Tutu Puoane (31 May 1979,

Atteridgeville Atteridgeville is a township located to the west of Pretoria, South Africa. It is located to the east of Saulsville, to the west of West Park; to the north of Laudium and to the south of Lotus Gardens. The settlement was established in 1939, and ...

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

-) is a South African

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singer. She grew up in the township of Mamelodi, Pretoria. By 1997 she had already been performing in Johannesburg downtown. Realizing her passion for singing, Tutu went on to study jazz vocals at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

with Jelena Reveshin and Virginia Davids. She received several awards from major South African jazz competitions. In 2000 she won the old mutual jazz encounters for Cape region and in 2001 she received a merit award for young promising talent at the Daimler Chrysler South African jazz competition. When 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 a performer. In 2002 September, Tutu moved to Europe and stayed 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, first album called ''Song'' 2007 and 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 work with them. The musical journey between Tutu and Brussels Jazz Orchestra resulted in to a creation of an album titled ''Mama Africa'' celebrating the Music Icon

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, jazz, a ...

; this album scored them a SAMA for Best Traditional Jazz Album of 2011. In 2019, she appeared on jazz composer

Michel Herr Michel Herr (born 16 February 1949 in Brussels) is a Belgian jazz pianist, composer and arranger. In addition to releasing jazz albums, composing for jazz ensembles and touring widely as a performing musician, he has also composed scores for ...

's album "Positive". Tutu’s musical journey has landed all over the world in countries such as Italy, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland and USA.

Discography

* ''Quiet Now'' (2009)

Accolades

South African Music Awards

, - , 2009 , ''Quiet Now'' , Best Traditional Album ,

References

External links

Tutu Puoane
on Saphrane label {{DEFAULTSORT:Puoane, Tutu South African jazz singers Living people 1979 births