Top Mozambican saxophonist Moreira Chonguica was born in Maputo, then moved to Cape Town in 1997. Music was constantly heard in Moriera's home in Maputo. His father and uncle introduced him to music: they used to write music for plays where his father played the guitar and sang and his uncle would play on the double bass. They listened to musicians like Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Miles Davis, Hugh Masekela, Pable Milanes and many others. Maputo is a very musical city in which musical events are held every weekend. As a young boy, his parents used to take Moreira to Johannesburg to visit his family including his late uncle Lucky Michaels who owned the famous Pelican jazz club in Soweto, where all the big jazz cats used to go and play.
When Moreira was 7, he was sent to the National School of Music in Maputo (Escola Nacional de Musica). He first began singing in the choir and playing the recorder. A few years later he swapped to classical clarinet which he played for about 5 years. Watching one of Miles Davis's last performances in Paris where he featured the great Kenny Garret inspired Moreira to play alto sax. Moreira graduated with a degree in Jazz Performance and an honours degree with distinction in Jazz Performance at the South African College of Music at University of Cape Town in 2000. He has performed with bands such as Momba, UCT Jazz Quintet, Opus the Funk. He has played many of the major jazz festivals in the world with some of the world's top entertainers: North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands in 1999 and 2000; International African Music Festival, Germany in 2002; African Summer Jazz Festival, Zimbabwe in 2002; Joy of Jazz, South Africa in 2000. Moreira plays regularly with a number of Cape Town DJ's as well as with his own electronic duo called
M-Connexxion with Mark Fransman.
Moreira has recently formed an