Aziza

Aziza, fast gaining ground with the reputation of striking an excellent balance between exotic and authentic African, is an afrofusion band made up of 3 gentlemen: Enos Olik, Sequiera Mogere, Maurice Muma. The vocal duo of Enos and Sequeira, spiced with Maurice’s silky touch of the violin creates a feel that has kept most audiences riveted, and nudged many others onto the dance floor.

Aziza began as an acapella group in 2007 according to Enos Olik: “The original idea was, ‘We love music, let’s do this while we are in school, and continue briefly after school as we wait to join campus!’ because those were the days when Eric, Suzanna used to rule the circuit, so we figured, why not have fun with it?!”

After a while though, it occurred to them that acapella didn’t quite have the ‘it’ they were looking for in terms of uniqueness and identity in music and so adds Sequiera “That’s when Bienaime Baraza of Sauti Sol suggested we find ourselves musically, get an identity of our own. That’s how we came up with the idea of using guitars and the violin.”

They didn’t quite have a name at this point; “After one performance,” says Maurice, “A lady came up to us and said, ‘Muziki yenu ni ya aziza!’ a word which, we came to discover, meant ‘wonderful’ in Giriama, and ‘precious’ in Egyptian, so we decided, why not?!”

They cite their inspiration as Lokua Kanza, Richard Bona and Jonathan Butler.

They have worked together with such fantastic artistes as:

• Dela in writing her track ‘Weche Tek’
• Delvin Mudigi (of Sauti Sol) in ‘Better Day’
• Meshack in ‘Aluoch’
• Meshack and Bryan Chweya (of Elani) in ‘Siimbii pesa’
• Wakoli in ‘Barabara’
• Joan Matata in ‘Dreamer’

With several years’ worth of musical creativity and live performances under their belt, the pressure is building from several quarters for an album which the band members say is in the pipeline.

Aziza has a couple of performances coming up:
• 8th October, at KP’s Lounge, from 7.30pm
• 28th October, at the Kenya National Theatre concert hall, from 6.00pm

To find out more about Aziza join their group ‘aziza muzik’ on facebook.

© james wamathai & aziza 2009


Below is a video of Aziza performing their song "Mahetia" at the Discovery Lounge