Kasiva Mutua, percussionist and drummer
It is not often that you see a Kenyan instrumentalist have 126,000 followers on Instagram, but Kasiva Mutua one of Kenya's leading percussionists and drummers, does. She is also the only woman doing so professionally in Kenya. When Yo-Yo Ma, one of the most celebrated classical musicians and winner of 19 Grammy Awards was in Kenya recently, Kasiva was one of the musicians he made music with, a testament to the calibre of artiste that she is.
You might have seen her in her signature style - drumsticks in her natural hair when performing. That is her brand, born of necessity, where she would be surrounded by a lot of things in concerts and they would be easy to pull out when necessary. But there is a twist and a deeper meaning as with all things Kasiva.
"It is also sort of a rebellious way to say that I am a hand drummer and not a stick drummer. They form an X. But still, people realise quickly that I am a drummer when they see the sticks. Interestingly, people see it that way, while I see it the other way," she told The Standard in an interview.
Kasiva hears sounds differently. While you hear a cough, she hears a beat, something that is almost unbelievable until you hear her replicate it on a drum or other percussive instrument.
"The environment inspires a lot of the creations that I make," she said. "From textures, sounds, and melodies, I tend to be a very observant person."
She was named a Ted Global Fellow in 2017. In her Ted talk, she said that as a child she would spend hours listening to a beetle rolling a huge ball of dung.
"And while at it, I hear a variety of environmental sounds. With the keenest of ears, I would hear family chatter, laughter, the wind howling, and even crickets chirping. All these sounds crisscrossed into each other and I would hear rhythm in between. Then I would beat my plate with my spoon and my chest with my tiny hands, trying to recreate what I was hearing," she said.
"I have been beating the same plates, shakers, drums, pans and so much more ever since becoming a professional drummer and percussionist," she said.
Today, she has many drums and various percussive instruments, many of which she makes herself when she is looking for a specific sound. Her first EP, Ngewa, helps you experience the world as she hears it. She has been criticised for playing drums as a woman, but she remains unfazed because after all, playing them is her safe space. Once the beating of her drum starts, all is forgotten.
Ivy Alexander, Guitarist and recording artiste
Many Kenyans got to know Ivy Alexander when she worked as a guitarist on Coke Studio Africa, during the 2018/19 season. Ivy's father was a guitarist as well, so he was among the earliest and major influences on her craft. She also studied at the Kenya Music Conservatoire for a year.
Ivy is now one of Kenya's most acclaimed guitarists, is in an all-female band known as The Flower Project, and has played with major artistes and on huge stages locally such as the Safaricom Jazz International Jazz Festival and abroad, such as the OneBeat concert. The latter is organised by the US government and brings together musicians from all over the world to create music together.
"For that, I went to the States for about a month. There, we had to create original music together," she said in an interview with KTN.
"So the people of Algeria have their music called Nawa, I brought my Kenyan style to it, so I think that one grew me as an artiste because there, they treat you like you are representing your country, so it was a huge stepping stone for myself and I had to actualise into my artistry. That is when I started writing my music."
That is how she ended up writing Pacha, her first single, during that period in the US, and she says that from then it has been about dwelling on the authenticity of African music.
In a tale as old as time, Ivy also experienced the downside of being a female artiste, which she explained to Guitar.com.
"As an African female artiste, it was not easy being looked down upon because, in our African setting, ladies are rarely seen playing instruments," she said.
"So in a couple of instances, I had my guitar taken out of the monitors. Other times artistes would come for rehearsals and when they would see me there with my whole rig already set up, they would ask the music director, 'Where is the guitarist?' but this has since changed."
In an interview with Vivo Woman, she was asked what she would do away with if she had a magic wand, that was a stereotype. "I would get rid of the notion that we are good musicians just because we are girls. We have done our work and I think we are where we are because we have put in the work. If I had a magic wand, that would be one of the biggest ones to get rid of. Because I feel like we are equally as good musicians as our male counterparts in the industry.