Ayub Ogada Kenyan Musician and Kenya's best djembe player

Not only the best Kenyan djembe player but Ayub Ogda is also a prominent musician. From a humble beginning, he proved to be the best jaluo musician in Mombasa coast area.

Ayub Ogada is a musician from Kenya. Ogada was born in Mombasa and is one of the Luo people of Western Kenya.

He received his first exposure to Western culture early on. When he was six, his parents (also musicians), toured the college circuit in the U.S.

Ogada then returned to Kenya with his parents, and was educated in a Catholic school and then an English boarding school.

After finishing school, he co-founded the African Heritage Band in 1979 and played kit drums, bass and percussion for many years.

The group fused traditional music with the sounds of rock and soul that Ogada and bandmates heard regularly on the radio.

The singer also performs on the traditional east African stringed instrument, the nyatiti; he is also highly accomplished djembe player.

In 1986, he decided to take his talents abroad. Armed with his nyatiti (a lyre-like stringed instrument), he went to the U.K., and played on the streets for money.

After the better part of a year, he was approached and asked to play at Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival.

In 1993, he recorded his first album, En Mana Kuoyo (Just Sand), on Peter Gabriel's Real World label. He toured extensively with WOMAD.

His music has been heard on the soundtrack of the 2000 release of I 'Dreamed of Africa'.

His piece, "Kothbiro" appears in the soundtrack of the Mexican film "The Blue Room" based on the novel by Georges Simenon and of the 2005 film The Constant Gardener, over the credits.

His music was used in the soundtrack for Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman's BBC series Long Way Round and Long Way Down.

Ogada has collaborated with Susheela Raman on several tracks on her "Salt Rain" album, such as "O Rama", and with Tony Levin on his album World Diary.

In addition, he has collaborated with the Afro Celt Sound System on their first and fourth releases.

In July 2005 Ogada performed at the Live 8 concert, Eden Project as the opening act with his band, Union Nowhere, Ogada performing on a large replica of an historic Egyptian lyre.

Ogada has embraced electronic recording techniques but remains exclusively acoustic in live performances.

Ogada has also supplemented his music career with some acting in the past under the name Job Seda.

He played Robert Redford's Masaii sidekick in Out of Africa and also starred in The Kitchen Toto.

On March 8, 2007 he released an album with Union Nowhere titled Tanguru. He moved back to Kenya in June 2007.