CAP artist in residence to perform recent album at Crest Theater

After her father died, Laura Kabasomi Kakoma, known as Somi, said she struggled to find her path as a musician, fighting to balance the social and political expectations of being an African woman. In the midst of her grief, Somi dreamed that Miriam Makeba, a South African singer and activist, explained Somi’s future options in life.

These dreams helped Somi recover from her heartbreak, reaffirmed her identity as an artist and inspired her to develop a modern jazz opera entitled “Dreaming Zenzile,” since Zenzile was Makeba’s true first name, Somi said.

As an artist in residence for the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Somi is working on this opera and hosting performances. She said that during her upcoming show at the Crest Theater on Monday, she will sing pieces from her recent album “The Lagos Music Salon” accompanied by Grammy Award-winning composer Billy Childs on piano.

Though her parents were immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, Somi was born in Illinois. She received a master’s degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and later created “The Lagos Music Salon” album which fuses African, jazz and soul music.

Theo Bonner-Perkins, CAP’s student arts coordinator and Student Committee for the Arts advisor, said Somi’s process of creating music is genuine because she immerses herself in her environment. Bonner-Perkins said her passion in turn enlightens students to take advantage of the wide range of inspiration at UCLA.

“I’ve loved the opportunity to be here on a campus,” Somi said. “My father was a professor (at the University of Illinois). There’s a certain comfort I have in these sorts of settings.”

Somi will next perform with Childs, winner of four Grammy Awards, including the 2015 award for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals. They met years ago at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Childs said, as Somi was performing in a club, and Childs was on the main stage. He approached Somi, told her he liked her music’s profound statement and suggested they work together.

“(There) was a song we co-wrote together but nothing really came of that, so we’ve always wanted to work together,” Childs said. “She asked me to do this gig with her and I just said, ‘Yeah.’”

Somi and Childs will share music from her album “The Lagos Music Salon” in a stripped-down setting, just piano and voice, she said. Then, CAP UCLA Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds will engage Somi in a conversation about her creative process.

“The Lagos Music Salon” is based on Somi’s time in Lagos, Nigeria. Originally, she visited for an international teaching artist residency for seven weeks, keeping a travel journal and writing some songs. Eventually, she said she grew to love Lagos and stayed for 18 months.

“I was curious about what it would be as an African girl who basically grew up in the States and is very much American, but at the same time I have my heart and my family on the continent,” Somi said. “(Nigeria) had enough Africanisms that made me feel at home but enough foreignness to keep me on my toes.”

Since Somi said she considers herself from both the United States and Africa, she was interested how the new setting would shift her music and lyrics. Her stay was an opportunity to experience substantive elements of the continent with local Nigerian languages and slang, Somi said.

While her show with Childs is her last event as an artist in residence at UCLA, Somi said she will continue to develop her modern jazz opera about South African singer and civil rights activist Makeba. Somi said Makeba is important because she was the first African woman to win a Grammy Award and helped bring apartheid to the global stage in the 1960s.

“We’re all indebted to her,” Somi said. “Any African artist who kind of comes up, you kind of have to acknowledge Miriam.”

Somi said she wrote this opera because of Makeba’s activism, extraordinary voice and the dreams of Makeba that helped Somi through her father’s death. Currently, “Dreaming Zenzile” is in its early experimental stages, Somi said, since she’s in research mode, plugging into new energy at UCLA and digging deeper into Makeba’s autobiography.

Somi said people call her work activism because it incorporates sounds of the African community. However, she considers herself more of a cultural worker, committed to empowering her fellow African artists.

“Oftentimes when people think of Africa, they think of a very stagnated, traditionalist, old school, drum and voice type, not really that sophisticated,” Somi said. “People are the same everywhere, so it’s about making sure there’s an understanding of our differences but also something that reminds us of our sameness.”

Somi said she wants to convey the humanity of the African arts community globally, because she believes the story has not been told in a balanced manner.

“I’m interested in bringing light to the stories that are of today’s Africa, the magic and the tragic,” Somi said.