SOMI
(Booking Worldwide outside of Europe, Africa, & South Africa)
LINEUP:
Somi:
5-6piece touring ensemble: (vocals, drums, bass, piano, guitar + optional horn)
Somi: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba
*SPECIAL PROJECT AVAIL UPON REQUEST*
A Full concert performance of the repertoire from her album, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba (2022).
Solist:
Available to perform as a featured soloist with big bands. Somi has her own book of music and arrangements.
TOUR:
2024 - Available upon request
2025 - Available upon request
LATEST ALBUM:
Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba (2022)
Somi's award-winning tribute to the late South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba with special guests include Gregory Porter, Angelique Kidjo, Seun Kuti, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Thandiswa Mazwai, Msaki, and Nduduzo Makhathini.
BIO:
“A virtuosic performer in full command of her instrument and powers.” – The New York Times
Vocalist, composer, actor, and playwright Somi Kakoma is the daughter of immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda. A true renaissance woman, she is known in the jazz world simply as ‘Somi’. Her fifth studio album, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, is a companion project to the critically acclaimed original musical “Dreaming Zenzile” that Somi also wrote and starred in Off-Broadway as a tribute to the great South African singer and activist. Prior to Zenzile and at the height of the 2020 global lockdown, Somi released an unplanned live album called Holy Room featuring the Frankfurt Radio Big Band that ultimately earned her a 2021 Grammy® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album and made her the first African woman ever nominated in any of the Grammy® jazz categories.
Somi is a recipient of the 2023 Doris Duke Artist Award, two NAACP Image Awards for Best Vocal Jazz Album, and the inaugural Jazz Music Award for Best Vocal Performance. She is also a Soros Equality Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, a TED Senior Fellow, a Sundance Theatre Fellow, and the founder of Salon Africana – a boutique cultural agency and record label. Recently, Somi made her Broadway debut in the title role of the critically acclaimed new play “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” by Joceyln Bioh.
Somi holds degrees in Cultural Anthropology and African Studies from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and is currently working on her PhD at Harvard University’s Department of Music. In her heart of hearts, she is an East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom. www.somimusic.com
VIDEOS:
PRESS:
"A performer in full command of her instrument and her powers...her singing seems as effortless as it is varied, as easy as it is virtuosic." - The New York Times (LINK)
"It is so deftly written, and performed with such luminous grace, that it's hard to imagine anyone coming away less than transfixed." - Wall Street Journal (LINK)
"A superb jazz singer, Somi has lived in various parts of Africa and creates an elegant and highly individualized amalgam of the musics she has loved and the bi-continental experiences that have shaped her life." - NPR (LINK)
"Somi’s songs gracefully fuse African-tinged grooves, supple jazz singing and compassionate social consciousness; they’re both serious and seductive." - The New York Times (LINK)
"Somi shows herself to be an ambitious artist... [and] a tough act to follow." - NPR (LINK)