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the one and only Alexander O’Neal.
The US R&B singer, who has built up a huge following the world over, is likely to bowl the local audience over with his sensitive, cool music that has stood the test of time and without too much effort on his side successfully seeped through to generations of discerning music lovers.

Born in November 15 1953 in Natchez, Mississippi, O’Neal’s best-known songs are “Fake”, “Criticise”, “Saturday Love” and “Never Knew Love Like This”. They are likely to take the audience on a nostalgic trip or rekindle sparks that started against the backdrop of these classic songs.

O’Neal moved to Minneapolis when he was 20. He is an alumnus of Alcorn State University. He joined a group called The Mystics and played the local cover-band circuit. O’Neal spent a short time in the group Enterprise before being recruited into Flyte Tyme, a funk band that included Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Monte Moir.
Flyte Tyme were later signed by Prince to the Warner Bros label with their name changed to The Time, but a disagreement with Prince led to O’Neal leaving the band and being replaced as lead singer by Morris Day.

Allmusic profiler John Floyd asserts that O’Neal was ousted for “looking ‘too black'”.
O’Neal immediately formed a rock and roll band called Alexander and recorded a 12″ single, Playroom, for a Chicago-based independent label, followed by the release of Attitude on the Rich Records label.

Three years later, in 1984, O’Neal signed a deal with Clarence Avant’s Tabu Records. He did some backing vocals for other artists on the same label, including The SOS Band and Cherrelle. He released his self-titled debut album in 1985. It included three singles that reached the top 20 of the R&B singles chart. He also scored his first R&B top 10 single with Saturday Love, a duet with Cherrelle. The song peaked at No2. It reached No6 in the UK.

In 1987 he released the album titled Hearsay. It yielded the No25 pop and No1 R&B single Fake. The follow-up, Criticise, peaked at No4 on the R&B charts. It also peaked at No4 on the UK singles chart. The third single, Never Knew Love Like This, another duet with Cherrelle, peaked at No2 on the R&B charts.

In 1991, he released his third album, All True Man. In 1992, his first greatest hits album, This Thing Called Love: The Greatest Hits of Alexander O’Neal, was a top 10 album in the UK. In 1993 his final album for the Tabu label, Love Makes No Sense, was released. It was his first album not produced by the legendary team of Jam and Lewis. In 1995 another greatest hits compilation, The Best of

Alexander O’Neal, was released.
In 1996 his first album with One World Records, Lovers Again, was released.

In 2001 he released an album with Eagle Records, Saga of a Married Man. The album was produced by former Prince drummer Bobby Z. In 2005, he recorded his first live album, Alexander O’Neal Live at the Hammersmith Apollo.
Catch the king of smooth soul at the Joy of Jazz festival in Newtown between August 25 and 27. – Sowetan.