page_title: Soweto Kinch
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Soweto Kinch / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Soweto Kinch @ Band On The Wall, Manchester 4 October 2012
context_page_description: Soweto Kinch is a British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper.
context_section_description: Born in 1978 in London, England, to a Barbadian father, playwright Don Kinch, and British-Jamaican actress Yvette Harris, Soweto Kinch began playing saxophone at the age of nine after learning clarinet at Allfarthing Primary School, Wandsworth, SW London. He then moved to Birmingham, where he attended West House Primary School in Edgbaston, beginning a long association with Britain's second city.
  After meeting Wynton Marsalis four years later, he discovered and became passionate about jazz, first concentrating on piano and later in his teens switching to alto saxophone as his main instrument. He attended Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire, from the age of 13, completing his A levels when he was 18. Early musical influences include the vocalist and percussionist Frank Holder. Kinch went on to study Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford University. He also benefited from participation in the programmes of Tomorrow's Warriors, the music education and artist development organisation co-founded in 1991 by Janine Irons and Gary Crosby, and played with Crosby's Jazz Jamaica All Stars collective.
  In 2001 Kinch established the Soweto Kinch Trio with bassist Michael Olatuja and drummer Troy Miller and supported Courtney Pine at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club  and performed at the Royal Festival Hall and the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival.
  In 2006, Kinch released his second album, A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block, the first installment of a two-part concept album documenting the lives of three Birmingham men. The album includes narration by BBC newsreader Moira Stuart.
  Kinch is also a member of the Pop Idol backing band the Big Blue.
  Kinch has performed for Don't Flop Entertainment, where he has competed in rap battles and faced opponents Dotz, Shuffle T and Charron.
  In an interview at Abbey Road Studios, Amy Winehouse mentioned that she would like to record a "more purist" jazz album, citing Kinch as a notable jazz musician with whom she would like to work.
caption: Soweto Kinch on stage at Band on the Wall in Manchester, 4 October 2012
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