Ekene Music
A guitarist, and storyteller, of the Igbo tribe.
Listen Book a Performance“As artists, we have a responsibility to talk about the things happening around us.”
Ekene Music — Monterey County NOW
A guitarist, and storyteller, of the Igbo tribe.
Listen Book a Performance“As artists, we have a responsibility to talk about the things happening around us.”
Ekene Music — Monterey County NOWEkene Music is the performing name of Ekene Richard Nworah — a Nigerian-born guitarist, composer, author and storyteller now rooted on California's Monterey Bay. Raised in the Igbo heartland of southeastern Nigeria in the years after the civil war, he co-founded a record label with friends before crossing the Atlantic, carrying with him a tradition where music, poetry and history are one craft.
His sound draws from the lineage of African guitar — the meditative depth of Ali Farka Touré, the shimmer of King Sunny Adé, the fire of Fela Kuti — woven with gospel, funk, folk, hip-hop and spoken word. Every song holds itself to one standard: it must tell a story.
Since arriving in California in 2017 to earn his master's degree at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, he has released four albums and a string of singles, performed on the Sunset Center stage ahead of the Monterey Symphony, and founded 2 Lands, a social enterprise that curates, accelerates and protects original artists. He is also the author of Nnamdi Olebara & His Poetry, a book preserving the recorded legacy of Igbo hymn-writer Harcourt Whyte and poet Nnamdi Olebara at Lagos's legendary ARC Studios.
Studio and live recordings, captured everywhere from Pacific Grove living rooms to the Sunset Center stage.
The return to the Sunset Center stage — captured live.
Recorded live in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Nine songs and poems shared with fifteen listeners, September 11, 2021.
The debut studio statement.
This album is named after a book — and it exists so that you will go and read it.
In September 1829, a free Black man named David Walker — a used-clothing dealer in Boston — published a small pamphlet with an enormous title: Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World. In it he did what almost no one in America dared to do in print: he called slavery what it was, held the Bible and the Declaration of Independence up against the country that professed them, and told his people that their dignity was not something anyone else's law could grant or take away.
Walker sewed copies into the linings of sailors' coats so the book could travel south, where reading it — or teaching a Black person to read at all — became a crime. Southern states banned it and put a price on his head. Within a year he was dead at 33. But the Appeal outlived every law passed against it: it lit the fuse of the abolitionist movement and gave its name to Garrison's Liberator.
Nearly two centuries later, its questions — who gets counted as fully human, and what a people owes its own memory — still read like this morning's news. These five songs are one guitarist's answer. The album is the doorway; the book is the room.
Read the Appeal — Free, Full Text Reserve the Album
Walker built his Appeal as a Preamble and four Articles. The album walks the same road — one song for each door he opened.
From unplugged sessions in Pacific Grove to poetry week at the Middlebury Institute.
One night. Five voices. Something rare. A curated evening of original artists — Ekene Music with Nicola Reilly (violin, Monterey Symphony), Jewel Arianna, Sofyan Karim (tabla) and Azi Fedoui — presented by 2 Lands. Pacific Grove, California.
Get TicketsEkene brings a Kodály-informed, movement-first approach to music education — built on the belief that rhythm, focus and joy belong to every student. Available for school residencies, classroom programs, workshops and private instruction.
“Ekene's music is intriguing, drawing from global influences, gospel, funk, hip-hop and spoken word… He holds himself to a standard when it comes to writing music and lyrics: it must tell a story.”
Monterey County NOW · Face to Face · April 2026 · Read the feature →For presenters, festival promoters, schools and grant panels: a one-page EPK with bios, photos, rider basics and links.
Records, writing and collectible art from the world of Ekene Music. Orders are currently handled personally — tap any item to inquire and we'll take care of you.
The forthcoming five-song studio album, named for David Walker's 1829 Appeal. Digital download on release day + name in the thank-you notes.
By Ekene Richard Nworah. The story of ARC Studios, Harcourt Whyte, and nine poems of the Igbo people — transcribed from the 1974 recordings.
Poster prints, artwork and one-of-a-kind pieces from the Ekene Music archive. Ask what's currently available.
Solo unplugged sets, full-band experiences, school residencies, lecture-performances and festival appearances — from an Oakland bar room to a symphony hall.
