Because the mix is hot, it lights my fire

Director Jim Pywell is quite simply a latter-day Mozart – a musical phenomenon who could lure music out of a concrete wall. He weaves the evening together, demonstrating the versatility of the group and its collective imagination:

“The word kachumbari comes from the name of the relish made from tomatoes, onions, coriander and chillies. The number seven has many associations: The seven colours of the rainbow, the seven musical notes of the Indian Raga and the European scale, the seven continents of the world, the seven ages of man…

“The members of Kuchmabari Seven originate from seven places: Nairobi, Kisumu, Mumbai, London, Malindi, Hull and Kisii. Kachumbari Seven formed in 2006 for the Nairobi Samosa Festival,” the insert in the CD tells us.

Thus the music derives from every imaginable source: Tongue twisters are given a new life in “Cha@t” in which a garden bird tries to learn the many language of Nairobi but ends up twisting his tongue into so many knots.

Jim Pywell’s delectable “Hippo” sets a poem by a British poet to music — a jingle in which the proud owner of the animal discovers to his horror that it is in fact a Hippopotamissis, putting a wholly different cast on things.

“Melody in Raga Yaman” conjures up a balmy night in India or a certain place on the Indian Ocean with its haunting, lilting tune.

In each number, the melody is lifted by the accompaniment, the response echoing and mimicking, the effect always being very light and humorous.

They enjoy turning everything on its head: in “Githurai to Galway,” an Irish backpacker meets a beautiful girl on River Road (where else?) and tells her about his well-thatched house and cows back home. That sense of play and fun is ever-present.

And yet these are skilled musicians with a serious intent: to show that the multiplicity of ethnicities that make up this country can come together and play, sharing their diverse sounds and rhythms to create something quite fresh and original.

What they teach you is simply to listen to everything around you: Pywell does an admirable imitation of the robin chat’s song which inspired “Cha@t.”

Imagine if we all actually listened to each other and to the music that surrounds us every minute of the day (not all of it desirable.)

Nothing they do is predictable. Next time I expect they might even come up with the Eighth Matatu Symphony of the Eternal Nairobi Traffic Jam (with apologies to Gustav Mahler.) After all, Gerard Hoffnung composed a musical work for vacuum cleaners, didn’t he?

At the moment, the CD Mozart on Moi Avenue by Kachumbari 7 is only available directly via e-mail from kachumbariseven@gmail.com, but should soon be available in major outlets

betty.caplan1@gmail.com