Harry Kimani
Harry Kimani, an extrordinary talented singer/songwriter from Nairobi, Kenia, and Sven Figee have collaborated 2 years after they first met (in Nairobi 2004) on Harry’s 2nd album recorded in the wisseloord studio, Holland.
In just 2 days, they recorded and mixed 10 beautiful tracks, soon to be released by the fair trade label ‘Sawa Sawa’ and produced by Jan-Douwe Kroeske for Sarakasi and Double2.
Think of the african Jack Johnson and you have a pretty good idea of what you gonna get.
Last februari Harry performed on the north Sea Jazz festival in Nairobi with Sven, Roland Dirkse (guitar), a string section, Julius Wakake (percussion) and Stanley Mutavi (bas).
They are due to perform on the North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam, july 15th 2006!!
keep posted for release date and gigs!!!
Biography
Harry Kimani: The passionate hustler
A fine voice, an excellent guitarist and passionate composer. That is the best way to describe him. This young musician has already become a leader of his own style and we still haven”t heard anything yet.
As far as Harrison Mungai Kimani can remember ” music has always been around him; he cannot remember a day without him listening to a song or at least singing one. To him, music is the beginning and the end. Harry was the kind of child that loved fiddling with any musical instrument that he came across. That”s how he learnt to play the guitar ” by watching his older brother play and playing around with it, till he figured it out.
While at Kirangari High School, he was very involved at music festivals; at one time he was the conductor for the school choir. He was the one everyone called on when there was a need for someone to sing, compose or write a song. Just before he left school, he fell in love for the first time and through that inspiration he composed a song called “African Woman”. When he sang this song for his peers, they loved it so much they encouraged him to record it.
He left school in 1999 and embarked on searching for a recording studio to record. Being young and inexperienced, it took him a while to learn the rules of the game. Finally in 2000, he hooked up with producer Maurice Oyando of Next Level Productions and recorded “African Woman”. When he released this song, it blew everybody”s mind. Slowly by slowly Harry started getting good reviews around Nairobi and his name was being mentioned on many radio stations. He got invited for interviews at Capital FM, Nation FM; people were amazed by his ability to make a song sound so real. It was his composition skills and his passionate voice that gave him a following. Harry went back to the studio immediately to record the rest of his album “African Woman” which he finished in 2001. He released his second single “Tuohere” (God Forgive Us) which is on rotation on Kameme FM. Unfortunately due to lack of funds and proper support, Harry has never managed to release his album.
With great belief in his talent, Harry has never given up the faith that he has in himself. He is already working on his second album while awaiting the release of the first one.
He sings in English, Kikuyu and Kiswahili and addresses everyday issues that pertain to his life and the society in general. His style is African soul and a little bit of rhumba and RnB. Having been through the hustle, here is a young musician with immense talent. Harry is one of the Kenyan musicians that really impressed the Festival Mundial officials who visited Kenya in September 2002. He performed at the 2003 Sarakasi Festival in Nairobi, and has performed at Festival Mundial in June 2003. This gave him highly needed artistic confidence and worldwide exposure.
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