SOMI The Lagos Music saLon

photo: Glynis C

arpenter

tour representation by

SomiTHE LAGOS MUSIC SALON

In 2011, acclaimed East African vocalist and songwriter

Somi decided to move from New York City to Lagos,

Nigeria for 18 months in search of new inspiration.

The result: a new album she calls The Lagos Music

Salon that landed at #1 on US Jazz Charts as her major

label debut for Sony Music/OKeh Records. Mostly

drawn from her travel journal, the songs draw from

the tropical city’s boastful cosmopolitanism, urgent

inspiration, and giant spirit.

In this piece, Somi fronts a dynamic all-acoustic

chamber-jazz septet while using lush musical

arrangements and lyrical poetry to transport listeners

through the streets of Lagos while recreating the very

“salons” she hosted in Nigerian art galleries throughout

her sojourn. A full-bodied song cycle and vignettes

of spoken word manifests as a deeply personal

narrative framed by elements of jazz, soul, and African

music; Ultimately inviting audiences to consider both

the ordinary and profound realities of Lagos living.

“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

The Lagos Music Salon can be presented in intimate

black box spaces as well as larger proscenium

venues. While the “salon” privileges intimacy and

chamber interpretations of the music, the elaborate

arrangements of the songs invite a more expansive

concert experience that will work well within a larger

auditorium or music hall. Regardless of venue size, the

audience can engage in more personal encounters with

Somi via community programming—from dialogue-

driven events to music workshops.

The Lagos Music Salon can tour as a full octet, or as a

quintet, where violin and cello are hired locally to play

as part of the ensemble. Flexible Running Time: 75-90

minutes without intermission (or two 45-minutes sets if

intermission is necessary).

Lyrics and Text by Somi; Music Composed by Somi,

in collaboration with Cobhams Asuquo,Keith Witty,

Ré Olunuga and Michael Olatuja; Cinematography

and Video Design by Mariona Ribalta-Lloretta.

photo: Glynis Carpenter

artist statement

The Lagos Music Salon is a 90-minute song cycle drawn from reflective travel journal entries written during my 18-month creative sabbatical in Lagos, Nigeria. Cov-ering a wide range of political and cultural themes, the piece uses song, spoken word, and improvisation to frame a deeply personal rumination on both the ordi-nary and profound aspects of Lagos living. Inspired by the role of 15th century female French Salonierres, I was curious about how I might create a space of so-cial intimacy in a modern African city while privileging cultural nuance and inviting listeners and fellow artists in to a “room” of stories that evokes the complexity and specificity of Lagos. This piece is also an answer

to my own investigation of how the move back to the African continent might shift my musical perspective and lyrical inspiration as an African artist working in the West; Ultimately, The Lagos Music Salon strives to tran-scend diasporic romanticization and instead celebrate “inside-out” cultural narratives. The use of a chamber jazz ensemble to perform African music is meant to challenge popular understandings of musical classicism and cultural authenticity while highlighting the relent-less tension and exchange between Western and Afri-can musical themes. The songs from this piece can be found on my latest commercial album release on Sony Music’s jazz imprint OKeh Records.

photo: Glynis Carpenter

artist biography

In late 2011, acclaimed East African vocalist & song- writer Somi decided to move from New York City to Lagos, Nigeria for 18 months in search of new inspiration. The result: a new album she calls The Lagos Music Salon released in August 2014 as her major label debut on Sony Music/Okeh - landing at #1 on US Jazz charts. The album, which features special guests Angelique Kidjo, Common and Ambrose Akinmusire, draws it material from the tropical city’s boastful cosmo- politanism, urgent inspiration, and giant spirit - straddling the worlds of African jazz, soul, and pop with a newfound ease and a voice that Vogue Magazine simply calls “Superb!”

Born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, the African and Jazz legacies are always crucial to her sound. Often referred to as a modern-day Miriam Makeba, JazzTimes magazine describes her live performance as “the earthy gutsiness of Nina Simone blended with the vocal beauty of Dianne Reeves,” while Billboard exclaims that she’s “all elegance and awe…utterly captivating.”

The Lagos Music Salon is a highly anticipated follow up to Somi’s last studio album, If The Rains Come First (ObliqSound)—a stunning collection of story-based songs which debuted at #2 on the Billboard World Chart, and featured her long-time mentor & legendary trumpet player Hugh Masekela. The Boston Globe proclaims the album “is a sustained triumph displaying rich musicality, a sharp pop sense, and rare sophistication” while The Huffington Post dubbed Somi “the New Nina Simone.” Singing in English and a wide range of African languages, her artistic evolution is indisputable.

As her career has taken off, Somi’s talents have been called upon for collaborations and live performances alongside a diverse cast of artists including Mos Def, Baaba Maal, John Legend, Billy Childs, Paul Simon, Danilo Perez, Idan Raichel, Jennifer Hudson and many more. In 2011, Somi released her first live album of performances at the venerable Jazz Standard in New York

City. The result of which JazzTimes hailed as “stunning…natural fervor and naked magnificence.” A two-time recipient of The Doris Duke Foundation’s French- American Jazz Exchange Composers’ Grant, Somi began an exploration of African & Arab jazz traditions alongside acclaimed French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf while investigating the role of the female voice during the Arab Spring protests. That body of work recently premiered at The Kennedy Center’s 2014 Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. She is currently working on a jazz opera about the life and legacy of South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba.

Widely acknowledged as both artist and scholar, Somi is a TED Senior Fellow, an inaugural Association of Performing Arts Presenters Fellow, a 2013 Park Avenue Armory Artist-in-Residence, and the founder of New Africa Live, a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the very best of contemporary African artists working in the performance, visual, and literary arts. Last year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon invited Somi to perform at the United Nations’ General Assembly in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Somi and her band continue to perform at international venues and stages around the world. Somi is a 2015 Artist-in-Residence at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and The Robert

photo: Glynis Carpenter

performer biographies

The Lagos Music Salon can tour as a full octet, or as a quintet, where there is no additional back-ing vocalist, and violin and cello are hired locally to play as part of Somi’s ensemble.

The following are musicians with whom Somi typically tours, but the ensemble is subject to change.

Toru Dodo (piano) was born in Tokyo and has lived in New York since 1998. He is a composer and arranges, and is one of New York’s most in-demand sidemen, Dodo has worked with jazz luminaries such as Kenny Garrett, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller and Terumasa Hino. He has released five albums under his name and published the book, Excellent Jazz Solo Piano in Japan. He has been a collaborator with Somi for the past 10 years. Most recently, he performed as one of the regular pianists at the acclaimed Off-Broadway show, Sleep No More. Movement Research’s Spring Festival. From 2008-2011, ayo was inspired to co-produce and direct multiple works in San Francisco, where her work was described as “feisty, clever and poignant” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In addition to her dance practice, she has worked with youth for 10+ years, collectively organized a CSA farm, taught yoga and developed health and wellness strategies at the Audre Lorde Project, an organizing center for LGBTQ people of color.

Liberty Ellman (guitar) has an improvisational and interpretive flexibility as well as a unique rhythmic touch that has allowed him to contribute to a number of creative ensembles. They include: Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Greg Osby, Butch Morris, Vijay Iyer, Joe Lovano and rising star vocalist Somi. As a composer and band-leader, Ellman has produced four critically-acclaimed albums: Orthodoxy (Red Giant Records), Tactiles, Ophiuchus Butterfly, and most recently, Radiate (the latter three on Pi Recordings), which has received critical praise: “Radiate is a joy to behold, as it’s incredibly impressive in its complexity of vision and clarity. This one is certainly in the running for album of the year.“ - All About Jazz

Patrice Jackson-Tilghman (cello) is a native of St. Louis. Jackson began piano lessons with her mother at the age of three and cello lessons with her father at the age of eight. At thirteen she made her debut with the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2002, Jackson was awarded first place in the Senior Laureate Division of the nationally renowned Sphinx Competition, and was the recipient of the 2002 Yale University Aldo Parisot Prize awarded to a “gifted cellist who shows promise for a concert career.” Since then she has performed with the Atlanta, Detroit, Dal-las, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Omaha, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Nashville, Hartford, Chautauqua, Colorado and Mississippi Symphonies, as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Jackson also made her international orches-tral and recital debuts in South Africa in 2002. She has also performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. She has won numerous competitions and awards throughout her career, including the Alton Symphony Orchestra /Merie Stillwell Solo Competition, University City Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Compe-tition, Laclede String Quartet Solo Competition, and Laclede String Quartet Chamber Music Competition. She has spent several summers studying chamber and solo repertoire at the prestigious Quartet Program, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and at the Banff Center for the Arts. She has taken master classes with world-renowned Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot, and has studied chamber music with Claude Frank and the Tokyo String Quartet at the Yale School of Music, as well as with the Juilliard String Quartet at the Juilliard School. She has also been a student of Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Joel Krosnick, and Bonnie Hampton, and is a graduate of both the Juilliard School in New York and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.

performer biographies

Juliette Jones (violin) is an avid performer and a highly sought-after freelance artist and musician. A multi-genre acoustic and electric violinist, she also works as an arranger and composer and has contracted for a number of live, television and multimedia events, including the New York Film Festival. A BMI composer, Juliette has arranged and recorded for Grammy-Nominated and Award-winning producers Om’Mas Keith and Cory Rooney and has performed for the Golden Globes, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Glee, MTV Unplugged, Saturday Night Live, BET Honors, the Met Gala, Good Morning America and the Late Show with David Letterman. Juliette has collaborated with a veritable list of “who’s who” in the music industry including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Janelle Monáe, Pharrell, Common, Frank Ocean, Florence + The Machine, J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Richard Smallwood, Kim Burrell and Sheila E.

Alicia Olatuja (additional voice) wowed everyone at the 2013 presidential inauguration with her solo during the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s performance of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She’s already earned raves from the New York Daily News and on The View, and with the Choir’s album released on iTunes, and a single “In The Dark” released in March 2014 from Alicia’s solo debut album, Timeless. Alicia Olatuja’s reputation has been growing since her arrival in New York in 2005. The New York Times praised her performance with her husband, bassist Michael Olatuja, in their band The Olatuja Project, lauding her “strong, lustrous tone.” The Olatuja Project, where Alicia sings in various African dialects such as Yoruba and Shona, also released an album called The Promise. Alicia has sung with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir since 2007, often performs as a soloist with the Juilliard Jazz ensemble, and has sung with various recording artists such as Christian McBride, Chaka Khan and Bebe Winans. Alicia Olatuja is also a voice teacher, a vocal producer, and teaching artist for the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Michael Olatuja (bass) is a Nigerian-British bass player, composer, and producer. Olatuja moved from London to New York to emerge as an in-demand session musician and sideman on both sides of the Atlantic. “As a writer, New York encouraged me to be original, because there are so many artists out there,” he says. “Jazz encouraged the freedom to improvise, soul encouraged me to do it from the heart, R&B encouraged an undeniable deep groove and world music encouraged me not to forget my Nigerian roots. Gospel gives it all a sense of purpose; it inspires and uplifts.” Olatuja has worked with Spike Lee, Angelique Kidjo, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Terence Blanchard, Patti Austin, Lisa Stansfield, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Somi, Joe Lovano, Lionel Loueke, Gretchen Parlato, Kurt Elling, Jose James, Wicked (The Broadway Musical) and Motown (The Broadway Musical).

Ira Nathaniel “Nate” Smith (drums) was born in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is a drummer, composer and pro-ducer working across genres in straight-ahead, modern and electric jazz, as well as R&B, rock, hip-hop, spoken word, and electronica. He has worked in many groups, most notably alongside bandleaders such as Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Kevin Eubanks and Ravi Coltrane. He has co-produced and co-written for Michael Jackson (“Heaven Can Wait,” from Invincible, 2001). He has also worked with DJ/Producer Mark de Clive-Lowe, pop singer/songwriter Joe Jackson, R&B crooner Jose James, jazz songstress Somi and award-winning classical composer Derek Bermel. He also has been a featured soloist with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and made two (uncredited) appearances in the feature film Birdman, which won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Picture.

**Other performers may include: Keith Witty or Ben Williams (acoustic bass); Nir Felder (guitar); Otis Brown III (drums); Mazz Swift (violin); Clerida Eltime or Marika Hughes (cello).

All musicians are subject to change.

Somipress highlights, past and current projects

“Somi’s songs gracefully fuse African-tinged grooves, supple singing and compassionate social consciousness; they’re both serious and seductive!” – The New York Times

“(The Lagos Music Salon album) is a sustained triumph, displaying rich musicality, a sharp pop sense, and a rare sophistication!”

– The Boston Globe

“Powerhouse vocalist and politically-aware singer Somi gave a performance to let us know she intends to be around for a while!” – The Source Magazine

“It’s a party and a history lesson, it’s a manifesto and a poem, it’s a call to dance and think all at once. It dares you not to put it on at your pool party but you’re going to want to anyway.”

– Pop Matters (album review)

“One of the year’s best albums: an intelligent, soulful, funky and elegantly jazzy collection that blurs genre lines as merrily as it shows off the artist’s depth of talent. Quite simply, The Lagos Music Salon is amazing.” – Echoes Magazine (UK)

“An alluring…pioneer of a new and promising generation of African artists!” – Vogue

“Sweeping, powerful portrait… a deeply personal journey, from which emerges a magnificently candid, reverent disquisition.” – JazzTimes (The Lagos Music Salon album review)

“Deliver[s] a stunning set, filled with intriguing storytelling…“ – Downbeat Magazine

“Combines the sounds of jazz and soul with the musical depth of her African heritage!” – SoulTrain.com

“Somi unveils an odyssey of song and soul in ‘The Lagos Music Salon’” – TED.com, part of an in-depth interview on the music and the album

photo: Glynis Carpenter

residency activities

Anthropological Music Making A lecture-demonstration where Somi shares how her creative process as musician & songwriter is informed by cultural anthropology, performance studies, personal histories, and geography. In-formally performing song excerpts from her eve-ning-length work, The Lagos Music Salon, Somi will discuss how her creative practice interrogates cultural memory, transnationalism, giving voice to place(less)ness, identity construction and wom-anhood. A unique discussion-driven event that examines the more historical and anthropological side of music; great for academic partners.

The Song Cycle: A workshop for song-writers, poets, and musicians In this interactive workshop for artists, Somi will share her creative and practical process in song-writing. In making The Lagos Music Salon, Somi incorporated a number of elements that either influenced her aesthetic or that were directly incorporated into the piece. This workshop will draw from Somi’s methodology of framing her experiences (through her travel journals, her collected interviews with people she met in Lagos, video documentation of her time there, and more) that then end up as musical pieces. Participants will be asked to bring their own materials to draw from, and Somi will walk them through her songwriting methodology to create new material. Duration: 1-2 hours.

Music Assembly for Young AudiencesFor K-12. Somi will talk about her journey as an artist and musician and will reflect on her love of music. She and 1-2 band members will perform a few songs (from The Lagos Music Salon and from her other repertoire) and take a number of questions from the kids. Duration: 55 minutes/flexible.

Vocal Master Class For University Students and Experienced Musicians. A workshop focusing on voice, which can be tailored for singers/vocal students or instrumental music students seeking more training in voice. An accompanist is needed. Depending on schedule/availability, Somi can also teach this class with one or two of her musicians, and the class can then be more focused on musicians, and how they all creatively collaborate and work as a unit.

photo: Glynis Carpenter

residency activities

SALON AFRICANAThe Salon can take place as a Public Discussion, or a Private Roundtable Event:

Public Dialogue: Somi is joined by select local African artists from various disciplines in a panel discussion on the ideological and cultural threads that connect their work to one another. The discussion will consider how these artists’ work, when looked at collectively, lends itself to and participates in the construction of a global African community. Discussion should be moderated by a local expert or a faculty member from a local university in the areas of ethnomusicology, contemporary African Art, or African Studies. Duration: 1-2 hours/flexible.

Private Event: Artist-to-Artist Exchange The Exchange brings touring artists together with a small group of local artists to be introduced to one another and hear about their work, their creative process, and their lives as artists. The host venue can partner with other local organizations in this effort, bringing artists of different or similar disciplines together in one room in an open, relaxed environment. The conversation is informal, but points of discussion can include: where artists look for inspiration in their work; how the idea of “place” reveals itself in the art they make; how historical or cultural influences are incor-porated into their process or a project itself. The discussion can also include ways that a local support network might be created, but also, on a broader scale, how art can be used locally to build and strengthen communities.

The Salon Africana events serve to not only ignite unique and lively conversations, but to highlight local artists who may or may not have strong profiles in their community. Ultimately, Somi and MAPP aspire to create spaces for con-nectivity and possible collaborations and creative alliances to form, but also to generate a network of African artists across the U.S. (and beyond!)

Duration: Preferable a half day event with lunch/refreshments, or a focused 2-hour meet-and-greet.

support / creditsTour Representation of The Lagos Music Salon is provided by MAPP International Productions, as part of its MAPP On Tour program.

Residency support for The Lagos Music Salon was provided by The Park Avenue Armory, and 651 Arts (New York). The project was also supported in part by generous contributions from Gesi Asamowei, Sobere Diri, and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.

MAPP Board of Directors

Lisa Yancey, ChairSenior Arts Consultant, Yancey Arts Consulting

David Gibson, Co-ChairPrincipal, TWO TWELVE

Candace Jackson, SecretaryPrincipal, CJAM Consulting

Paul Cillo, TreasurerPresident and Executive Director, Public Assets Institute

Olivia GeorgiaExecutive Director, Mary Miss/City as Living Laboratory

Martin BournhonesqueOwner, Martin’s Farm

MAPP International Productions is a nonprofit producer of major performing arts

projects that raise critical consciousness and spark social change. We support all

phases of an artist’s creative process, from concept and production to premiere and

touring, while also engaging audiences in the issues behind the art. Through this

heightened focus, we support an evolving and elite cadre of creators whose work

ignites communities worldwide. Come With Us.

Staff

Brian Tate, Executive Director

Cathy Zimmerman, Executive Producer

Sandra Garner Associate Producer

Michelle Coe, Director of Booking

Rasu Jilani, Director of Community Programs

Kristen Bernier, Administrative Manager

140 Second Ave, Suite 502 New York, NY 10003 646.602.9390

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SOMI The Lagos Music Salon

photo: Glynis C

arpenter