Born in London, England to a Barbadian father, playwright Don Kinch, and British-Jamaican actress Yvette Harris, Soweto began playing saxophone at the age of nine after learning clarinet at Allfarthing Primary School, Wandsworth, SW London. He then moved to Birmingham where he attended West House Primary School in Edgbaston beginning a long association with Britain's second city. After meeting Wynton Marsalis four years later he discovered and became passionate about jazz, first concentrating on piano and later, in his teens, focusing on alto saxophone. He attended Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire, from the age of 13 through to completing his A levels at 18.
In 2001 he also established the Soweto Kinch Trio - with bassist Michael Olatuja and drummer Troy Miller, which supported Courtney Pine at the former Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, in Birmingham, and performed at the Royal Festival Hall and Cheltenham International Jazz Festival.
Kinch has won numerous accolades including the Rising Star Award at the 2002 BBC Jazz Awards and the prestigious White Saxophone prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2003 and 2007 he won the MOBO prize for Best Jazz Act. In the same year his debut album Conversations With The Unseen was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but Kinch lost to grime MC Dizzee Rascal. The year 2004 saw Kinch win two BBC Radio Jazz Awards: Best Instrumentalist and Best Band, along with the Peter Whittingham Award for Jazz Innovation.
In 2006, Kinch released his second album, A Life In The Day Of B19 - Tales Of The Tower Block, the first instalment of a two-part concept album documenting the lives of three inner-city Birmingham men. The album features narration from Moira Stuart. The second part of the album, entitled "Basement Fables", was originally intended for a March 2007 release, but has been delayed with no clear indication of a date.
Kinch also moonlights as a member of the Pop Idol backing band The Big Blue.
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