AFRO FONQUE TRIO

Based in Johannesburg

 

This good looking, talented trio are SA’s long-awaited answer to Café Del Mar!

The Afro Funk Trio brings you jazzy, soulful, upbeat, lounge, Afro-beat, house and all-round sounds to please any audience.  The band mixes a fusion of sounds, experimenting with music covering all genres to the delight of the listener. The members are Marcus Wyatt (left) on horns, Lelethu Nkula (centre) on vocals and Allan Nicoll (right) aka Kid Fonque on the decks (Dj). They have performed for up-market, high-end, corporate events, clubs, parties for small or mass audiences.

More on the individual members:

Marcus Wyatt:
Marcus Wyatt hails from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape has been playing the horn  since 1983. He is part of a new generation of South African musicians - respectful of the past,yet moving forward without fear of twisting boundaries.

This young trumpet player has performed around the globe, and worked with an impressive array of musicians, from Manu Dibango, Abdullah Ibrahim and Miriam Makeba to Carlo Mombelli,Bheki Mseleku and The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra.Marcus has performed with a number of prominent European musicians including Jason Yarde,Louis Moholo,Sean Bergin,Eric Van der Westen,Eris Calmes ,Dave O’higgins and Courtney Pine(on his set in Johannesburg).

He has appeared on numerous national and international festivals in South Africa, Angola, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, France, Malaysia, Taiwan and India.

Lelethu Nkula:
Born 9 July 1985 in the Eastern Cape at the coastal town of East London, she later moved with her family to Johannesburg where she finished off high school at Rand Park High. Her musical experience started when she was in pre-school where she sang her first solo at a Christmas concert. Everything escalated from there. She became involved in musicals, performed at eisteddfods and did various musical exams with regards to singing. She also played a few musical instruments, i.e. the flute, recorder and steel drums. Her training as a vocalist started at the early age of 7 and advanced through the years with both her parents having a musical background and taking on the task of training her as a singer.
As a vocalist she is diverse in such a way that she adapts to different genres of music. Singing house, afro-beat, neo-soul, lounge, world music, r ‘n b, jazz, opera, traditional, gospel and choral music… if it’s music, she’ll sing it! She also does spoken word and writes her own pieces too.

Her experience as a performer has taken her on stage  with the likes of Dj Rocco, Marcus Wyatt, Kid Fonque, Giggs Supastar, Blackwhole (Mr Cee) and Dj Fresca, Lulocafe and more. Also having had performed at the Soweto Festival, LIVE on SABC1, Jam Alley, appeared on Yo-TV and on various radio and TV shows.

She performs at corporate functions together with public and private functions. Lelethu did the House Flava tour which was a project done by Soulcandi and SABC. The tour consisted of her as the only performing artist together with 5 of Soulcandi’s top dj’s going around the country launching the House Flava disc.

The soulful lady is an experienced tv presenter and was presenting a tv show which show-cased the best of South African  Jazz and R’nB. The show was on Soweto TV and aired on DSTV channel 150 Friday nights. It covered everything within the music circles such as events, new and established artists performances, music videos and many more. Currently she is co-presenting with Dj Euphonik on Soulcandi TV.

Besides TV presenting, she is also recording with various producers and featuring in up and coming albums. The main project at the moment being her project with the World renowned music producer and owner of Offering Recordings, Boddhi Satva (Belgium, Bangui, Central African Republic), of which she is an artist on the international label where her works have been exposed and remixed by Rocco (France), Ezel (US) and Yotam Avni (Israel).

She wrote and sang the house single, Int’engekhoyo produced by Dj Fresca and Dj Khudoskelem from Soulcandi Music. The track made it on two compilations, Dj Fistaz and House Flava Fo So by Soulcandi and SABC and also has it’s own music video. She also has a release on Dj Fresh’s new album The Final Definition, Suphola aka Nantsi Lengoma, produced by Madboj (core producers for Lesego). Both tracks have been on various charts in the top 20 since April 2008.Lelethu is currently working at Soulcandi. She is very passionate about music and performing in this field she says, “is an extension of my personality”. Her plan is to complete her album in the very near future.

Allan Nicoll aka Kid Fonque:
Since the far of days when Kid Fonque was messing about with downbeat and hip hop, legendary and original “Liquid Lounging” (now Lilo productions) picked up on the flavour and booked Fonque for numerous classic underground parties including “More Togetherness” and “Bass and Blues”. As nodding your head in chill rooms, 2nd floors & back bars in the Late 90’s early 2000’s was happening more often, a 2 ½ year residency at 206 came his way. With a passion for music and a open environment to play in, Fonque’s taste and selection grew, instead of noddin’ the whole night you where finding yourself breakin’, noddin’, samba’n, and groovin’ to an amalgamation of sounds.

Friendships and essential partnerships came from this open-minded playing; soon enough Troy (Inspirit recordings) would join kid on his musical excursions. Including a yearly partnership with G-Force at Rustlers called the “Eclectic ride”. A variety in styles and flavours started putting Fonque on main floors rockin’ a different beat- housy, broken, nujazz, breaks whatever it was you where sure to hear consistency and quality throughout.

In January 2004 the Kid released his first mix cd called ‘Saladomundo’ on USM that has been critically acclaimed by the press (press quotes are on next page) and sold over a 1000 copies.  His Follow up  ‘Saladomundo vol.2’ was released in March 2005 with more great response and some solid media reviews.

Craig Massiv and the Kid where sourced to compile and mix a compilation for Jazzanova’s Berlin record label ‘Sonar Kollektiv. The mission behind the compilation was to expose the label on our sunny shores. Massiv and Kid where also asked to remix one of Sonar Kollektiv’s artists Deyampert, which was added to the compilation and also made it as the first local release or remix covering the broken beat/nujazz genre. ‘Kollektiv Worx’ mixed by Craig massiv and compiled by Kid Fonque was released in October 2005 on Ready Rolled records. To add to the Kid’s cd releases he has just released ‘The Candi Lounge’ for Soul Candi Records South Africa in Aug 2008.

Other venues and parties started hearing the sounds, securing gigs at Reality, Sublime, Barcode, Carfax, 88 Norwood, Rustlers, Oppi Koppi, Monsoon, All good,  @115, Al dente (Ferrari showroom), Canteloop Alley, 96, Natural Groove, Ku-Da-Ta, Marvel (Cape Town), Next Movement, Songwriters club, Mo’s, House on Fire (Swaziland), Caprice (Cape Town), Kungfusion, 206, Sudada, and plenty in-between.  Giving his sound  (what he likes to call freestyle) exposure.

Kid fonque has opened and played after internationals such as Jazzanova (Sonar Kollektiv records Berlin), Dj Krush (Japan), Fink (Ninja Tune),  Luke Solomon (Classic records), Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune), Rainer Truby (Compost records),  Gilles Peterson (Radio 1 UK), Darjan (Metro Area),  Dj Craze (World DMC Champ 3 years in a row), Dj Naughty (Deejay Gigolos Germany), Ame (Sonar Kollektiv Berlin), Aaron Jerome (If music London), Nick Matthews (best kept secret), Basement jaxx and there’s more to come…

To sum the Kid up - soulful, jazzy, freestyle, fresh, and always unpredictable.