Ismael Mohamed-Jan is a respected South African multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician and producer.

Born 10 December 1949 in Benoni

Benoni, Gauteng

Benoni is a city with 654,509 inhabitants on the East Rand in the South African province of Gauteng. Since 2000, it has been part of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.- History :...

, Gauteng

Gauteng

Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...

 Pops Mohamed's career in music was the logical outcome of an early exposure at Dorkay House to the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...

 and Kippie Moeketsi

Kippie Moeketsi

Kippie ‘Morolong’ Moeketsi was a South African saxophonist and jazz musician. Born into a musical Johannesburg family, Moeketsi was the youngest of eleven brothers, and one sister who was a nurse of whom all but 4 played an instrument...

. He started his first band The Valiants, at 14. Known by fans as the Minister of Music, he plays a wide variety of instruments: African mouth bow, bird whistle, berimbau

Berimbau

The berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. The berimbau's origins are not entirely clear, but there is not much doubt about its African origin, as no Indigenous Brazilian or European people use musical bows, and very similar instruments are played in the...

, didgeridoo

Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

, kora

Kora (instrument)

The kora is a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa.-Description:A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge. It does not fit well into any one category of western instruments and would have to be...

, and the thumb piano

Thumb piano

The thumb piano is an African musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:Each note of a kalimba, mbira, etc. is a separate idiophone, and in orchestral terms, the instrument as a whole belongs in the bar percussion family...

. He is also known for his wide range of musical styles which include kwela, pop, and soul. He produced Finding One's Self, the late Moses Taiwa Molelekwa

Moses Taiwa Molelekwa

Moses Taiwa Molelekwa was a South African jazz pianist from a family of jazz musicians. His father was nicknamed "Monk", by the jazz society he belonged to, for his understanding of Thelonious Monk. Despite that poverty and issues concerning apartheid caused Moses education in his childhood to be...

's award-winning album.

Pops has also performed regularly with and sits on the board of the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra Company

Johannesburg Youth Orchestra

The Johannesburg Youth Orchestra is a youth symphony orchestra founded in 1976. It is a full size symphony orchestra based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is made up entirely of musicians in high school and those that have recently graduated, up to age 25....

Discography

• Kalamazoo - 1991
• Sophiatown Society - 1992 (with Morris Goldberg)
• Ancestral Healing - 1995
• How Far Have We Come - 1996
• Music With No Name - 1996
• Society Vibes - 1997 (with McCoy Mrubatha)
• Timeless - 1997
• Millennium Experience - 2000 (with Zena Edwards)
• Pops Mohamed Meets the London Sound Collective - 2000
• Africa Meltdown - 2001
• Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow - 2002