[ jabali dot com ] joseck asikoye

I grew up in a family of musicians. Music has been part of me since birth, my mum was a singer in the church and my dad was an accomplished musician who played with a lot of the legendary musicians that Kenya had in the late fifties going into the early sixties, greats such as George Mukabi, John mwale, Daudi kabaka, George Agade, Fadhili Williams just to name a few. Born in a family of eight brothers and three sisters singing in the church choir was a must, because at that time my Dad was a saved man and was a minister in the church, so all of us either played an instrument in church or sang. I even remember one day the whole of my family represented our church in a christmas music festival since at that time we didn't have enough members to sing in the choir.

In primary school I never involved myself in musical activities, instead I involved myself in sports. I was a very active member in the school's soccer and Gymnastics teams and this earned me lot of respect in the neighbourhood. Due to peer pressure I never involved myself in any musical activities in primary school though I could sing and act well. On the other hand in the neighbourhood I was known as a very good Disco dancer because by then that was the coolest thing to do. I never wanted my parents to know that I was a pop dancer what with the neighbourhood acclaim. I would have landed in trouble if they knew I was a pop dancer. I really loved the performing arts and that's where I felt my heart was, and I started performing in front of big audiences at an early age . I remember a time that I represented my Sunday school in reciting a poem for one of my church annual meetings, one of the first people to do so in a long time, and thus I earned the nickname 'Joseck the poet'. I was not done yet. It was when I joined Eastleigh high school that I came out of my shell completely. I earned a place for the school's annual dance presentation that was supposed to be presented by my school in the annual schools Drama and Dance contest, keeping in mind that I was still a junior. I became a very active member in the schools performing arts programme, whereby I was known to be a jack of all trades, with the twist of master of all because everything I was involved in was successful, and ended up winning awards at the top level of the school's competition. I also had my own milestones that I set when I was in Eastleigh high school, together with three other Boys we founded the first ever school newspaper Eastvision where I was in charge of the poetry and cartoon section. I even wrote a poem that was turned into the schools anthem. This poem can be found in our first publication of the Eastvision newspaper.

Still I was not done yet. Together with my boys, Peter, Opiyo and Martin we started the first ever percussion band in Nairobi schools music festival history, which ended up winning for three consecutive years, and encouraging the idea in Nairobi high schools. To date I find this one the most exciting categories in the Music festival. I was a very popular guy in school, and this was because of my participation in a lot of the school's activities both in the performing arts, sports and j ournalism. In my second year I was selected in the school's basketball team as a power forward and this earned me the nickname 'More power' because of my dominance in the power forward position. The same year I was elected as the chairman of the school's choir which I led to a lot of championships under the leadership of my choirmaster (John 'Woolman' Mwelesa... thank you for believing in me). I really loved singing in the Choir because I really learned a lot about other peoples~R music traditions. In my final year of high school together with my homeboy peter we enrolled in the biggest Disco dance championship in Kenya, (Win-a-car-Disco dance championship) determined to win the first prize. We managed to finish third and romped into the finals of the championship waiting for the final stage which never happened.

After graduating from high school, I started getting offers to go and play basketball in the Kenya national league, and some companies were even offering me a job and other benefits. Then one day when I was pondering my next move, I got a phone call from my former schoolmate peter asking me to join them in a production at the Kenya National theater 'Enchanting Dance Of the Jungle'. I was caught in the middle. To chose if I wanted to play basketball, go to the National theater and be part of this production or pursue higher education in the USA. I made up my mind and decided to turndown all the other offers and go to the National Theater for the production. This enabled me to interact and work with a lot of the top Kenyan actors and artistes that I had admired for a very long time. I was very much featured in the top musical productions at the Kenya National theater.

It was then I decided to join the Kenya conservatory of music both as an artiste and tutor. I stayed there for a while doing a lot of dance and music. It was a lot of un as I was working with some of my former schoolmates with whom we had accomplished a lot together while still in Eastleigh high school. In fact we brought the chemistry that we had in school to the proffessional stage. After doing a series of performances at the Kenya conservatory of music and working professionally at the Kenya national theater I managed to work with lots of other groups of National and international acclaim including the Legendary Dajo dancers, Nairobi dancers, Jericho dancers, Mwezi dancers, Jungle dancers, Ujumbe cultural troupe that we founded, Zingaro percussion discussion led by the late Coco paluku Malali (rest in peace and thank you for the inspiration) East Africa tembea band etc. Being one of the most sought after artistes, some modelling agencies started contracting me to do their fashion shows both as a model and musician. Modelling wasn't my kind of thing but it offered a continuos flow of money. It wasn't until we became affiliated with African Heritage, the biggest fashion house in african designs in the world that I started enjoying modelling to the fullest. This was because of the way they combined all aspects of art into one show. I was able to play music, model, sing and dance all in one show. In fact we ended up headlining their tour of nine cities of Europe in the summer of 1995 before coming into the USA.

After a while groups at the Kenya national theater started to die, some due to the lack of funds and the only group that survived was the government funded Kenya national theater Dance troupe. I joined the dance troupe together with some of the current members in Jabali afrika. While at the National Theater dance troupe they made us musicians because they had a lot of dancers, and since we were the multi-talented guys they made us stick as musicians. We musicians started composing our own songs, and we mobilized ourselves and created a new craze in town. The whole town was rocking to our brand of rootsmusic, and we became more popular than the dance troupe itself and started getting more bookings than our dance counterparts. This brought a lot of tension and jealousy among the dancers and the next thing knew, we found ourselves kicked out of the Kenya national theater dance troupe. With no instruments, broke and groupless with tears in our eyes Victor, Justo (older brother), Evans and myself decided to form a group with a vision of changing the whole Kenyan music scene, playing music that has never been heard before. Jabali meaning rock in Swahili. kenya's national language, became the ideal name because we used to hang out on the big rock outside the Kenya national theater (now the Norfolk Hotel car Park) because we didn't have a place to practice. So the rock became a very special symbol to us and that's why we became JABALI AFRIKA (The Rock of Africa). Six months into our existence we took the Kenya music scene by storm winning major awards including the singer of the year awards, the national talent search and also being featured in the U.R.T.N.A Gala awards where we played percussion on the signature tune of the awards and also danced.

With Jabali Afrika I have toured a lot of countries in the world e.g.sweden, Austria, Luxembourgh, Germany, Belgium, Middle East, Asia just to name a few. Currently we are based in the US headlining our own tours and playing alongside people I have long admired in the music business. Being a producer, dancer, choreographer, musician and actor, I am still trodding on spreading the sweet rootsmusic message over the hills, across the valleys having dreams of reaching the highest I can despite the trials and tribulations of life as an artiste. I am still hungry and searching for what is on the other side of the undiscovered. This is my story, the road that I had to travel and still journey on, following my heart and my dreams enjoying what I always wanted to do the whole of my life. It's not an easy road. It takes heart, commitment and believing in yourself. Any lonely hearts please please send me some mail at asikoye@jabali-afrika.com, and I will have some words to soothe you.