Every once in a while a diva is born. This is someone whose music is unique in style, profound in content and ahead of its times in form. Linda Kekana is surely one such person. Hailing from the townships revered as the mecca of Jazz Atteridgeville, Gauteng and born some three degrees ago, Linda carries influences of some of the richest music of South Africa. It is such influences that shaped Lindas present, and that will definitely have a bearing on the future that is about to take off with this her debut solo album Rebirth. Linda is a product of the angelic voices of Letta Mbulu ad Shirley Bassey as much as she has drawn courage from the lyrical prowess of Miriam Makeba, Nina and Caiphus Semenya equally contributed to Lindas musical upbringing. Listening to all these musicians made her realize, If these people could produce such good music, I cannot help but be inspired to do my thing. But Linda is also grateful for the influences she got from her family. My immediate influences are from my mother, grandmother and my aunts. Come weekends we always found a reason to come together as a family and sing. And of course I was surrounded by a lot of Jazz from the neighborhood. The story of Linda and her music is one worth documenting. She always has a passion for music. Although she also loved R&B, when she finally made up her mind about following a musical career, she knew exactly what she wanted to do and that was jazz. Right from the early 1980s Linda started writing lyrics and keeping it in the safe. Later in life, she would sing the words while her husband, Ephaim, would add the music to these words on the family keyboards. As time went by, the couple decided to put their compositions on tape in the hope that they would be recorded some day. I kept on writing my music she says, explaining how she ended up with enough material in her collection long before she decided to record. Linda and her husband took their tapes to the legendary Oom Alec Khaoli who agreed to record it for them. Privately, under the name Jazz Factory in 1998, Linda, Ephraim and Oom Alec produced a CD. Linda made numerous public appearances promoting the album. She knew deep down that the album had not reached its maximum potential and kept that in her subconscious mind. I think I write what I call reality songs. They are intense. If you sing these songs you would have to work hard. I just wanted to deliver something that makes sense. Something that makes you think. Throughout the album Linda alternates the pace of the songs from up-tempo and fast to extremely slow. Her melodies put her in the leagues of Nina Simone and her lyrics are as compelling as the songs of Makeba and Mbulu. In short, Rebirth is a very mature album of incredible standard. It is both moving with its words as well as consciously African in content. In spite of all the comparisons that have been made about her and other female jazz singers, Linda is adamant she sings like Linda does May the spirits of jazz find you and fill you with love and all the things life has to offer. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.