Nairobi has an annual jazz festival, the Safaricom International Jazz Festival, which since 2014, has hosted headliners like Marcus Miller, Dianne Reeves, Hugh Masekela and Branford Marsalis, as well as local artists and bands like the Nairobi Horns Project (pictured), Mwai and the Truth Band, pianist Jacob Asiyo, guitarists Eddie Grey and Kato Change, trumpeter Christine Kamau, and the festival’s own Youth Orchestra.
Other key figures in Kenyan jazz are the composer/saxophonist Joseph Ngala, known as Mzee Bango. Tanzanian singer Sal Davis’ daughter, Maia von Lekow is a young singer-songwriter who blends jazz with a number of influences, and has begun to attract international attention.
