Heritage

Beautiful music mixes with gourmet food at Secret Garden

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Ines (left) and Masala rehearse at Secret Garden for Saturday show. Photo | Margaretta Wa Gacheru

The blend of ‘Gourmet Music’ and ‘Gourmet Food’ is bound to make a delicious combination tomorrow from 6pm until 10pm at the Secret Garden.

The boutique restaurant, nestled just next door to the Dusit D2 Hotel off Riverside Drive, is having a special Seafood Night on September 10.

But for me the real ‘‘secret’’ of the evening will be the discovery of the amazing musical duo of Ines Basombio and Masala Sefu whose guitar, voice and cello will provide more than a musical backdrop for a delicious meal.

The two are not only professionally-trained artists who both have rich musical histories; they both are marvellous performers whose sound is a warm, velveteen blend of strings and original songs written by Ines and picked up with perfect pitch by Masala the master cellist.

Masala, at 25, is one of a new generation of young professional Kenyan musicians who’s making her mark on the Nairobi music scene.

Trained both in Kenya and abroad, she recently won two scholarships to study in Italy where she had the opportunity to work with some of the finest cellists in Europe.

Performed in churches

“One of my most thrilling experiences (in Italy) was performing with 45 cellists who are members of the Cello Ensemble Freud,’’ says Masala, adding that she performed in churches and cities all over Italy with the Ensemble. But even before she first left for northern Italy last year, Masala had joined the Kenya Conservatoire Orchestra and the Nairobi Youth Orchestra, both of which have regular (and rigorous) rehearsals, workshops and master classes.

But if Masala has a fascinating musical background, Ines has a wealth of both academic and professional experience as a performer, singer-songwriter and classically-trained guitarist.

Before coming to Kenya in 2014, she’d performed in her home country, Argentina, as well as in other Latin American countries such as Uruguay and Paraguay. She also performed and studied in Germany for several years. It was in Uruguay that both of her CDs were produced. A number of original songs found on those disks will be performed tomorrow night in the intimate and elegant setting of the Secret Garden.
It will only be the third time that Ines and Masala have performed together but they definitely have a lovely rapport that makes their musical sound that much sweeter.
But Ines has a history of working well with local musicians. She’s performed with everyone from Eddy Gray and Tetu Shani to cellist Leshan Masikonte, Sam Wamukukata and even her own daughter Clara Satzke who is also a lovely vocalist like her mother.