By Ogova Ondego
Published March 17, 2011
Ayub Ogada, a world music legend and one of Kenya’s best known musicians internationally, performs at Goethe-Institut in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya, in the evening of March 19, 2011.
“On this evening,” says a Press Release from Goethe-Institut, “Ogada gives a rare solo concert which is only the second live concert after his return to Kenya – performing his own music: It will simply be his voice, percussions and the trancelike Nyatiti.”
Ogada who has been performing since the late 1970s,was born in Kenya’s port town of Mombasa and was educated in Kenya and in the USA. He spent
his career as a musician in Kenya, then 20 years in London,UK, before returning home in 2008 to concentrate on developing talents in Kenya.
“As a master of the 8-stringed lyre Nyatiti, complemented by his unique voice, Ayub Ogada caused a sensation in world music. He released several albums, the most famous being En Mana Kuoyo which was recorded by Peter Gabriel’s record label, Real World,” the Press Statement says.
RELATED: Censored Artists set to Perform at 10th Sauti za Busara Music Festival
There is no entry fee to the concert that starts at 6.00 PM East African Standard Time (15.00 hrs GMT/UTC).
Ogada has had his songs featured in a number of prominent international feature films sw with a link to Kenya. Such films include I DREAMED OF AFRICA (2000) and THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005).
Whereas the former is is the story of an Italian divorcee who marries a danger-loving man and moves to Kenya, the latter is the quest of a man for justice in the face of corporate corruption that has sent his wife to the grave.
