Photo from Somi's official website: http://www.somimusic.com
Get to know Somi, an American jazz artist of African descent with a beautiful voice and even more beautiful stories to tell. Somi's music is a recent discovery to me, which I found based on a retweet of NPR's Song Travels series this past weekend. It was a cloudy, Sunday morning and so I decided to listen to the hour long session between Somi and award-winning musician and host Michael Feinstein. What a treat to my ears! I truly appreciated hearing about Somi's life experiences, being American yet still very much directly connected to the African diaspora. How she takes her life experiences and translates them into song, sharing the joys and lows and everything in between. I was really captivated by her song Last Song (performance video below) because the idea of how one is remembered connects directly. Her most recent album, The Lagos Music Salon released last year recounts Somi's 18 month stay in Lagos highlighting the culture, the surroundings, and the very essence of Lagos.
As a young woman of African descent, The Lagos Music Salon captures the diversity and soul that I imagine the continent to possess and I look forward to the day when I'm able to visit beautiful countries of the motherland. As a music lover, I respect good music and am excited to get versed in her previous work. If you like melodic and soulful voices, Somi fulfills that. If you like lyrics that provoke thought and make you feel, Somi's got it. Don't delay, head to iTunes or Amazon for a taste of audio beauty as we know it! If you have the opportunity to see her perform live, take advantage. It turns out I just missed her in my city a couple of days prior to this review. You best believe I will be watching for the next time she is in my city!
Beautiful track with Somi featuring Common- When Rivers Cry
Fun facts:
- Birthplace: Champaign, IL
- Roots: Rwanda and Uganda (Africa)
- Other places lived: Zambia and Lagos, Nigeria
- Languages: English (fluent), French (proficient), Russian, Spanish, and Swahili
- When writing music, Somi writes in English and Swahili
- Education: University of Illinois (undergraduate); New York University (master's degree)
Ginger Me Slowly- Somi (The Lagos Music Salon- 2014)
Discography:
Eternal Motive (2003)
Red Soil in My Eyes (2007)
If The Rain Comes First (2009)
Somi: Live at Jazz Standard (2011)
The Lagos Music Salon (2014)
Take a listen to Somi's excellent interview with Michael Feinstein and in-studio performances of tracks from her on NPR's Song Travels here: http://www.npr.org/2015/03/13/392763167/somi-on-song-travels
Follow Somi on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somimusic
Twitter: @SomiMusic
Instagram: https://instagram.com/somimusic/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/somiVEVO
Official website: www.somimusic.com
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