Durban-born 2012 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz Afrika Mkhize started playing the piano at the age of six. At age 15, he was accepted at the National School of the Arts to further his classical music studies. In 1999, he enrolled at Pretoria Technikon to further his interest in jazz, composition and arranging.

He has worked as a producer for the likes of Themba Mkhize, Miriam Makeba, Sibongile Khumalo and Kabelo. Mkhize has also performed with renowned artists such as Dorothy Masuka, Judith Sephuma and Marcus Wyatt. He has spent the last couple of years in Paris soaking up the jazz scene. "Afrika Mkhize represents the exciting new...

Bakithi Kumalo is a composer, vocalist, and bassist who decided to become a musician at an early age and by the time he was seven, was already performing in his uncle's band. Bakithi's fame grew, but his musical career was still a terrible struggle and he was seriously considering taking a job as a car mechanic at the time Paul Simon came calling in 1985.

Simon was in South Africa to assemble a band for his Graceland album. A well-known Johannesburg producer suggested Bakithi for his unique ability. Simon was entranced by his sound and, after some preliminary sessions in South Africa, he flew Bakithi to New York City to complete the tracks. His contribution to the Grammy-winning Graceland album...

Saxophonist Bhudaza Mapefane studied music at the Mmabana Cultural Centre where he majored in jazz studies doing piano music theory and saxophone. He then joined Sankomota as a pianist and later switched to saxophone. He then studied jazz at the University of Cape Town College of Music. In 2001 he formed Bhudaza and Friends, and went solo in 2003 to record his debut album Bo Mapefane. He has performed with many top artists and has performed around the country.

Discography...

Caiphus Semenya was born in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. At the age of 14 he was exposed to such musical influences as the Woody Woodpeckers and the Inkspots. Soon Caiphus and three of his friends formed a group called the Katzenjammer Kids and within three years they became one of South Africa's top teenage groups. This led to a part in the 1959 production of the musical King Kong.

In 1964, after a brief tour with the musical Sponono, Caiphus decided to stay in America. He worked closely with other exiled artists such as Miriam Makeba and formed a group with fellow exiles Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwanga called the Union of South Africa. He has composed and arranged songs for many diverse...

Born in Ivory Coast, singer Cécile Verny has been singing on stage in Europe since she was 17. Having grown up in both Africa and Europe, she developed her personality, her voice and her multifarious, multifaceted way of singing as a very individual, unique mixture of her African roots, her European culture, and her love for Afro-American music.

She is regularly in the studio and on stage in all kinds of groups and styles of music, where she enthrals people with her down-to-earth charm. She has taught jazz vocals at the State Conservatory in Trossingen, the Jazz & Rock School in Freiburg and at C.E.D.I.M in Strasbourg. From the beginning, however, the key...

Duke Ellington's work has come to be recognised as a cornerstone of American culture and heritage. He is widely regarded as the most important composer in jazz; he was also a galvanising bandleader who inspired many of his musicians to produce their best work, whilst himself being a significant exponent of jazz piano.

 His works have been revisited by artists and musicians around the world both as a source of inspiration and a bedrock of their own performing careers. Ellington's compositions are now the staple of the repertoire of music conservatories. His son, Mercer Ellington kept his big band alive after his death. When Mercer died, Paul Ellington,...

Earl Klugh (pronounced "Clue") is an American smooth jazz/crossover jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer. Klugh played on a Yusef Lateef album when he was 15 and gained recognition in 1971 for his contributions to George Benson's White Rabbit record. He played regularly with Benson in 1973, was a member of Return to Forever briefly in 1974, and then in the mid '70s, began recording as a leader.

After a couple well-received solo albums, Klugh found international fame with 1979's One on One, a Grammy-winning collaboration with pianist Bob James. More solo albums followed before the sequel to One on One, Two of a Kind, appeared in 1982....

Erik Truffaz is a Swiss-born French jazz trumpeter, infusing elements of hip hop, rock 'n' roll and dance music into his compositions. He signed with the French EMI label in 1996.

Truffaz gained international attention with his second album on Blue Note, The Dawn, produced together with Pat Muller, Marcello Giuliani and Mark Erbetta. Since then they have produced many Blue Note albums together such as Bending New Corners, which became a Silver Album in France. The 2007 release Arkhangelsk is a mixture of pop songs,...

Gloria Bosman began her singing in a church choir and in 1993 was awarded a scholarship to study opera at the Pretoria Technikon. She toured France with Jonas Gwangwa and has sung for both outgoing and incoming presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

Gloria has sung with the cream of South African musicians, amongst them Sibongile Khumalo, Moses Molelekwa, Sipho Mabuse, Vusi Mahlasela, James Philips, Victor Masondo, Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa. Her debut album Tranquility won the SAMA Best Newcomer award....

When it comes to saxophonist /vocalist/composer/lyricist/arranger Grace Kelly, people seem to be divided into two groups: those who marvel at her proficiency, creativity and ever-accelerating growth, and those who have yet to encounter the 20-year-old wunderkind.

The ranks of the former category are growing by the day. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly's three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. for...

Jane Monheit is a jazz and adult contemporary vocalist. She has collaborated with artists such as Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins, Terence Blanchard and Tom Harrell, and has received Grammy nominations for two of her recordings.

Monheit has performed at most of the major concert halls, cabarets and jazz venues around the globe. She appears on the sound track of the movie Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow singing Over the Rainbow. Jane has also been a featured performer in the nationally televised Christmas at the White House, the...

Award-winning guitarist Jimmy Dludlu cut his teeth playing with various bands in Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa. He attended the music school at the University of Cape Town, where he completed a three-year scholarship in the jazz programme. Dludlu played for saxophonist McCoy Mrubata's outfit Brotherhood, which a year later went on to win the Music of Africa Competition.

In 1991, together with some of his Mozambican compatriots based in South Africa, Dludlu formed the seminal Loading Zone. Dludlu's style includes wide-ranging influences, combining both traditional and modern elements of jazz drawn from among others Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Pat Metheny, to South African legends Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu, Hugh Masekela, Themba Mokwena,...

Jazz maestro Johnny Mekoa was mentored by his two brothers Fred and Peter. It was the days of marabi and mbaqanga music. Mekoa found himself at the hub of Mzansi music at Dorkay House in Eloff Street, Joburg. In the frustrating political climate of 1967, when black musicians were banned from playing in white clubs, Johnny decided to form his own band The Jazz Ministers.The group took their unique sound all over South Africa and the world. In 1987, Mekoa started studying for a Bachelor's Degree in Music at the University of Natal.

He was later awarded a Fullbright scholarship, which he used to get a Masters Degree in Jazz Education at Indiana University in the US. He had always dreamed of opening a music school and this dream came to fruition in 1994 with the establishment of the Music Academy of Gauteng. The school's band plays...

Kurt Elling is among the world's foremost jazz vocalists. He has been named "Male Singer of the Year" by the Jazz Journalists Association on half a dozen occasions in the past 10 years, and during the same interval has been the perennial winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll. He is also a Grammy winner, and every record he has made has been Grammy nominated.

Elling's rich baritone spans four octaves and features both astonishing technical mastery and emotional depth. His command of rhythm, texture, phrasing, and dynamics is more like a virtuoso jazz instrumentalist than a vocalist....

Ledisi (which means "to bring forth" in Yoruba) is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. In 2000, she released her first album, Soulsinger: The Revival. In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. The album won her an award for Outstanding Jazz Album at the California Music Awards.

In 2007, Ledisi signed a major record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album in August of that year, Lost & Found, which sold almost 217 000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist. In 2009, Ledisi released her fourth album Turn Me Loose, which earned...

Manu Dibango is Cameroon's, and perhaps Africa's, best-known jazz saxophonist. Starting in the 1950s, he became a globe-trotting musician, living and performing in France, Belgium, Jamaica, Zaire, and Cote d'Ivoire, as well as in Cameroon. In 1960, Dibango was one of the founding members of the Zairean band African Jazz.

World attention came to Dibango with the release in 1972 of Soul Makossa. Dibango's output has been prodigious and multi-faceted. He has worked with musicians such as Fela Kuti, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Don Cherry, and the Fania All-Stars. He served as the first chairman of the Cameroon Music Corporation and was appointed a UNESCO...

Marcus Wyatt, a native of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, has been blowing his horn since 1983. He is part of a new generation of South African musicians, moving forward, respectful of the past without being afraid of twisting boundaries.

Marcus' new album Language 12 is testament to this, with a seamless blend of tradition and progressive thinking, contemporary loop-based ideas and live performance. This young trumpet player has performed around the globe, and worked with an impressive array of musicians, from Manu Dibango, Abdullah Ibrahim and Miriam Makeba to Carlo Mombelli, Courtney Pine and...

While singer Maysa is no newcomer to the music scene, her CD, Motions of Love that boasts cameos by the legendary Stevie Wonder and neo soul crooner Dwele, promises to introduce the veteran soul and smooth jazz vocalist to the widest audience of her career.

She first gained fame as the featured voice on British acid jazz band Incognito's defining `90s era hits such as Don't You Worry about a Thing, Still a Friend of Mine and Deep Waters. She then launched a concurrent solo career with the hits Am I Wrong (For Lovin' You), Friendly Pressure and Hypnotic...

Mory Kanté is a legend- a traditional West African musician who rose to regional stardom in the '70s, rocked the world pop charts from his adopted home in Paris in the '80s, rode the wave of globalised African music in the '90s, and returned home to his native Guinea in the 2000s to become a force for economic development and an inspirational voice for a new generation of Africans.

Kanté is a vocalist and player of the kora harp. He was born into one of Guinea's best known families of griot (hereditary) musicians. In 1971 Kanté became a member of the Rail Band, in which Salif Keïta was a singer. Keïta left the band in 1973, leaving Kanté as the singer. Kanté is...

Musa Manzini was born in KwaZulu Natal in 1971. He then moved to Cape Town in 1986 for high school and university studies. It was in his high school days that he first picked up the guitar and was instantly hooked. After high school, Manzini enrolled at MAPP Music Academy. He completed a Diploma in Music and in 1992 he enrolled at the University of Cape Town where he completed a Bachelor of Music degree, majoring in composition and arrangement.

After graduation, Musa spent three years as a part-time lecturer at UCT instructing electric and acoustic basses, jazz theory and improvisation. He has performed with musicians such as Rene MacLean, Jimmy Dludlu, Jonathan Butler, Gavin Minter, Nhlanhla Magagula, Kevin Gibson, Mark Goliath, Judith Sephuma, Winston Ngozi, Sipho Mabuse, Menyatso Mathole, Selaelo Selota, Joe McBride, UCT Jazz...

Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz 2010, vocalist Melanie Scholtz, teams up with violinist Samson Diamond, Standard Bank Young Artist for Music 2010, in an exploration of light classical and jazz repertoire. Both musicians have excelled in their formal classical educations and both are equally comfortable in a jazz setting, with Samson active in Buskaid and Melanie one of the leading jazz singers in the country.

They are joined by the rhythmically sensitive duo of Melvin Peters (piano) and Godfrey Mgcina (percussion). Quattro Fusion has been on a tour to Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, courtesy of Alliance Française and Standard Bank, and there was a very enthusiastic response in each of those countries....

Rosemary Quaye has been playing the saxophone for 24 years having studied music and obtaining a diploma in jazz theory and musicianship at the Open College in Manchester. Her influences are Stan Getz, Lester Young, Sonny Stitt and Courtney Pine.

Rosemary Quaye performs as part of Sax Summit at the Dinaledi Stage on Thursday, August 23....

Featuring sax players Grace Kelly, Nthabiseng Mokoena, Rosemary Quaye, Shannon Mowday and Tineke Postma playing the music of Kippie Moeketsi. See biogs under their individual names.

Sax Summit performs on the Dinaledi Stage on Thursday, August 23....

Acknowledged internationally as a gifted saxophone player, Shannon Mowday is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, covering the range of the woodwind family as well as piano. She also an accomplished composer, arranger and lyricist as well as being an experienced and passionate educator. She is known as an extremely adept and versatile musician, having performed in a variety styles including performances as soloist with a symphonic orchestra, live recordings of classical saxophone quartet , big band leader and conductor, straight-ahead jazz, African, klezmer ,traditional styles in both in a studio and live environment.

She has performed alongside South Africa's best with artists including Winston Mankuku, Robbie Janssen, Judith Sephuma, Selaolo Selota Feya Faku, Concord Nkabinde, Gloria Bosman, Kevin Gibson as well as international musicians such as James Morrison, John Fedchock, Douglas Masek, Stefon Harris and members of the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra to name but a few. Mowday is...

In 2000, after gaining experience as a backup singer for a few local artists including his mother, Shanti Lo landed a two-year recording deal with Stona Records, which produced the album Koi. It secured him two nominations at the annual Botswana Music Awards in 2001. He was then a member of the group Live 101, an initiative led by drummer Phillip Meintjies and his daughter Larissa. His album Shanti Lo was released in 2005.

One of his popular songs, Ditshwanelo, was included in the soundtrack of the Anthony Minghella film based on Professor Alexandra McCall-Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series of novels popularly known as "Mmaramotswe". Over the years, Shanti Lo has worked on different projects with a number of artists across all genres including the late Duncan Senyatso...

Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band (SBNYJB) is a product of the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival, which takes place in Grahamstown in July each year as part of the National Arts Festival. It is the most significant youth development initiative in jazz in South Africa, and attracts the very best young players in the country, the cream of who are selected for the SBNYJB each year.

The band members are chosen from the 320 young musicians from around South African who come to the festival, and each is a highly competent musician, normally with a budding professional pedigree already, with an average age in the band of 20....

From her humble beginnings in the township of KwaMashu, Swazi Dlamini has made a name for herself in the music industry. Dlamini started her career as a vocalist for the award winning group, Joyous Celebration.

Her debut album, My First Love, won her much acclaim as one of the most celebrated young artists in South Africa and internationally alike. This album saw her being awarded, Sama 2004 Best Female artist, and Kora 2004 most promising African Female artist for that year....

Thandiswa Mazwai is a multi-award winning musician and is also the lead vocalist and songwriter of Bongo Maffin. Thandiswa's first attempt to get noticed occurred at the Shell Road to Fame talent show but Thandiswa did not even make it to the semi-finals round. She did, however, catch the eye of musician and producer Don Laka, who arranged to include her in a project he was working on. And so she began her career in 1998 with Bongo Maffin, one of the pioneering bands of Kwaito. They became widely recognised as the voice of South Africa's conscious youth. After five albums with Bongo Maffin, she ventured onto a solo career.

Her first project, Zabalaza (2004), reached double platinum status and won numerous awards including a Kora award for Best African Female and Four South African Music Awards, including Best Album. It was also nominated for the BBC Radio 3 Planet awards. Her second album, Ibokwe (2009) reached gold status in the first few weeks of...

Tineke Postma is an internationally acknowledged jazz saxophonist and composer. She has performed with her groups and as a sideman since 2003. Tineke lives in Amsterdam and New York. Her latest CD the Dawn of Light received raving reviews and won the prestigious Dutch Edison Award.

The UK's The Evening Standard called her "One of the leading ladies in jazz!" In 2009 Postma has received the Jazz Juan Revelations Award (Antibes Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival); in 2006 the prestigious Midem International Jazz Revelation of the Year Award and in 2003 The Sisters in Jazz All Star Award. She was nominated twice for...

Soul-jazz and hard bop trombonist Wayne Henderson plays a tribute to Miles Davis with The Allstar Jazz Jam which includes drummer Ndugu Chancler, trumpeter Tom Browne, Everette Harpe (saxophone), Edwin Livingston (bass) and pianist Bobby Lyle.

The Tribute to Miles Davis on the Dinaledi Stage on Friday, August 24....

Jazz drummer/composer/arranger Vusi Khumalo is one of the original members of the group of South musician musicians who recorded with Paul Simon on the seminal Graceland album. In the year 2000 Vusi's debut album Follow Your Dream was nominated for both the Kora Awards and SA Music Award. His band Dondo, which won the SAMA 2004 contemporary jazz award, is a project that mentors talented young artists in the music industry, improving their chances of establishing successful careers.

Khumalo has graced countless bestselling albums both locally and internationally and performed with an endless list of music giants locally including Winston Mankunku, Bheki Mseleku, Barney Rachabane, Miriam Makeba, Allen Kwela, and Abdullah Ibrahim. Internationally he has worked with the likes of Paul Simon, Chucho Valdes, Yssour N'dour, Bob Baldwin, Donald Harrison, and the late Carl...

Wycliffe Gordon is a jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, trumpet, tuba, piano and sings. Gordon comes from a strongly religious background (his father was a church organist) that influenced the early direction of his music. He became interested in jazz at the age of 13 inspired by an aunt's music collection. His interest at that time was mostly the earlier musicians like Louis Armstrong.

His early works as a professional were with Wynton Marsalis, but in recent years he has expanded beyond swing and has experimented with new instruments. The strongest example of this might be The Search where he plays didgeridoo and does Thelonious Monk songs. He has also played Gospel music. He received the Jazz Journalists Association...