Somi

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Somi (2016)

Somi (real name: Laura Kabasomi Kakoma, born June 6, 1979 in Champaign , Illinois ) is an American crossover jazz singer with East African roots.

Live and act

Somi's parents are from Rwanda and Uganda ; she grew up in Illinois and Zambia , where her father worked for the World Health Organization , and when the family returned to Illinois, she attended University Laboratory High School in Urbana and Champaign Central High School; then she studied Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Illinois . She earned her Masters in Performance Studies from the Tisch School of the Arts (New York University). She worked as a background singer for Roy Hargrove ( Strength EP The RH Factor , Verve). In 2003 she made her record debut; In 2011 she released the album Live at Jazz Standard , followed in 2014 by The Lagos Music Salon (on the reactivated Columbia label Okeh Records ) with Common and Angélique Kidjo as guest musicians. In 2017 she opened the Heidelberg Enjoy Jazz Festival. In 2019 she performed with a big band for the first time - in Germany.

Somi combines African rhythms, jazz and soul in her music . She has been compared several times with Sarah Vaughan and Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone .

Discographic notes

  • Eternal Motives (2003)
  • Red Soil in My Eyes (2007)
  • Somi: Live at Jazz Standard (2011)
  • The Lagos Music Salon (Okeh, 2014)
  • Petite Afrique (Okeh, 2017)
  • Holy Room - Live at Alte Oper (Salon Africana, 2020; with the hr-Bigband )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Discogs , where a link to their alias L. Kabasomi Kakoma leads
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed June 13, 2014)
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Sandner : Singer Somi opens the 'Enjoy Jazz' festival in Heidelberg ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed online October 7, 2017)
  4. ↑ a b Holy Room - Live at Alte Oper. nrwjazz.net, July 24, 2020, accessed July 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Atlanta Jazz Festival 2014: Preview - The International Stage
  6. ↑ Short portrait as a guest musician at the Idan Raichel Project
  7. ↑ a b Singer with African roots - The new Nina Simone in the penultimate broadcast on June 8, 2014 of the now discontinued “Album of the Week” series on what was then Deutschlandradio Kultur
personal data
SURNAME Somi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Champaign , Illinois , United States