Kenyan artists Makadem recently brought a nyatiti-led set to Nakili’s weekly live recording session at The Beer District in Westlands, Nairobi. Nakili, a community that champions what it calls timeless music, runs these sessions with an audience present, recording directly to tape, and Makadem’s performance put the eight-string Luo lyre at the centre, backed by a second vocalist, saxophone and percussion.

Born Charles Odero Ademson near Lake Victoria, Makadem builds narratives from matatu conversations, market negotiations and political debate, then carries them through Nyatiti, kalimba and acoustic guitar. In this quartet setting the Nyatiti lays down repeating figures that lock in with percussion, while saxophone adds a parallel melodic line and a second voice thickens the vocal parts. His decade-plus collaboration with Tabu Osusa at Ketebul Music yielded Ohanglaman in 2007, followed by Koko Rio, which secured AFRIMA recognition in 2015. The Daisho rework of “Nyako” out via On the Corner Records, repositioned his catalogue for electronic music audiences, moving his name through clubs from Johannesburg to Berlin. Makadem’s latest album, Unplugged, released in 2024 through Music from East Africa, turns the focus back to Nyatiti, recorded with very limited accompaniment.

The quartet at Nakili sits between his solo project, Nyatiti Jazz format and electronic sets. Here the four-piece line-up keeps nyatiti at the core, saxophone threading around the string patterns and percussion marking out a firm beat. The approach stays close to Benga’s core pattern, using repeated nyatiti cycles that build through the combined parts. His touring history shows how far this has travelled, from Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, Bayimba in Uganda and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington to European circuits organised by One World, with stage links that include Gregory Isaacs, Baaba Maal, Mahotella Queens and Seun Kuti.