South  African Music Award winner Samthing Soweto took East London music lovers on an emotional musical journey this Saturday at the Velvet Jazz Lounge.
Samthing Soweto, whose real name is Samkelo Mdolomba, shared his musical journey from starting out with The Soil to forming part of The Fridge and becoming a hit-making musician.
Mdolomba’s performance was part of the One ShuShu Day June concerts series, in partnership with Velvet Jazz Lounge.
The concerts, headed by the Sama -nominated Msaki, are a combination of incredible local, national and international talent.
The first artist who graced the stage at the beginning of this month was Thandolwethu hit-maker, Berita.
Mdolomba was the second and last national talent to perform.
Mdolomba was part of The Soil’s first self-titled release and wrote nine of 13 songs of that album.
He said after years of doing his own thing, he met Sun EL in 2016, which led to them working together on their smash hit, Akanamali.
“After recording the song, Sun EL worked on it for six months and it came out last year in March. It is the song that launched my solo career,” he said.
Mdolomba told the crowd of how he had no money for petrol when he went to record the hit song.
Performing a laid-back version of the hit, the audience sang along with him.
His fans then asked him to perform Summer Daze, which he ended off with, saying he was surprised the audience knew of the song.
Msaki said this was their last event before the National Arts Festival.
“Straight from the festival I will be leaving for my Euro tour. For now the focus is on the festival and all that we will be doing in Grahamstown,” she said, adding that MXO, who was scheduled to perform at the Velvet Jazz Lounge, would be performing during the festival.
While the audience was impressed with Mdolomba’s set, it was East London’s own singer Vinnie Mak who mesmerised the crowd with his rhythm and blues sounds.
Performing songs such as Buffalo City Blues and Nameless knows no bars, Vinnie Mak had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hands.
Mak, whose real name is Vincent Makeleni, started singing at the age of seven.
His love for music was influenced by his grandmother and her friends, with jazz and blues having been a major influence.
Since 2014, he has been travelling around the country playing with various instrumentalists under the collective name, Inner City Soul. With a deep love for East London, Makeleni continues to make music that exposes the depths of inner city life.
On Friday, Makeleni will release his single, Nameless knows no bars.
To find out more about his music and shows, people can follow him on his Facebook page, Inner City Soul – BC. — poliswap@dispatch.co.za..