Streaming onlySaturday, December 5, 2020, 3 PM PST, Cornell University, NY, Register at
https://bit.ly/3nhkCmqEki Shola’s vibrant career in music and medicine can be described best by the artist herself, “I create music not only for myself, but to generate a space for the listener. Music is healing.” A vocalist and pianist,
Eki Shola’s music transcends genre, as she seamlessly draws from jazz, electronica, and world music to create a sonic landscape all her own. Her music has been described as “inimitable” and “…sound art to be used to trigger thought and encourage love and beauty through rhythm and unique composition.”
Born in London to Jamaican parents,
Eki Shola was raised in a musical family. She emigrated to New York in 1987 and later as a pre-med student at Cornell University, she played in the jazz ensemble performing with legendary musicians such as Steve Turre and Dr. Donald Byrd. Now living in Northern California,
Eki Shola released her debut album, Final Beginning, in 2016 and the album has been reviewed, charted, and aired around the world. ASCAP Plus winner and three-time NorBay Music awardee for Best Electronica Artist,
Eki Shola has played across the San Francisco Bay Area, London, and New York City and has opened for various artists including Kitaro, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Bebel Gilberto, DakhaBrakha, Baraka Moon, Sammy J, Lucky Otis, and Habib Koité.
Eki Shola and her family narrowly escaped the 2017 Sonoma County wildfires. Driving through the flames and subsequently losing everything including her music studio and the clinic where she worked as a physician, writing music became a healing necessity for
Eki Shola. Within weeks of the wildfires, with donated studio time and instruments from the Bay Area community, she was composing and performing at events honoring first-responders and raising funds for musicians and students affected by the wildfires. During this time,
Eki Shola also wrote and produced a trilogy album (Possible, Drift, and Essential) reflecting the three movements of healing and reflection post-wildfires. Possible, was released on 2/22/19, and Drift on 11/11/2019. After submitting her song “Dreaming”, filmed among the ruins of her incinerated home,
Eki Shola was selected to perform at the 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest tour. Honoring the anniversary of the wildfires, her personal story has been featured in a PBS TV special, “The New Normal: Visions of Healing”.
Listed on the NACC Community’s Best Albums & Singles of 2019 and The Bay Bridged Best of 2019, and with her Drift album charting on college radio stations across the country,
Eki Shola recently released her fourth album, Essential, on September 9, 2020. Opening and closing with a rhythmic meditation, Essential evolved beyond its original intent to embrace newness and self-discovery through the power of voice. The album shares hope inspired by periods of contemplation among movements of climate change, coronavirus pandemic, and Black Lives Matter advocacy. Partial proceeds from the album were donated to the Freedom Community Clinic serving underserved people of color who live in the Bay Area.
Eki Shola looks forward to embarking on her Essential Virtual Tour and completing her fifth solo album.
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
When you lose your music including all your stems in the 2017 Tubbs wildfire and you come across a musical gem among your saved emails - you realize how making music doesn't have to be temporal nor perfect in its process. It's all about the vibe and how it makes you feel. Jubilee is about two artists virtually collaborating and connecting... music unifies us all.