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M AY 2010
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ALL THAT
JAZZ BOBBY
RICKETTS
ACCOMPANIED BY THE
AARON RIMBUI TRIO ALSO FEATURING
ATEMI CHRIS ADWAR & THE VILLAGERS
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FROM THE RING LEADER NERVE CENTER Management • Articles Ring Leader a.k.a Okwi Okoh Rubix a.k.a Jeri Furahah Admin • Logistics • Accounting • Marketing Iron Lady a.k.a Elsie Mwongeli Smooth Operator a.k.a Wycliffe Augustine Pied Piper a.k.a Gillian Ndeti Photography Sharp Shooter a.k.a Mwangi Kirubi Marksman a.k.a Wagema Munyori Web Management Spider a.k.a Wanja Ngunjiri Art Direction • Design & Layout Design Jockey a.k.a Vikki Keingati Arti San a.k.a Mark Muchura
SPECIAL THANKS Our Dad | CEO, Under the Baobab Productions Velma Kilome | Rainmaker Ltd. All our friends and family
on the cover Bobby Ricketts, Musician snapped by SHARP SHOOTER while Ricketts was performing at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. More photos and video on www.kwelimag.com.
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CHANGE is a part of life. But it’s also human nature that we sometimes struggle to hold on to tradition and structure, even if it’s just to maintain a sense of security. At the KWELI Nerve Centre however, we embrace change. It’s often inconvenient, it’s painful at times, but it’s mostly an exhilarating process, and that’s what we’re experiencing now with the birth of kaKWELI, our spanking new online magazine. The demand for meaningful information and entertainment is growing. We’ve happily observed that more and more lines are being added on to the menu for events that meet that demand. We’re talking about the annual Groove Awards being bigger and better than ever this year. We’re also talking about the droves of fans that turned up for Isaiah Katamwa’s concert in February or the A-ffair Concert (Atemi, Chris Adwar, Aaron Rimbui and Dan “Chizi” Aceda) in April despite dodgy weather during both occasions. We’re really excited about these developments because we’re out to help inform, inspire and entertain people looking for purpose and significance in their daily lives. But these developments also mean that we have had to go back to the drawing board and reconfigure how we deliver media content to you. Researchers tell us that over three million of you are getting your news and value-added
information via the Internet and that the numbers will grow exponentially in the next few years. Print is not dead but it’s no longer the first place you check when you want to know what’s up. In our quest to become your premier provider of positive, conscious content, we’ve decided to marshal our resources and get online. This is not news to thousands of you. You’ve already visited www. kwelimag.com, become fans of KWELI Magazine, followed us on Twitter and viewed the diverse series of high-quality photos and articles that our “Spider” has been weaving on to the worldwide web for several weeks now. KWELI TV was launched on the back end of the 2010 Groove Awards and featured stories like Allan Aaron’s impromptu mukurino version of Eko Dydda’s chartcrushing “Niko Na Reason”. Stay tuned for even more engaging video features and reports. We’re always looking for ways to ‘up the ante’ and that’s one of the reasons we’ve started kaKWELI, the first online magazine of it’s kind to hit Africa’s share of cyberspace. It’s fun, it celebrates the fantastic – and it’s FREE. So enjoy, let us know what you think and you never know when the next edition will be, so don’t ever let us out of your site – get it?
God Bless The Ring Leader
www.kwelimag.com KWELI is published and distributed by Under the Baobab Productions Limited. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. If you copy us or any of our ideas we’ll come for you.
AL
4 kaKWELI | ISSUE 1 | MAY 10
LLTHAT
JAZZ
| ISSUE | ISSUE | MAY kaKWELI 2 |1MAR - MAY 10 10 6 KWELI
RING LEADER WROTE IT, SHARP SHOOTER & MARKSMAN SNAPPED ‘EM
I DIDN’T come all
the way to Nairobi to be stopped by a little rain,” American jazz musician Bobby Ricketts told a crowd of about 100 people at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on May 13, 2010. Ricketts, who is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, was in Kenya this week for an exclusive gig held at the newly opened hotel in the city’s Upper Hill area. But it seems that jazz and climate change make strange bedfellows, so once the flood gates opened over Nairobi, it wasn’t clear just how many people would turn up for the concert - especially in a > www.kwelimag.com | ISSUE 1 | MAY 10 7
country where the thumping beats of hip-hop, no-brainer pop tunes and the high-strung notes of lingala and benga dominate the airwaves. However when a quality band like The Villagers are doing the curtain raising, fans don’t need much convincing to get in the mood, even if they’re a little wet and nauseous from all the car exhaust fumes they inhaled while sitting in traffic on their way here. Hits like “Kenchic”,“Mr. Walker” (a favorite at the KWELI Nerve Centre), “Obama” and “Please Wait” welcomed latecomers as the ballroom steadily filled up with people. >
TOP: Chris Adwar LEFT: Job Karanja and Furaha Bwamy, vocals
8 kaKWELI | ISSUE 1 | MAY 10
LEFT: Chris Adwar, Job Karanja BELOW: Shiro Koinange, MC
...She looks sweet you don’t UNDERSTAND sweet a Luo princess NEAT in a leso and kanga FIT ndogo kama PANYA nywele laini kama PAMBA sauti... dada ya Obama... – “Mr. Walker” www.kwelimag.com | ISSUE 1 | MAY 10 9
... I am a simple girl I dream ABOUT loving you and you in return and my simple mind is filled with THOUGHTS of you, YOU will be mine... 10 KWELI | ISSUE 2 | MAR - MAY 10
– “Someday”
LEFT: Nanjira Sambuli, Kanjii Mbugua and Atemi perform “Domestics” BELOW: Nanjira Sambuli, vocals
Things really got going when Atemi stepped on stage. We’ve previously described her voice as “versatile, powerful and passionate” and we’ve got no qualms about saying it again. If you need convincing then listen to the raw emotion of “Someday”, her delightful duet with Chris Adwar. After that, contrast it with passion and power of “Simama”. Atemi, who recently signed on with Gatwich Records, the UK-based label founded by Sudanese rapper Emmaunuel Jal, performed both numbers ably backed by The Villagers. Gospel kingpin Kanjii Mbugua joined her on stage for “Domestics”, in which he argues on behalf of
ABOVE: Atemi, Kanjii Mbugua RIGHT: Eric Wainaina and Atemi perform “Imenibamba”
men, while Atemi naturally takes the women’s’ side in the proverbial battle of the sexes. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Eric Wainana perform, so it was a pleasant surprise to have him join his former band member for “Imenibamba”, a lively love song. The silence following the applause for Atemi and Eric was quickly punctuated by the sweet, smooth tones of an alto saxophone that was clearly being played by a master: Bobby Ricketts was making his way to the stage. What followed was a seamless and exciting musical collaboration led by Rickett’s smooth sax melodies, backed >
by Aaron “Krucial Keys” Rimbui on the keys, Asaph Uzele on bass guitar and George Mutinda playing the drums. One would never have guessed that the Aaron Rimbui Trio had only about 72 hours to acquaint themselves with Rickett’s music. Ricketts, who is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee School of Music, and who has played with stars like Randy Crawford, Al Jarreau, Kele LeRoc, Vonda Shepard, Roger Whitaker and Bonnie Tyler clearly loves to perform and has done so in Europe, Asia and North America. In Kenya, he unleashed an arsenal of songs: some were a tribute to Motown hits; others were original compositions from his latest album “Skin to Skin”.
Regular solos from Aaron and his band earned applause and cheers, while Ricketts would periodically leave the stage to serenade members of the audience. A highlight for us was the experience of listening and watching as Atemi, Aaron and Ricketts met in their various musical elements on Atemi’s “Stay”. This is not Ricketts’s first visit to east Africa. He performed in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania in 2008. Nairobi’s jazz scene is still seeking a firm footing but Rickett’s visit was step forward. If nothing else, this gig was a clear sign that positive entertainment options are growing for Kenyan music fans, and we think that’s a great thing. ☐
BELOW: Bobby Ricketts and Aaron Rimbui
“Skin to Skin” is Bobby Ricketts’ first album in several YEARS.
“It’s nice to get out of my American bubble and MEET new people and collaborate with them.” 12 KWELI | ISSUE 2 | MAR - MAY 10
– Bobby Ricketts
LEFT TO RIGHT: Asaph Uzele, bass guitar George Mutinda, drums