Miss Baby Sol

Miss Baby Sol was born in a small town in Zaire, now known as the Democratic republic of Congo. Having a singing mother and a guitarist father both in the same band meant that she spent a lot of time around musicians and their instruments and although she never learnt to play herself she grew with an understanding and love of ‘the live set up’ and particularly the sound of the acoustic guitar.

She moved to the UK in 1990 and at the age of 16 met her destiny in the form of the man now known as Jnay. Having always had a healthy appetite for music, from primary school recorder, to violin (very briefly) and then later- at GCSE- Johann Sebastian Bach’s Preludio 4, when Miss Baby Sol arrived at Richmond Upon Thames College she immediately gravitated to the music block and there found a boy, playing the bass guitar on an amp. With his support she learnt more about her vocal and started taking song-writing more seriously. She also started to work with underground hip hop and garage producers writing hooks and generally wailing at them but after leaving college lost the constant musical stimulation she craved in the form of live music.

In 2002 Miss Baby Sol auditioned with a local youth choir in West London and was signed to a management duo under Kool Music Entertainment. Steve Cole and Jason Francois would unwittingly give her the confidence that she needed to become a resident in the music industry. She wrote a number of songs with Jason and began to experience the live element once more as Steve introduced her to The Spot- a music venue for singers- and encouraged her to do backing vocals. After a year under the tutelage of Mr Cole, the management contract was up and Miss Baby Sol moved on. Now without management and determined to become a full time singer and respected vocalist Baby Sol continued to work with the likes of Nutty P and NAT recording demos for publishing and underground UK Hip-Hop Mixtapes.

In 2003 Jnay won the MOBO Unsung award and Baby Sol became one of his backing vocalists 1st appearing on the Mastercard MOBO awards at the Royal Albert Hall. Later she was to be joined by Jae Prideaux and Tawiah in supporting the newly discovered and very talented artist. As a result of having performed a duet with Jnay, Baby Sol became part of Michelle Escoffrey’s Kindred Spirit Collective in 2004, having the privilege of working with some of the best vocalists and song writers in the UK including Charlene Hector, Vula Malinga, LeDonna Harley Peters as well as Tawiah, Jnay and Michelle Escoffrey herself.

In 2005 Baby Sol did backing vocals for Nate James at the Jazz Café in February and then went on to become part of Patrick Alan’s Music Box Live band at 10 Rooms, backing vocaling for the likes of Alexander O’neil, Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone as well as a host of other UK and US artists- alongside Zalon Thompson and Tawiah. She also began doing backing vocals with the Barefoot Project (Sam Obernik and Tommy D) and lead vocals for the Jazz Jamaica Motorcity Roots Tour (Dune Music) alongside the likes of Soweto Kinch, Abram Wilson and Gary Crosby.

In late February 2006 Miss Baby Sol went to a showcase in a club in Earls Court and met Malcolm Connell, the founder of Jazzfly and joined him in his quest to bring Live Music to the My Place Club Lounge. Being a songwriter and performer herself she occasionally performed on the Jazzfly stage and performed at several other showcases as a result of being seen there. She also worked with many a band including Beat Tree, Driving Me Crazy, Supa Soul Brotha Del and The Bridge, exercising her passion for music and vocaling. The showcase was later to be passed on to her and she and a team consisting of Dyana D and Kristine Skovli oragnised and held the weekly event known as Jazzfly until April 2007. After this time Miss Baby Sol decided that she should take more time investing in herself and, having done all the above whilst working full time, quit her job to pursue a full time career in music.

Baby started to work more prominently on her artist career, recording songs acoustically and with a band, in 2007, performing alongside Rox and Paloma Faith at Shoreditch’s Hoxton Bar and Grill in December. Unfortunately she had to take some time out after the hospitalisation and subsequent death of her mother in March 2008. She has since featured on DJ Ironik’s Debut Album (Warner Music) and performed with Tinchy Stryder for Radio 1- Ras Kwame and BBC1xtra Live.

2009 was a year full of achievements for Miss Baby Sol. Having completed the FLORA London Marathon, in 6h 19mins, and raised £2000 through gigging at various venues across London- including The Jazz Cafe, The Cobden amongst many others- she signed with Scarlet Air Management and completed writing for her first body of work which is due to be recorded in 2010. The year also saw Baby touring the UK, Europe and Australia with Paloma Faith as well as with ROX, supporting Daniel Merriweather on the UK leg of h