A year ago today I was in New York. Thank you Sipho for allowing me to work on and a wonderful project .

All Mandela day is asking is to give 67 mins of your time to do some good.

You may ask what have I done ? These pics serve two purposes, memories and a call to action.

A person’s memory gets jogged does it not? So hence this letter to my friends.

During June this year I got asked to help talk and show kids on a code teen programme how to work cd players and some lessons about the music business along with my great friend Gavin Taylor. The programme ran for 4 weeks under the direction of Karen Burt and culminated in a variety performance at the school. What a joy it was to give kids a chance and for them to learn that they can do it with hard work and willingness to learn . All we are citzens need to do is give some time during the year to people less fortunate than us, just do something from the heart.

This short extract was taken from the www.variety.com re the show last year at RadioCityMusic Hall.

The main event, however, was the concert, scaled down from its initial MadisonSquareGarden location last month, which managed to achieve accessibility without dumbing down. While the big names certainly did not disappoint — Aretha Franklin was particularly fiery in her performance of "Make Them Hear You" — the real knockout punches were delivered by unexpected sources.

France’s first lady Carla Bruni, for instance, teamed with Dave Stewart for a steely and stirring rendition of "Blowin’ in the Wind" — a particularly fitting selection to celebrate Mandela’s life — while Baaba Maal eked a full spectrum of emotions from "With My Two Hands." While those pairings brought together performers from relatively close quarters, it proved particularly intriguing to see cross-cultural boundary crossings like Alicia Keys and Angelique Kidjo’s "Afrika."

African-based performers offered plenty of powerful perfs, notably saxophonist Sipho Mabuse, who brought down the house with the soulful "Shikisha.