London Jazz Award Nomination Soweto Kinch: '[His] gig was a scalding display of post-Coleman alto-sax improvising, a virtuosic and intelligent exposition of political rap, and a visually riveting event into the bargain. Accompanied only by his keyboard-mimicking laptop, bassist Karl Rasheed-Abel and drummer Graham Godfrey for much of the gig, Kinch instantly revealed the barking emphasis and melodic resourcefulness that has made him a world-league saxophonist.'

The Guardian:“Soweto Kinch's gig was a scalding display of post-Coleman alto-sax improvising, a virtuosic and intelligent exposition of political rap, and a visually riveting event into the bargain. Accompanied only by his keyboard-mimicking laptop, bassist Karl Rasheed-Abel and drummer Graham Godfrey for much of the gig, Kinch instantly revealed the barking emphasis and melodic resourcefulness that has made him a world-league saxophonist.”

Born in London to a Barbadian playwright father, and British-Jamaican actress mother, Soweto Kinch was never far from the creative ethos, and discovered his love for jazz as a young teenager. He established the Soweto Kinch Jazz Trio in 2001 and won the Rising Star Award at the BBC Jazz Awards a year later. He has won Best Jazz Act twice at the MOBOs and played in the backing band for Pop Idol. He is renowned for his distinctive Hip-Hop / Jazz fusions, and has appeared both rapping and playing his saxophone on BBC 1xtra in a ‘musical battle’ with saxophonist Jason Yarde, in discussion of the joining of both genres.