Because the mix is hot, it lights my fire

Play is something we do in childhood, whoever, whatever we are, without thinking about it.

Kachumbari 7, a mixed group of musicians in every sense of that word, remind us of what it is to be little again with the world at our fingertips.

Although all of them are experienced professionals, they go right back to basics.

A child thumps a stick against the wall, makes a sound with its voice, experiments all the time with what noise and rhythm are and how they eventually get transformed into music.

Thus the group’s first CD will appeal not only to adults but to children and to those of us who never wanted to grow up anyway.

The group performed to a full house at Nairobi’s Alliance Francaise on March 7, many enticed there by the poster for the concert and CD which is nothing short of brilliant.

For those of us of a certain age, the reference to the famous Beatles cover where the four Liverpudlians cross Abbey Road in London on their way to the recording studios was clear; to the rest, the picture of seven strangely costumed individuals crossing a deserted Moi Avenue in a single line with their instruments in front of an unusually patient matatu was intriguing, to say the least.

Incidentally, the Father Christmassy-looking character crossing the road in unseasonably warm and rather exotic clothes is in fact Dominic Ogari pretending to be that boy genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The “Adopt-a-Light” advertisement sign behind shows the absent drummer Obuya Owino who does not normally surface at 7am on any Sunday, not even to go to church, being, like so many animals, a creature of the night. So the seven are in fact eight.

The whole mixture is irresistible, captured with limpidity on the CD; the list of instruments played is too long to mention but each musician has a formidable repertoire not least Karimi Mugambi whose daytime job is as a music lawyer.

(One day musicians may make a living just doing what they were destined to do…)

Kirit Pattni plays bamboo flutes, claves, and Indian finger cymbals while Prasad Velankar is a master of the Tabla, the gourd drum and the padhant.

Sally Clark plays double bass and cello and the dreadlocked Mr Owino is a virtuoso of the Djembe and congas and is utterly riveting to watch.

One beauty of a live concert is to see the way musicians dance with their instruments.

Sally Clark leans her head wistfully against the electric bass as if straining to hear what it is telling her, while Velankar’s hands, like Owino’s, choreograph a furious dance in themselves, each part playing a role — fingers, heels, flat of the hand and side.