Reza Khota

Reza has performed, recorded and toured professionally in South Africa and around the world for over 20 years. His albums have been reviewed and recognised in the global jazz media. He has established himself as a guitarist with wide reaching abilities. In addition to his own Quartet, he has played regularly and recorded with the Shane Cooper Quintet, Kesivan and the Lights, the Buddy Wells Quartet, TRC ensemble with Mandla Mlangeni and many others. Reza travelled with Kesivan and the Lights to New York in 2014 and performed at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. Reza is part of the new wave of South African jazz musicians aspiring to re-envision the possibilities for South African composers and improvisors in the post-apartheid. Committed to subverting the expectations of a music industry that has overdetermined what it means to be an African musician, he has intentionally sort new ground. The Reza Khota Quartet released its second album – Liminal, in 2019. He was also an artist in residence at the University of Western Cape’s Centre for Humanities Research from 2015-2018. Aside from continuing to compose, perform and record his own music, he recently features on albums with Mandla Mlangeni’s TRC, Abraham Mennen, and the Insurrections Ensemble.