Suzanna Owiyo , Kenya's biggest female artist is launching her new CD on the KKV in cooperation with Mimeta. “My Roots” is the second CD in the Imagine Africa campaign.
The prolific singer and songwriter who has performed at the Mandela concert in New York and at the Nobel concert in Oslo, has in contrast to many large African artists, chosen to stay in Kenya and resist the temptation to move to London or Paris.
Suzanna Owiyo has two previous releases behind her. In connection with the new, "My Roots "says the artist: - Let me take you on a journey to my roots. Please feel free to share this special language that we all own together: Music. My musical instrument " Nyatiti "can stand as a symbol of the disc's title. My grandfather was a prolific nyatiti player. The instrument was used at special occasions and gatherings, but it was only used by men. For women, it was taboo even just touching the instrument. But this did not stop me when I wanted to learn to master it. And I was even more excited when I was at our local TV station and saw a Japanese woman, called Anyango play on it. It was the first time in my life that I saw a woman playing Nyatiti, but she gave my own ambitions to do the same thing a push.
Suzanna sings lyrics about corrupt power figures, good leaders, about the appreciation and sharing of the beautiful gifts we have been given by God, alcohol abuse dangers, forgiveness, fathers who run away, faithfulness in friendship, violence against women and addiction that promotes begging and prevents the development.
In addition to singing and playing Nyatiti , Suzanna also plays acoustic guitar, shakers and bongos on the disc. She has also brought a large team of skilled musicians from Nairobi : Tobi Imani , Eric Desire Buchumi , Freddie Bryant , Rocky Bile , Tobby Koech , Dave " Mob " Otieno and Combo Chokwe all plays guitar. Eric Mwangi , Chagala Wycliffe , Eric Mwangi and Annette A Aguilar on percussion. Robert Kamanzi and Hussein " Meya " Mwidani : Drums . Sadie Kinyunda , Dave " Mob " Otieno , Isaac Gem : collaborate on bass, and Lydia Ogoti sings backing vocals and plays Calabash
In addition, Barry Olsen on trombone , Rob Thomas on violin and Shadrack Muithya on keyboards .
The release is published in cooperation between KKV and Mimeta , a Norwegian center that supports artists and artistic groups that contribute to culture and development. The disc is part of the series”Imagine Africa”. Imagine Africa www.imaginafrica.org is a project initiated by the Arterial network www.arterialnetwork.org
To purchase: http://www.kkv.no/
