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. ~ Steven McDonald