Law, politics and all that jazz

By Phares Mutembei

Studying in the Midlands, UK, thousands of miles away from home, Jack Ojiambo did not have many friends, at least at first.

To fill this void, Jack turned to jazz.

"Jazz was a sub-culture and people around me lived it. It had and still has a faithful following in the United Kingdom."

Jack Ojiambo

Jack joined the bandwagon and within no time, he was a frequent visitor jazz pubs, clubs and concerts.

That was in the mid 1990s when he was studying law at the Universities of London and Birmingham.

Over the nine years he studied in the UK, Jack’s love for jazz grew and when an opportunity to train at Jazz FM and the BBC World Service came, he took it.

"I was trained in music selection and jazz history. In subsequent periods, I honed my skills," says the holder of a Post Graduate Degree in International Commercial Arbitration, with a focus on Construction contracts.

Plethora of genres

Upon graduation, he flew into Kenya with an impressive stack of jazz CDs and tapes and an urge to market jazz among music lovers who were spoilt for choice.

That did not prove easy as there is a plethora of music genres on the country’s entertainment scene. But the lawyer soldiered on and in 1996 a door opened.

"Capital FM was doing test transmissions in readiness to launch and I jumped at the opportunity to start a jazz program. It was in September of 1996 when I walked into the studio for my maiden jazz program at Capital and I would be lying if I said my steps weren’t hesitant," says the 38-year-old.

More than a decade down the line, Jack’s love for jazz has grown by leaps and bounds. And so has jazz.

Playing jazz on radio and at live shows at city entertainment haunts has paid dividends.

"In Kenya, various types of music have gained popularity and jazz is no exception. There are more enthusiastic fans than ever before," says Jack, whose father, the late renowned Cardiologist Hillary Ojiambo, was a classic and jazz enthusiast.

In August, he and 15 others attended Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"They paid out of their pockets to go and savour jazz, which for a long time had an elitist tag to it. Jazz fans appreciate its pureness as well as the spirituality inherent in its composition and playing," Jack, well versed in the clarinet, said.

Jack wears many hats, one of which he threw into the murky world of Kenyan politics. In last year’s hotly disputed General Election, he unsuccessfully contested the Kilimani Ward Civic seat on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket.