(le) poisson rouge

When Somi was growing up, her mother told her that the rain, ever unpredictable, could be as much a blessing as a challenge. That notion has stayed with the charismatic singer and songwriter all her life and provides a metaphorical focus for her third studio album, If The Rains Come First. (ObliqSound), a stunning collection of self- penned story-based songs, a meditation on opening ourselves up to life’s blessings and challenges much in the way that we accept the rain and all that it brings.

The Boston Globe says the album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard World Chart, “glistens with the sheen of an almost impossibly perfect cosmopolitanism." Singing in English and three East African languages, Somi’s vocal delivery is subtle yet the power she exerts is enormous. Her artistic evolution is indisputable.

Born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, the African and Jazz legacies are always crucial to her sound. Often compared to the likes of Miriam Makeba, Sarah Vaughn, Cassandra Wilson, and Cesaria Evora, her new album also features the legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela, a longtime Somi fan and mentor. JazzTimes magazine describes her live performance as “the earthy gutsiness of Nina Simone blended with the vocal beauty of Dianne Reeves,” Billboard calls it “all elegance and awe...utterly captivating,” and Vogue simply calls her voice “superb.”

As her career has taken off, Somi’s talents have been called upon for collaborations and live performances alongside Bobby McFerrin, Baaba Maal, John Legend, Cassandra Wilson, Mos Def, Paul Simon, Idan Raichel, Randy Weston, Jennifer Hudson, Nicholas Payton, and many more.

While Somi and her band continue to perform at venues in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, the globetrotting chanteuse says, “At the end of the day, I still know who I am and where home is before, during, and after the rain—it’s in the music.” Somi is also a 2011 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural 2011 Association for the Performing Arts Presenters Fellow, 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.

Official Website: www.somimusic.com

Composer and singer MORLEY from New York City breathes sensuality into activism with her worldly lyrical stance. Her warm and soulful voice is often compared to India Arie, Annie Lennox, Roberta Flack and Joni Mitchell. Her music shares their political and social relevance with a vocal sound that is all her own.

Morley has had the distinct honor to present at TEDWomen and TEDxEast. She has performed for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Mary Robinson, Ela Gandhi, Sonia Sanchez, Ravi Shankar as well as numerous events at the United Nations, and The Auburn Theological Seminary. Morley has written, collaborated, and toured nationally and internationally with renowned artists such as Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, Joan Wasser, Dave Matthews, Raul Midon, Amadou et Mariam, Sheryl Crow, Queen Latifah, Angelique Kidjo, Sarah McLachlan, Larry Campbell, Yuri Buenaventura, Leni Stern and Richard Bona. She has released CDs independently as well as through Sony and Universal Records. Her new CD, “Undivided” will be available September 3rd, 2011.

Morley considers social and global activism an integral element of her music and uses its medicine as a tool for dialogue facilitation when she works with teenagers from domestic and international conflict zones.

Photo Credit: Pascal Perich

"I was born to Nigerian parents and grew up in Lagos. my mother taught French. My father was a business executive who exported chocolate. The first book I read (I was six) was an abridgement of Tom Sawyer. At fifteen I published cartoons regularly in Prime People, Nigeria;s version of Vanity Fair. Two years later I moved to the United States.

Sin then, I've spent most of my time studying art history, except for an unhappy year in medical school. I currently live in Brooklyn."

-http://www.tejucole.com/

Dave Eggar’s body of work is consistently greeted with superlatives and rave reviews. It’s a luxury not often enjoyed by an artist who records in diverse genres and performs live in multiple musical categories, seamlessly moving between each, be it Pop, Rock, Jazz, R&B, New Age, World or Classical music. His ability to effortlessly blur the lines between any musical style is truly unique. That's the magic of Dave Eggar.

Toru Dodo, born in Tokyo, started playing classical piano at age 4. Shortly after entering the prestigious Meiji University in Tokyo where Dodo majored in Economics, he discovered Jazz music. and soon after began gigging in Tokyo area. After graduating Meiji University, he went onto study the Berklee College of Music in Boston (1995), where he graduated as summa cum laude in 1998.

Dodo has contributed his playing as a sideman for noted musicians such as Kenny Garret, Benny Golson,Curtis Fuller, Ruth Brown, Terumasa Hino just to name a few. Currently , aside from his trio, he works with vocalist SOMI (vo),The Pete Zimmer group, Wayne Escoffery & Carolyn Leonhart group,Satoshi Inoue's group.

Hackensack, N.J. native, drummer and composer Otis Brown III was destined for success in his field. Born not far from Rudy Van Gelder’s legendary recording studio, Otis’ mother was working as a vocal music teacher/choir director and his father a percussionist at the time of his birth. Hearing music from conception in this fertile, music rich, environment would prove to be invaluable for his future.

He currently can be seen touring with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Jazz in America initiative, Joe Lovano’s trio quartet and nonet, the Laurent Coq trio, the Franck Amsallem trio and quartet, the Steve Wilson quartet, the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Jerome Sabbagh trio and quartet, the Donny McCaslin quartet, guitarist Ron Jackson’s quartet, the Bob Stewart tuba project and many, many others.