Award-winning Pretoria talent jazzes the world up

The remarkable talent has landed a 45-year-old Pretoria jazz singer in the centre of the world.

Vocalist Tutu Puoane, who grew up in the township of Mamelodi and moved to Atteridgeville later on in her life, has been to Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland, and the USA.

The jazz sensation started her career performing for mass crowds in downtown Johannesburg in 1997.

Realising her passion for singing, Tutu went on to study jazz vocals at the University of Cape Town with Jelena Reveshin and Virginia Davids.

She received several awards from major South African jazz competitions.

Since 2019 she’s been working on a double album project based on and dedicated to the powerful poetry of her compatriot Lebo Mashile. The project is called Wrapped In Rhythm, and the first volume is produced by Larry Klein and was released in March this year, with a club tour that took her to London (Ronnie Scott’s), Amsterdam (Bimhuis) and Antwerp (De Roma).

In August, the album won three South African Jazz Awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, Best International Jazz Album, and Best Female Artist from five nominations in Soweto, Johannesburg.

Volume II is planned to come out next year and is an orchestral co-operation with the famous Dutch Metropole Orkest, with arrangements by Bert Joris of another selection of seven songs. The orchestra is directed by American/Portuguese director Jacomo Bairos.

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In 2000 she won the Old Mutual jazz encounters for the Cape region, and in 2001 she received a merit award for young, promising talent at the Daimler Chrysler South African jazz competition.

After she completed her vocal studies at the music college of the University of Cape, a recording contract from a major South African music record label was already offered to her, but she turned it down.

She accepted a greater opportunity offered by Dutch pianist Jack van Poll, who was living and teaching in Cape Town at the time, to go and study in Europe and enhance her career as a jazz vocalist and performer.

In September 2002, Tutu moved to Europe in the Netherlands, studying further for almost two years at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Netherlands) with Rachel Gould.

She then relocated to Antwerp in Belgium, her current home, where she’s working steadily on her career.

Tutu was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award for music in 2004.

She released two albums with her Europe band, the first album called Song 2007 and the second album called Quiet Now in 2009, which won the SAMA Award for the 2010 Best Traditional Jazz Album.

Both albums were received very well internationally, which led to Miss Puoane’s receiving an invite from the Brussels Jazz Orchestra to collaborate.

The musical journey between Tutu and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra resulted in the creation of an album titled Mama Africa celebrating the Music Icon Miriam Makeba; this album scored them a SAMA for Best Traditional Jazz Album of 2011.

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In 2019, she appeared on jazz composer Michel Herr’s album Positive.

Puoane’s beautiful voice, her intuition, and her sense of rhythm and melody, combined with her typical charm and sense of humour on stage, make every concert a unique and unforgettable event.

Thanks to her infectious personality, she effortlessly succeeds in convincing music lovers across style boundaries.

She makes you laugh, she lets you shed a tear, she makes you sing and dance along – she moves you in every possible way.

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