Somi

Somi is a jazz singer and composer from Champaign, Illinois, in the United States, of East African family background. She is one of seven siblings, and her early life moves through Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania before she settles in New York City, where she develops her career in performance and recording.

Career

After moving to New York, Somi appears as the featured vocalist in Drums under the African Sky, an African Globe Theatre production. That work leads to collaborations with Amel Larrieux, Tsidii Le Loka, Roy Hargrove, Lionel Loueke and Lonnie Plaxico. She also gains attention through a feature in Source magazine alongside Mos Def and other artists involved in the anti-brutality project Hip-Hop for Respect.

Her performance history includes appearances at Joe’s Pub, B.B. King’s, the Blue Note in New York City, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and Chicago’s South Shore Jazz Fest, among other international venues. She also performs with Cassandra Wilson at the Blue Note’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

Projects and recognition

Somi studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she completes a master’s degree. She is profiled by outlets including CNN International, BBC World, National Public Radio, TV5 Monde, VH1, MTV and BET. In addition to her music work, she helps the Rwanda Ministry of Culture and World Culture Open organise the fifth Pan-African festival of Dance in Kigali, Rwanda, and consults for the United Nations Development Programme’s International Conference on Creative Economies for Development.

She is invited by the International French Cultural Centre to tour fifteen African countries. Her work and background place her at the intersection of jazz, soul and African diasporic music.