Interview: Somi on Her Major Label Debut, 'The Lagos Music Salon'

By Jon Sobel, BLOGCRITICS.ORG
Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, August 14, 2014
Sophisticated and seductive, Somi's new album The Lagos Music Salon developed out of the American singer and songwriter's repeated visits to Lagos, Nigeria, where, as Teju Cole's liner notes put it, she "absorbed the city's truth into her musical imagination."

From the cloudy, slightly Bacharach-esque lost-love song "Still Your Girl" to the intricate dance-pop of "Lady Revisited" (an answer to Fela Kuti's "Lady"), and from the sunny horn-and-percussion-fueled Afropop of "Akobi: First Born S(u)n" to the chilling verses of Somi's transformation of Nina Simone's "Four Women" into "Four African Women," these songs encompass Somi's jazz and world music roots while expressing her deep connection to both the cultural glories and the daily tragedies of West Africa.

"Two-Dollar Day" depicts "a woman on the road / She got mouths to feed / Her man died last year / Now she works to the bone."

"When Rivers Cry" features rapper Common and laments the fouling of the continent's waterways: "Feet crushing plastic / Moving windows tossing bottles dry.Waste and dust still choking road and sky / The trees remember days of plenty / Before rivers cried." (Angélique Kidjo and gospel group In His Image also make guest appearances on the album.)
read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Interview-Somi-on-Her-Major-Label-Debut-The-5691132.php

Somi Explores Nigerian Culture on New Disc

Somi’s next album is titled The Lagos Music Salon (OKeh). (Photo: Glynis Carpenter)

Somi Explores Nigerian Culture on New Disc

Vocalist Somi will release her OKeh Records debut, The Lagos Music Salon, on Aug. 5. But on May 23 at the Kennedy Center’s 19th annual Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festiva …  
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read more: http://downbeat.com

Somi: A Familiar And Exotic 'Rain'

by Derek Rath
January 5, 2010 - The great thing about coffee — or, in my case, a nice cup of tea — is the first sip and, just for a moment, the accompanying sense of well-being. Its a snugness, a familiarity imparted by ingredients from places of which you likely have no knowledge. And so it is with If the Rains Come First, the new album from an artist called Somi.

It's an apt metaphor, because although she has lived most of her life in Illinois and New York, Somi spent her early childhood with her Ugandan and Rwandan parents in Africa. It's this merger of cultures and experiences that shapes her awareness and gives a distinct flavor to her music. Somi's style may well span territory mapped out by Sade, Sarah Vaughan and even perhaps Steely Dan, but there's much more to it than that. For one thing, Somi sings not only in English but also three African languages. And, at the core of her music, there's a top-notch African rhythm section.

In "Enganjyani" — which, according to Somi, means "the memory of whispered prayer and being haunted by a past lover" — she is also joined by the legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Most tellingly, though, these prodigious musical chops are employed in the service of some savvy songwriting.

Her lyrics are intimate and personal, turning on the everyday tribulations of life — things to which we can all relate. This seeming vulnerability is her strength, and her singing exudes both with confidence. This is life closely observed, and the delight is in the details. She's not afraid to drop the music out to practically nothing to focus on them. If the Rains Come First unites the familiar with the exotic, and reveals the universal qualities that can be found in individual experience. These intimate ruminations need no larger-than-life sonic padding — they're a potent brew from the first sip to the last drop.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122252775&sc=nl&cc=mn-20100106