Somi

Somi plays Dazzle on Saturday, October 10, starting at 9 PM. If you're not familiar with her, Somi (Somi Kakoma) is a vocalist, composer, and playwright who grew up between Illinois and Zambia, the daughter of immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda. She's a Grammy nominee, and the nomination came in 2021 for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Holy Room, a live record she made with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band during the 2020 lockdown. That nomination made her the first African woman ever nominated in any Grammy jazz category, and the album later won an NAACP Image Award.

Her 2022 album, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, took home an inaugural Jazz Music Award for Best Vocal Performance. She also wrote and stars in the original musical Dreaming Zenzile, which is about Makeba, and Petite Afrique won an NAACP Image Award as well. Beyond the music, she debuted on Broadway in the title role of Jocelyn Bioh's Jaja's African Hair Braiding and was mentored by Hugh Masekela. She's a 2023 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, a Soros Equality Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, and a TED Senior Fellow, and she founded the cultural agency and record label Salon Africana.

It's a lot of ground to cover—jazz vocalist, composer, Broadway actor, and playwright—and much of it circles back to Makeba and the African diaspora. The set is just Somi, so you'll hear her voice front and center. The show is at Dazzle Jazz, 1080 14th Street in Denver, and it kicks off at 9 PM on Saturday night.