Caiphus Semenya

Formerly self-exiled from South Africa in the 1960s, Caiphus Semenya has built a solid reputation as a musical director and composer, working with his wife, vocalist Letta Mbulu, as well as with a variety of other exiled and semi-exiled African artists, such as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. Moving to Los Angeles, Semenya found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley, his facility with both jazz and African forms serving him well.

Semenya's Los Angeles stay also yielded an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, resulting in Semenya providing African compositions for the scores to Roots (both parts) and Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The Color Purple. He later worked on the score to Disney's The Lion King. After his return to South Africa in 1990, he composed scores for Molo Fish, Vicious Circle and Gaba Mootho, three series broadcast by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation. He continues to work in America, Europe and Africa in a variety of capacities, including with Letta Mbulu as Caiphus & Letta. He is an executive producer for Quincy Jones' Qradio website, for which he also writes a regular column.