Biography
Jazz musician Bheki Mseleku discovered and guided Tu Nokwe, recognized as one of the most gifted South African performers of the 1990s. She began by teaching music to township children through her family's Amajika Youth and Children's Art Project, then studied abroad in London and New York at the renowned Manhattan School of Music. Concluding that her real promise lay back home, she returned to South Africa, sustained her work in the youth project, and assembled original songs for a debut album. Three years of intensive preparation led to the release of the excellent Inyaka Nyaka in 1996, which established Tu Nokwe as a powerful musician with original ideas. The follow-up, African Child (1999), extended that achievement. Tu Nokwe characterizes her music as a spiritual new age African sound shaped by jazz and funk influences. In total, the result stands as masterful, non-superficial pop with a Southern African touch.
Albums