Best Ambiance Fill In Host
I got to know African music while doing research in East Africa in the 1970s. It wasn’t part of the plan but African pop music was everywhere I went. It slipped into my consciousness little by little during my four year stay as a student. By the time I returned home, I was completely captured by it and came back to Seattle with the beginnings of my African music collection. It took me a few more years to finish up my degree in Anthropology and soon after that I had the chance to go back to Kenya, staying another 5 years as an instructor in an American study-abroad program. This is when my music collecting really took off and I became involved in African music as a writer and compiler, putting together my first CD, The Nairobi Beat.
It was during this period in the mid-80s that I got introduced to The Best Ambiance host and founder, Jon Kertzer. On annual trips from Kenya back to Seattle, Jon would invite me on the show to play the latest I had collected from East Africa and beyond. After coming back to Seattle to stay awhile, I became a fill-in host for both The Best Ambiance and the early years of Wo’ Pop.
In the 1990s, I taught anthropology and African studies in several colleges and universities in the Puget Sound region while in my spare time, I became a volunteer in non-profit radio and started my first African music show. In fact, from that volunteer experience, I learned so much about public radio that I left teaching behind and got a full-time, behind-the-scenes, position in radio at KUOW, Seattle’s NPR station.
Whether it’s my eastafricanmusic.com website or an African music CD compilation, I always have some kind of music project in the works.
