On Friday, February 14, 2020, at 7:30 pm “Somi” was performed at the Colwell Playhouse. The performance consisted of several songs played a a band and lead singer, Somi. Each song was centered around a theme pertaining to Somi’s life growing up.
By: Daniel Plata
Somi is both the name of the performance and performer of this event. Somi sung along side a band consisting of a piano, drums, bass, guitar, cello, viola, and violins. Somi’s vocals were mainly the focus of each song, but a couple of the musicians played solos throughout the performance. Somi would point to them and engage with them using body motions when they performed their solos. Seeing her interact with the musicians like that evoked a feeling of togetherness within the band. In addition, between songs Somi would sometimes talk to the audience, switching between her serious demeanor when performing and a casual demeanor when talking.
Overall the music performed sounded like a fusion of jazz and traditional African music, yet strangely unique in its own way. Each song had different emphasis on aspects of either jazz or traditional African music, and each song evoked very different emotions. Somi’s singing was very vibrant, powerful, and robust, but could also be very melancholic and soothing. She did not fully explain what each song was about but you could tell that certain songs were about an action or event, and other songs were about emotional reaction or a situation. In particular there was one song with a very distinct Jazz element that reminded me of something like a Chicago or New York metro. Somi would provide context to the general theme of the performance but it was up to the listener to try and interpret each song. I felt like a lot of her songs had to do with being torn apart between her background as both an American and African. Some songs felt sad and slow evoking a feeling of despair and other songs were strong and fast evoking a feeling of pride. I feel like the songs performed alternating between soft and slow or vibrant and fast meant to symbolize her struggle of trying to find her identity in the American political climate of the era.
My favorite song of the entire ensemble was the very last song which Somi performed after exiting and reentering the stage. I don’t know if it was planned but I was struck quite hard by the very clear lyrics, “If this was my last song…” with the phrase ending with different lines like “would you hum along” or “would you try to remember everything” This made me think about how a lot of things in life are very fleeting and gave me a new appreciation for being able to attend a performance like this. I feel like the lyrics to that song will stick with me for a while.