She arrives looking like a West African princess, her head wrapped in a metre of vibrant Kente print cloth from Ghana. But Cassandra Goins is from New York, a businesswoman based in SA and loving the place. She says she'll never get used to the SA obsession with race, however.
"Why does the fact that I'm an African American who has chosen to live here always have to be the first topic of discussion among both blacks and whites in this country," she asks with a bemused grin, "when there's so much else that's more interesting to talk about?"
There certainly is. She's the African representative of one of the world's most unusual record labels, the global American company Putumayo World Music, named after a Colombian river and grown out of the trendy Putumayo clothing store seen on Seinfeld and patronised by the likes of Jane Fonda.
"We are a boutique label with the presence of a major label," says Goins as she tucks into Café Miam's skinny tasting platter, surprisingly satisfying and some bits even sublime.
Established in 1993, with colourful cover artwork that sets it apart, Putumayo now has a network of more than 3 000 speciality retailers in 60 countries. CD sales reached 10m last year.
Goins has been with the company since 2001, and in Africa since 2004, setting up distribution networks. Initially based in the Gambia, she arrived in Cape Town in 2005.
"Our challenge was to make Putumayo available at local prices, accessible for everybody. In SA the stores were selling the CDs at between R180 and R249. Now it's R129, available in record retail and non traditional outlets like museums, zoos, botanical gardens and gift shops."
Sourcing artists is not part of her job but she loves discovering them. "I get submissions daily. The media even arrive with their friends' demos or albums.
"A lot of what we receive comes from Francophone Africa. We've had difficulty finding East African music, but I was in Kenya in March and attended the Kisima Music Awards, and there were several Kenyan artists I could recommend when I went to New York later.
"Putumayo consumers are looking to discover something new. They don't want a mirror of the West, an African version of Madonna. SA indigenous music is exportable and I hope our CDs encourage artists to be comfortable in their skin."
Among the SA performers Putumayo has zeroed in on are Judith Sephuma, Sibongile Khumalo and Dorothy Masuka, who all appear on the Women of Africa album. Legendary singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela is on Putumayo's Acoustic Africa promo tour of the US and Europe, which may come to Spier in March.
A pioneer in the field, Putumayo contributes part of its proceeds from CD sales to the communities where the music originates. New Orleans relief projects benefited this year from the entire proceeds of Putumayo's New Orleans album.
Brought up in Los Angeles, Goins started her career in the marketing department of Walt Disney Studios and then moved through top marketing and promotion positions in the music industry until, in 1995, she was appointed president of Tuff Gong International, the label founded by Bob Marley. Its Grammy-nominated reggae band Steel Pulse was one of her babies.
"Working with artists is like being a professional babysitter. It doesn't matter how old they are or how long they've been in the business. My nature is to get close to the project but it can be compromising when you're torn between your love for the music and their egos."
In Cape Town she lives and works in Tamboerskloof. Her 23-year-old son Christopher works part-time for Putumayo's marketing department in New York, and couldn't make his mother's 50th birthday this year. It was a three-day bash in Maputo, ending in a brunch on the beach at Costa del Sol. "My friends are a menagerie, a real mix of corporate and creative, very diverse." Her own little melting pot.
HOW SHE CHILLS
 Enjoys partying with her friends in the music business
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Ranking the Analysts 2009
