Somi – Live @ Rich Mix
aaamusic | On 21, Nov 2014
Saturday 15th November, London
Elegant and exciting singer songwriter Somi, of Rwandan and Ugandan descent, fuses jazz, soul and African music into a hybrid she calls “New African Jazz.”
She’s collaborated with Paul Simon and Ibrahim Maalouf and been compared with Nina Simone and Dianne Reeves. She now divides her time between Nigeria and the USA, living in Lagos and New York City.
Somi‘s latest album The Lagos Music Salon was inspired by spending time in Lagos and gaining an insight into its people and their personal experiences of joy, pain, pride, and despair. It encouraged her to write moving and diverse songs about life, hope and love.
At this EFG London Jazz Festival performance Somi sang ‘Last Song’ a beautifully sensual soul ballad built around a fine piano accompaniment. The slow and gentle courtship song ‘Ginger Me’, about inviting a boy to lure, flatter and seduce, was charming and a little unconventional: “Ginger me with dreams of love and faithfulness/Ginger me, boy, with your heart.” ‘Round Brown Things’ was a dark, troubled and haunting tale about a young streetwalker: “She offers of bosom and flame. . . . She calls your name / But scowls just the same / Brown round things for sale.”
Somi’s rich and earthy vocals are accompanied by intelligent, poetic lyrics that help create socially conscious music with a political message. Her rhythmic songs have fun, passion and an emotional intensity. There’s a depth and expressiveness to them that could be compared with her mentor Hugh Masekela.
