SHOUTING MY HEART

Somi, a US musician with roots in Uganda and Rwanda, celebrates the sacredness of cultural spaces, writes Andrea Nagel

Some lone electronic keyboard chords. Then accompanying notes from the trumpets building to a crescendo. A gentle snare drum introduces the voice. And what a voice — soulful and rich, clear and strong, whispering and roaring all at the same time. It belongs to Somi — Laura Kabasomi Kakoma — born in the Midwestern US to immigrant parents from Uganda and Rwanda. On first listening to the title song from her new album, Holy Room, which she recorded live at Alte Oper in Frankfurt with Frankfurt Radio Big Band, I’m reminded of Cassandra Wilson’s Tupelo Honey. But then she chants the chorus, the Muslim call to prayer — “Allahu akbar”— and the song takes an intriguingly spiritual turn.

“It was the encore to the concert, so it’s only chance that it’s on the album at all. A bit ironic, perhaps, that it ended up being the title track,” she says. It is a homage to the sacredness of cultural space. “Since the pandemic, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of live storytelling, public assembly and the choice we all have to be an active witness. What does it mean for an African woman to stand on a European stage and shout the stories in her heart?”

When Olaf Stötzler, manager of the Big band, invited Somi to perform with them in May 2019, she hadn’t planned on releasing the recording as a live album. “Taking place in a beautiful 18th-century opera house, it was recorded for national radio broadcast, but that was supposed to be the extent of it.”

At the time, she was focused on the opening of her original musical, Dreaming Zenzile, about “the late great Miriam Makeba, in development for the past five years”. The world premiere was shut down only six days before opening night at the St Louis Repertory Theatre due to Covid-19.

So, during worldwide shelter-in-place orders and while watching her entire tour schedule vanish, she revisited the recording, her first time performing with a big band.

“The mere sound of live congregation for the sake of storytelling comforted me in a visceral way. Not only because it transported me to the stages and repertoire I long to return to, but more so as a meditation on what cultural space actually does for artist and audience in general — and for the marginalised black, African, female, and immigrant communities that I represent in particular. The stage and the people immediately become active witnesses of my humanity simply by holding space. To choose to be a witness of another person’s truth is to choose something I believe to be holy,” she says. “In the absence of live performance and in the face of a global pandemic, I thought the mere sound of public assembly and live music might lift the heart of the listener the way it lifts mine. This album is an offering of courage and, hopefully, a reminder to each one of us to lean into and honour the thing that makes us feel most alive — especially now. The thing that makes me feel alive is standing on stage shouting my heart.”

Somi speaks of standing in the “in between,” touching on her cultural heritage as a first-generation American, growing up mostly in Illinois. Her music has been described as “trans-Atlantic storytelling”.

“It’s about a conversation and exchange between the here and the there — the motherland and the diaspora,” she says.

She’s experienced the nuanced differences and similarities between African-Americans and African communities leading to some personal struggles — she was seen as “too Western” by some and “not black enough” by others. “At the beginning of my career, I often felt pressure to choose one side in order to be understood musically — African or American, immigrant or Western, black or other black. Over time I realised that my greatest asset was my ability to be either, both, and all of those things. So, I simply decided to lean into the tension that marks the in-between. The greatest gift of artmaking has been the opportunity to situate ‘home’ in the cultural imaginary.”

Her musical heroes include Hugh Masekela, who she had the opportunity to perform with before he died. “His wisdom, sense of humour, relentless truth-telling, pan-Africanist ethos and luminous commitment to his artistry continue to inspire me in all that I do,” she says. “I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had with to work with and/or know our elders — they always imbue so much confidence, wisdom, and light. Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Randy Weston, Dianne Reeves … each one of them has taught me about humility, generosity of spirit, and finding freedom in the music.”

Somi has launched Salon Africana, a holding space for the many other African artists “whose work lies beyond the West’s often monolithic understanding of what African music is and might be”.

Any upcoming projects?

“Yes. The play and more music. For now, I hope people take a moment to take in Holy Room. I hope it gives each listener a bit of courage in these uncertain times.”

‘I thought the mere sound of public assembly and live music might lift the listener’s heart the way it lifts mine’