Born in the foothills of Tanzania’s majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Sauda Jasmine Simba’s love for music began in her early years, avidly listening to the legendary African American artists like Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight. Studying in Ireland in her early 20s, Sauda naturally gravitated to jazz and blues. One of her major influences was Billie Holiday, whose music and history had a profound impact on her, and led her to form her first jazz band, Cheza. As Cheza’s vocalist, she performed at a range of venues around Dublin, gaining fans and fame on the jazz scene there and was selected to perform at the National Concert Hall with the Irish Jazz Youth Orchestra.

Having spent a number of years abroad, Sauda finally returned to her beloved homeland and Tanzania’s seaside city of Dar es Salaam. Now a successful career woman and mother of daughter Maya, Sauda’s enduring passion for jazz has evolved into her first release Simply Jazzmin.

However in recent years Sauda decisively began to take her music in a new direction, mixing jazz with more traditional sounds of Tanzania. This progression can be heard on her latest CD, Sauti ya Sauda which was released at the end of 2009. The album produced by Ambrose “Dunga” Akwabi of Mandugu Digital features fellow singer-songwriter Enika who provides additional vocals, along with guitarist Ashimba, and Msafiri Zawose on ilimba (pentatonically tuned thumb piano) and zeze (Gogo two-stringed violin). From Dublin jazz to today’s contemporary arrangement mixing instrumental, rhythms and soul from her home country, Sauda is bringing a refreshing edge to music as we know it in Tanzania.