By Bianca Fernandes 
For more than two decades, Guy Buttery and Vusi Mahlasela have shared a musical friendship built largely behind the scenes — in recording studios, on albums, and through a mutual admiration that has grown with time. Now, in 2026, that relationship is finally moving onto the stage.
For Buttery, the upcoming double-bill with Mahlasela represents something particularly meaningful. He grew up listening to the South African icon, and although the two musicians have collaborated before, they have never experienced what happens when their musical languages meet in front of a live audience.
Their story began in 2006, when Buttery contributed guitar and mandolin to Mahlasela’s album “Guiding Star”. A decade later, the exchange continued when Mahlasela contributed vocals to two tracks on Buttery’s 2016 self-titled album. Those recordings built a musical connection between them; the upcoming concerts will test what happens when that connection has to become immediate and spontaneous rather than something worked out take by take in a studio.
‘Vusi’s improvisations brought real magic to those recordings,’ Buttery recalls, describing the earlier sessions as a career highlight. But rehearsing together for a live show has proven to be a different exercise altogether — one that has meant learning how to communicate without words, reading body language, anticipating cues, and discovering how each musician responds in the moment. After years of working on separate projects, they are now having to learn how to think as a musical partnership.
That is precisely what makes the upcoming performances so exciting. Buttery’s intricate guitar playing and Mahlasela’s unmistakable voice come from very different musical places, yet the contrast is what makes the pairing work: neither musician needs to dominate the other, and their differences create space for something new.
There will also be room for improvisation. At least one of their previous studio collaborations is expected to make its way into the live repertoire, but Buttery is particularly drawn to the unpredictable moments — the parts of a concert that cannot be rehearsed or fully planned. After all, he says, a live collaboration should be more than a studio recording performed on stage. It should be allowed to change.
For Buttery, the appeal of working with Mahlasela goes beyond the music itself. Over the years, he has come to admire not only Mahlasela’s musical achievements but the person behind them — his humanity, respect, forgiveness, and deep sense of peace, qualities Buttery believes are inseparable from the message in his music. He is also fascinated by Mahlasela’s extraordinary linguistic range, singing across numerous languages, and by the breadth of a career that has carried him around the world.
Even so, there is still an element of surprise in seeing Mahlasela’s energy up close. After so many years of performing, the singer-songwriter continues to approach music with an enthusiasm that Buttery finds remarkable. During a recent rehearsal, Mahlasela even thanked Buttery for bringing spirit and energy into the room — a telling exchange, given that the younger musician who grew up listening to Mahlasela is now helping to energise the veteran performer, while still learning from him.
That sense of mutual exchange is what ultimately sets this apart from a nostalgic reunion. Neither artist is simply revisiting the past; both are bringing everything they have learned in the intervening years into a new musical situation — and the audience will inevitably become part of that process. Buttery doesn’t expect everyone to experience the concerts in exactly the same way. Music, he believes, is deeply personal, and two people can stand in the same room and leave with completely different memories of the same performance. That unpredictability is part of what excites him most, along with the awareness that these performances may be unusually special precisely because they cannot be guaranteed to happen again: five concerts together could be a one-off opportunity, which makes being present all the more important.
For Buttery, then, the upcoming shows are not simply another entry on a tour schedule. They are the culmination of a relationship that began more than 20 years ago, when a guitarist contributed to an album by an artist he had long admired. Now the studio doors have opened onto the stage, where two very different musical voices will meet in real time — rehearsed songs providing the foundation, improvisation leaving the final destination uncertain.
Beyond the music, there is a larger purpose. Mahlasela and Buttery represent different generations and dimensions of South African musical creativity, yet both have built audiences far beyond the country’s borders. Bringing them together offers a chance to introduce that musical conversation to listeners who may be discovering one or both artists for the first time. For Buttery, that may ultimately be the most rewarding part of the journey: taking something that has been developing quietly for 20 years and finally letting an audience hear it unfold in the moment.
The songs already exist. The friendship already exists. Now comes the part that cannot be recorded in advance.
The stage.