The Lagos music salon

"Somi's music has always been informed by African, R&B and soul influences, but an eighteen month stay in Lagos helped her dig deeper into the African cultural soil than she ever had before. The resultant album, powerful, cool, vibrant, sly and lively all at once, could be considered the latest and most developed strain of "New African Jazz" that she's produced yet: that's a term Somi herself coined to describe her music a while back, but it fits this one like a glove".

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"A cross-cultural beauty of a record. Soul-jazz-Afrobeat complexity illuminates an American singer's encounter with Africa's most important city. Best of the summer, of the year ... A record that should make Somi into an international star. You won't be a able to stop listening to The Lagos Music Salon, this rich, moving, sensual, close-to-perfect collection of borderless music".

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""The Lagos Music Salon" is jazz hybrid singer and songwriter Somi's fourth studio full-length, and her debut for Sony's OKeh imprint. Sometime after her Live at Jazz Standard set in 2011, she moved from New York to Lagos, Nigeria, searching for a mercurial "something" that would open new directions for her voice ... Recorded in Nigeria and New York City, the album features her American band (...) and numerous African musical guests. Though Somi's music has always employed African influences, it's never been to this extent. These songs seamlessly integrate jazz, classy soul, and sophisticated pop with African melodic and modal themes, styles and rhythms. Their narratives are often delivered in griot-like manner ... "The Lagos Music Salon" is not only Somi's finest recording to date, but stands with Dee Dee Bridgewater's classic Red Earth as an album that expertly explores the symbiotic relationship between American evolutionary music forms and their mirror image in modernAfricanpop. It does so with a passionate conscience, a maestro's discipline, and the wide-angle vision of a true artist".

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