Somi Kakoma is a US-based singer, songwriter, playwright and actor of Rwandan and Ugandan descent. Her acclaimed 2022 album, ‘Zenzile – The Reimagination Of Miriam Makeba’, is a celebration of the invaluable musical contributions and messages of social justice made by the ‘first lady of African song’ and features Somi’s interpretations of some of Makeba’s best known recordings.
The CD and digital release of the album was on what would have been Makeba’s 90th birthday (4th March 2022), with a brand new vinyl format coming almost exactly a year later and immediately after a rare UK live appearance at Ronnie Scott’s.
I have known Miriam Makeba’s voice for as long as I can remember, and as a result I feel like I know her personally. Her messages of social justice and the humanity of black lives still encourage us today. This project is about honouring the vast and immeasurable contribution she made to popular, folk and jazz music on behalf of a people, a continent.
Somi has released seven albums that have included guest appearances from the likes of Common, Angelique Kidjo and the late Hugh Masekela (her longtime mentor), earning a Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy nomination in 2021 – the first African woman to be recognised in any Jazz category.
Long before the making of ‘Zenzile…’, Masekela had advised Somi to listen to Makeba’s song ‘Love Tastes Like Strawberries’ with a view to covering it. Years on, she has honoured that request and made it entirely her own as a sultry minimal duet with US Jazz superstar Gregory Porter. Her decision to invite Porter to participate was a nod to a 1965 Grammy-winning album by Makeba that featured a series of duets with her own mentor, Harry Belafonte.
Although Makeba (who died in 2008) elevated the spirit of a continent, including her native South Africa, her courage was met with decades of political exile from her homeland followed by blacklisting in the US after her marriage to US civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael. Somi’s lifelong love of Makeba’s music and personal strength led to ‘Zenzile…’, a record intended to inspire a rediscovery of Makeba’s life and work. “This album is my attempt to honour the unapologetic voice of a woman who inevitably made room for my own journey and countless other African artists. In short, I owe her. We all do, and she deserves her rightful place in the larger cultural archive of the US in particular but also the world in general.”
In recognition of Makeba’s resonance throughout Africa and its diaspora, Somi invited a number of guest musicians to take part on ‘Zenzile…’. From South Africa, male vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, singer-songwriter Msaki, vocalist and activist Thandiswa Mazwai and jazz pianist-composer Nduduzo Makhathini’ all pay respects to their compatriot, while Nigerian singer-musician Seun Kuti (the youngest son of Fela Kuti), Beninese singer-songwriter/activist Angelique Kidjo and the aforementioned Gregory Porter also join Somi in tribute.
Somi has recently taken the story of Makeba’s life to the stage with the musical ‘Dreaming Zenzile’ that she wrote and stars in. It opened in New York in spring .
EXCLUSIVE LONDON SHOW
RONNIE SCOTT’S 02.03.23