finetune artist: Ayub Ogada

b. Nyahere, Kenya. Nyatiti (lyre) player Ayub Ogada first rose to fame in 1993 when he was invited to support Peter Gabriel on his extensive two-month tour of Europe. Before this point he had yet to release an album. He was quickly told that he needed something to support his presence, and recorded his debut over three days at the Real Sounds Studio, an album that duly became a major hit with critics. The roots of this fairytale stem from 1989, when Ogada was spotted busking on the London Underground by an employee of WOMAD. He was invited to perform in-between bands at a Cornish festival where he was "field recorded" by enthusiastic Radio 1 disc jockey Andy Kershaw. Before this he had toured the USA with his medical student father before returning to finish his schooling in Kenya and taking up percussion, essentially because it was the most affordable contemporary instrument. He drummed for Kenyan band Black Savage for a year and a half, featuring on their sole album. From there he became a solo singer and guitarist working in a restaurant and leading dance classes at Nairobi's French Cultural Centre. He first came to the UK as part of Makonde, but their manager disappeared with the master tapes for an album and in 1979 he was forced to return to Kenya once again. There he formed African Heritage - a name also employed by a cultural complex that provided them with a recording contract in exchange for their performances at their restaurant. Eventually, Ogada became dissatisfied with percussion, and found the perfect instrument for his self-expression in the nyatiti, a versatile instrument easily adapted to both traditional and contemporary songwriting. African Heritage's growing infatuation with Western pop eventually saw him leave and, by chance, he found a major acting role in Robert Redford's Out Of Africa film. This inspired a thespian career, which also included the role of the Mau Mau leader in The Kitchen Toto, but after arriving in England he was denied the chance of an acting career by the Equity Union's intransigent membership policies, and instead, he sought a future in music once more. He returned to the drums to play with Nsimba Foggis's Taxi Pata Pata, but then took his nyatiti to the London underground system as a busker. This eventually resulted in the garlanded En Mana Kuoyo debut album of 1993. Sung entirely in his native Luo tongue, it included sympathetic assistance from Zak Sikkobe and David Oladunnil and confirmed the value of his application and persistence.

Listen to Ayub Ogada at Finetune.

(2007) En Mana Kuoyo
(1998) En Mana Kuoyo

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