also ran Zimbabwe’s Ethnomusicology Trust at the Zimbabwe College of Music in Harare, where he was in charge of developing national teaching programmes for traditional and contemporary Zimbabwean music.

He also spent a year in the Netherlands playing with various groups in Amsterdam and Utrecht. As the musician-in-residence at the Royal Dutch Conservatory of Music, Mhlanga taught African guitar courses and eventually recorded several albums with bassist Eric van der Westen, one of which also included Malian guitarist and singer Habib Koite.

In between stints in South Africa, Louis would often come to do the odd gig in Zimbabwe, sometimes assisted by Kelly Rusike and Jazz Invitation band for local performances.
I remember advising Louis to explore his guitar wizardry by doing own recordings instead of relying on backing other well-known artists. He took that idea on board and experimented on instrumentals.

That resulted in the album, “Shamwari”  and since then, Louis has not looked back. He started comparing himself with George Benson and decided to add vocals to his next albums. With Jethro Shasha they recorded “Alouis naJane”, “Amai Rugare”, “Shungu Iwe”, “International Rumba”, “Mwana Wenyu”, “Love on The Radio”, “Pamhuno Sefodya”, “Two Birds” and many more. Louis has won many awards as an exceptional artiste including Southern Africa’s Greatest Guitarist Award.

Louis  married  Margaret Indi in the late 1980s, but unfortunately Margaret passed on in the late 1990s.

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