Olith Ratego Shakes Up Thursday Night Live

Why must the music game have such a steep set of criteria on who can be successful? The best ones in Nairobi often don’t manage to get the spotlight shone on them. They work day jobs, sometimes night jobs too and continue to do their music as a form of expression, because they love to do it. Olith Ratego is one such artist, and his show at Thursday Night Live at Choices Pub in South B was, for lack of a better word, special.

The show was tight, tighter than the snare drum in the backing band and hit all the notes of the two hour long set with delicate accuracy. Ratego’s fifteen years of experience was on full display splicing Western Kenyan rhythms into a neo-soul frame.

Ratego’s work during the day as a carpenter in Dandora keeps him busy, but he’ll never pass up an opportunity to spread his sounds. “It’s good for us,” says Ratego about his first ever gig at Thursday Night Live, “it can make us more famous, bring attention to me.”

His is music with a message, complex tales spun out with soul, telling tales of the everyday grind in Nairobi. “My music is stories,” says Ratego, “it’s messages for people to hear.”

It isn’t always easy to play gigs in Nairobi night clubs; they’re loud, chaotic and full of distraction. Ratego and the band played on in spite of it, getting tighter with every track, flirting with syncopations and harmonies and winning over even the most discerning of audience members. “I love music,” Ratego explains, “my mother used to sing and I grew with it.”

One of the principal organizers of Thursday Night Live is Emma Mugure, over a crowded table and the din of the bar she shed light as to why Olith Ratego is playing here. “He’s a great Nairobi artist,” says Mugure, “this venue, this night is all about giving the artists who deserve it a shot and he absolutely does.”

There was a truth that rang out during last night’s show, that Olith Ratego is a can’t miss act in this town and Nairobi will see more of him soon.

Check out his videos on Youtube.