Saturday 11 February 2012

Letta Mbulu was born and raised in Soweto. As a teenager she toured England with the musical ‘King Kong’. She was forced to leave for the United States of America in 1965, where her destiny would begin. She made friends with fellow South Africans in exile.

Letta’s breakthrough came after a performance at the Village Gate Club; when she captured Cannonball Adderley and later toured with him for several years. She started writing her own joyful and memorable songs that were later sung by the world’s  great musicians. Letta soon became an international sensation known for her angelic, one-of –a-kind voice.

Letta Mbulu’s debut album,’ Letta Mbulu Sings’ was produced by Axelrod and was a collection of Township-style pop mixed with American R&B. This was to become Letta’s and collaborator/husband Caiphus Semenya’s signature sound. As the 2001 SAMA Lifetime Achiever; Letta is no stranger to big moves. In 1973 she was casted as a singer in Sidney Poitier’s film A Warm December followed by her album Naturally.

Caiphus Semenya is one of South Africa’s supreme musical directors, composers and arrangers of African music. Semenya left SA in the 1960′s, together with his wife, singer Letta Mbulu; to work with many compatriots in the USA. They returned to South Africa from living in Los Angeles after 26 years of self-imposed exile. Today they are the drivers of change in the arts and culture of our rainbow nation.

Caiphus Semenya was born in Alexandra, Johannesburg. His introduction to music came from his mother who taught him and his siblings many traditional songs and church hymns. When he was 14 years his mother sent him to live with his grandmother in Benoni. It was there that he was exposed to such musical influences as the Woody Woodpeckers and the Inkspots who were at the top of the music entertainment world of the time.

Caiphus and three of his friends formed a group called the Katzenjammer Kids, who became one of South Africa’s top teenage groups within three years. In the USA along with Letta,  he wrote and arranged the African music for the famed US television series Roots, based on Alex Hayley’s novel. It earned him an Emmy Award and a Gold Record of the series soundtrack. Letta Mbulu and husband Caiphus Semenya are two of South Africa’s most worldly celebrated arts and culture ambassadors.