She Defines Soul.Substance.Style (No. 012): Somi

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Written By: MIM!—A true multicultural woman, Somi was born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, then spent her early childhood in Zambia. The African cultural legacy, always crucial to her sound, is as vital as ever in her current music, which Somi likes to call New African Soul. But so too is the music she heard upon relocating to New York, with American jazz singers like Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. Blending tradition and modernity, like the jazz greats—Miriam Makeba, Cesaria Evora and Sade—who paved the path for her, Somi is adding her own musical interpretation and leaving a musical footprint as this generation's voice of African soul and jazz. Hear more from this woman of Soul.Substance.Style by visiting www.somimusic.com.

(Photo Credits: Matthew Furman)