Zenzele Mthembu-Salter

Artistic Biography

24-year-old Zenzele Mthembu-Salter is a musical talent from Scarborough, Cape Town, currently studying jazz at the Amsterdam of Conservatory. Mthembu-Salter is commonly known as Zen and started playing bass at 13. Scarborough is a musical village and Mthembu-Salter was schooled first as a youth by South African guitar maestro Derek Gripper and then by Dutch jazz double bass giant Hein van de Geyn. Van der Geyn had a stellar internaLonal career playing with the likes of Chet Baker before relocating to Scarborough and opening an arLsanal bakery. Van der Geyn tutored Mthembu-Salter and his siblings for several years, and it is this, Zen says, that inspired him to move towards jazz, and play double bass as well as electric bass.

In 2017, Mthembu-Salter travelled to Cameroon to study its legendary makossa music. Makossa, made famous by Manu Dibangu. Cameroon is renowned for the virtuosity of its bass players, and Mthembu-Salter was schooled by Alexis Prigas, the president of the country’s bass players’ association. After this Zenzele recorded a single called “From the Cape to Cameroon” dedicated to his experiences in Cameroun.

Mthembu-Salter went to the University of Cape Town to study jazz in 2020, completing two years of study there. Zenzele was chosen for the Natinonal Youth Jazz Band of 2022 under Mandla Mlangeni, before gaining a place at the prestigious Amsterdam Conservatory. Mthembu-Salter has been studying and playing gigs in Amsterdam since 2022, including with James McClure, a South African trumpet player living abroad, and formed the band “Sofaya”. Amsterdam-based Sofaya plays a wild mix of South African-infused jazz, blending classic mbaqanga, maskandi, and free(ish) jazz in the tradition of Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath. Sofaya have played many venues in the Netherlands including BIMHUIS, De Ruimte, Cinetol and most recently at Nijmegen Music Meeting Festival. Zenzele has collaborated with Brazilian choreographer and dancer Mario Lopez in his ‘Afrotranstopia’ project performed at FrascaL theatre in 2022. Zenzele is also part of a collecLve of musicians based in Amsterdam called ‘KB’ which is a collaboraLon with Brazilian arLst Gabriel de Oliveira and Pedro Kastelijns showcasing music from the “Global South”. In 2024 Zenzele was artistic collaborator with The Less Good Idea at the CarLer FoundaLon in Paris with William Kentridge. As well as performing with William Kentridge’s exhibiLon Zenzele was also performing alongside Kyle Shepherd, renown South African pianist and composer, as a part of this interdisciplinary project. Most recently Zenzele is working on composing choral music for his newly formed vocal group based in Amsterdam.