Award-winning jazz guitarist Louis Mhlanga has always let music take center stage. Growing up during the 1960s music revolution, Mhlanga remembers his mother playing Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson records. However, it was his professional musician brothers, William and Shaft, who introduced him to the guitar and were his first inspiration. “I would just watch and listen (to them), and when they are gone, that’s the time I would pick up a guitar and try to copy what they’ve been doing,” Mhlanga said. His brothers also introduced him to the music of the guitarist who would become his idol — Jimi Hendrix. “I got inspired by one album of Jimi Hendrix,” recalled Mhlanga. That album was “Band of Gypsys,” released in 1970. “My brother brought it home, and I thought, wow, that guitar,” Mhlanga added. “My brother kept repeating it, and it was like he was injecting me with this music.” One…
