Born in Bradford, England, Imani Hekima's songs stem from a wealth of musical and life experience.
As keyboardist/main songwriter with Bradford ska/reggae outfit Spectre in the 1980's, the band earned support slots to Lee Scratch Perry, Augustus Pablo, Aswad, Junior Delgado, Eek a Mouse & The Redskins.
An accomplished pianist, he also has a BA honours degree in music and taught piano privately throughout the 1990s.
He began gigging as a solo artist in the early Noughties, briefly as part of all sibling trio Real Eyez, who supported Dennis Rollins. Onstage, he is backed by Stuart Mitchell on drums, Tobie Carpenter on guitars and Philippe Clegg on bass. As if to underline his versatility, Imani also gigs as a solo pianist performing Hindi film songs as instrumentals at Asian weddings and concerts (including supports slot to acclaimed Asian artist Raghav and Islamic singer/composer Idris Phillips in 2009).
He plans to self release his debut album in 2010, co-produced with his close friend Chris Thomas (Soulfunktion Productions) - a chance to share his soulful and socially conscious work with a wider audience.
To learn more about Imani to to his website at www.imanihekima.co.uk/Meanwhile, here is one of Imani's songs, "The Robots' Rebellion" (video created by Ian Geddes) with reference to John Carpenter's film, They Live. Imani writes about the conditions we are collectively experiencing in this song and the feeling that so many seem to be having around the planet.
