Jazz power-couple Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya will celebrate their music milestone with their Pretoria fans in December.
The power couple will headline the 10th annual Mzansi Fela festival next month alongside Thandiswa Mazwai of Bongo Muffin fame.
Since inception in December 2007, Mzansi Fela has become one of the most anticipated festivals of the year in Pretoria.
Lifelong career partners, Semenya and Mbulu have more than 20 albums in about 52 years of working together.
Their concert will be a rendition of afro-jazz, soul and classics of Ndiphendule, Ziph’inkomo, Angelina, There’s Music in the Air, which have cemented their place as icons of the global music stage.
Mbulu and Semenya’s lifelong career partnership and marriage have been described as one of the most inspirational love stories in the entertainment world.
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SA History Online (Saho) says Mbulu, born in Soweto, toured South Africa and England with the musical King Kong, in her teens.
“When she returned to South Africa at the end of the UK tour, she was forced into exile in the US,” the website said.
“While in the US, she was invited to tour with Cannonball Adderly and soon thereafter joined forces with Harry Belafonte.
The two formed a rewarding musical venture that took Mbulu on several world tours.
She would later marry fellow South African musician, Caiphus Semenya, whom she had met while touring with King Kong.”
Mbulu founded SA Artists United (Saau) in 1986.
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Upon their return to South Africa, Mbulu and Semenya performed in the Unity ’91 festival that marked the first time they had shared a stage with other fellow musicians on home soil.
In 1992 she released Not Yet Uhuru, her first album to be recorded in South Africa. It was arranged and produced by her husband.
Semenya was famous for his musicality during his exile to the US, where he lived in Southern California, during apartheid.
During his time in the US, Semenya worked with some of the biggest stars. The couple returned home in 1991.
Mbulu and Semenya will perform at the SA State Theatre on 17 December.
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