Morris Hayes, a musical director and keyboardist for Prince will be playing at two shows in Nairobi marking the 40th anniversary of Prince’s iconic album and film ‘Purple Rain.’
Joining Morris on stage is NBC The Voice star Dreion, performing an unforgettable set of Prince’s greatest hits.
Kenya’s own Polycarp Otieno, aka Fancy Fingers will open the event, adding his unique flair to kick off this extraordinary night.
Morris Hayes was the legendary Prince’s keyboard player for more than 20 years – his musical director for much of that time.
He was also the longest serving member of New Power Generation (NPG). But the pair were close friends too, and shared great times on and off stage in many countries around the world.
At the age of 28 in 1988, Morris Hayes moved to Minneapolis. While playing in Memphis Morris’ band Fingerprint was discovered by Prince’s entourage. This lead to Morris being selected to audition for Mazarati, a Minneapolis based band and from that lead Morris being in Prince’s orbit and eventually being notice by Prince and becoming Music Director and keyboardist for Prince’s legendary band the New Power Generation.
Morris played with the NPG for 20 years and is the longest tenured member of any of Prince’s bandmates.
Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was released on June 25, 1984, by Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. Purple Rain became Prince’s first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. The album spent 24 consecutive weeks a top the Billboard 200 and was present on the chart for a total of 167 weeks.
It is Prince’s commercial peak, with total sales standing at 25 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Prince and the Revolution won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, while Prince also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain.
by QUEEN SEREM