WOMEN IN JAZZ - SOMI (US)

In the organizer's words:

Laura Kabasomi Kakoma embodies jazz and vibrant world music in one person. The singer combines the cultural roots of her Rwandan and Ugandan parents with her own formative years in Illinois and Zambia to create a truly cosmopolitan musical blend.

For her album THE LAGOS MUSIC SALON, released by SONY in 2014, the artist, who is now based in New York, lived in Lagos, Nigeria, for around a year and a half. The impressions of this time are strongly reflected in her soul-driven jazz compositions, which gave her an impressive international breakthrough, including number 1 in the US charts.

She is now known as a Grammy-nominated singer, composer, author and Broadway performer - in the jazz scene simply under her stage name Somi. Her music, created in cities such as Lagos, Dakar, Paris and New York, is like a sonic travel diary in which personal stories merge with contemporary jazz and African grooves. Her intense live performances are often associated with greats such as Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan and Miriam Makeba. Somi herself describes her art as a transatlantic sound that combines African and American jazz, soul and pop influences.

Line Up

Somi (voc), Toru Dodo (p), Herve Samb (g), Otis Brown (drums), Ben Williams (bass), Myron Walden (horns)