Arts writer
EAST African vocalist Somi released her Akobi: First Born S(u)n QB’s Remix Collection last week. The songwriter moved from New York City to Lagos, Nigeria, for 18 months in search of new inspiration. Working alongside brilliant blind Nigerian producer Cobhams Asuquo and multi-talented American composer Keith Witty, the result was her chart-topping 2014 opus and major label debut, The Lagos Music Salon(Sony/OKeh), which landed at #1 on US Jazz Charts.
The album, which also features special guests Angelique Kidjo and Common, draws its material from the tropical city's ‘cosmopolitanism’, straddling the worlds of African jazz, soul, and pop.
Capetonians can sample Somi’s musicality at two local venues while on her African Cities Tour– at the University of Cape Town’s School of Music, Chisholm Recital Room on Wednesday and at Straight No Chaser Jazz Club (old Mahogany Room at 79 Buitenkant Street, 076 679 2697) on Thursday.
Born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, African and jazz legacies are central to her sound. Often compared to the likes of Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba, she has been dubbed ‘The New High Priestess of Soul’, with her ‘supple jazz singing and compassionate social consciousness being both serious and seductive’.
The Lagos Music Salon was a highly anticipated follow up to her pevious studio album, If The Rains Come First(ObliqSound) – a collection of self-penned, story-based songs which debuted at #2 on the Billboard World Chart, which also featured Hugh Masekela.
QB smith is from London, moving to Joburg in 2012. He has been in the music industry for over 20 years and polled as being amongst the world's top 150 house DJs he has produced for and worked with talented musicians such as Atjazz, Monique Bingham and Mi Casa. His current album is Hot Music Volume.
Somi was curious about how the move back to the continent might shift her musical perspective and lyrical inspiration.
Her material has strived “to transcend diasporic romanticization”. Subsequently she has been able to articulate that nuance and share new stories.
Mostly drawn from her Lagos travel journal, some of the singer’s songs highlight the musical conversation she had with the city as she contemplates both the ordinary and profound experiences of Lagos living. Singing in English, Yoruba, and Nigerian Pidgin, her artistic evolution has seen punters comparing her live performance to “the earthy gutsiness of Nina Simone blended with the vocal beauty of Dianne Reeves”.
Over time Somi has collaborated with, or performed alongside, artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Baaba Maal, John Legend, Cassandra Wilson, Mos Def, Idan Raichel and Jennifer Hudson
This autumn Somi and her band have travelled from New York City to four major African cities to share their music.
l www.somimusic.com, twitter.com/somimusic, www.face book.com/somimusic, www.youtube.com/channel/UCg_ECGsuOnQTt006HnZKhYA, or see instagram.com/somimusic/