Soweto Kinch

Award winning alto saxophonist Soweto Kinch is one of the most exciting and versatile young musicians on the British music scene. A graduate of the acclaimed Tomorrow's Warriors programme, Birmingham-based Soweto launched his solo career in 2002 when he won the International Saxophonist of the Year award at the Montreux Jazz Festival, followed a week later by the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star. His first album, Conversations with the Unseen, received a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination, and since then he has never looked back. In 2006, Soweto released the first of a two-part concept album, A Life In The Day Of B19 - Tales Of The Tower Block, which follows three fictional characters as they each come to terms with the pitfalls of celebrity, romantic entanglements, and the solitude of the musician's quest. Traversing jazz, hip-hop and poetry, it weaves a narrative and message of hope through a diverse range of musical worlds. It marks a massive upward shift in Soweto's stature as a significant, major artist, and has led to him supporting some major US soul and hip-hop stars such as KRS-ONE and Dwele.