About Esaze
LaMotte and Chinobay call their musical collaboration “Esaze,” whether they are playing as a duo or with a larger band backing them up. In Chinobay’s native language of Luganda, Esaze means “the crossing.” Since so much of their work focuses on music’s capacity to bridge divides, the name seems to fit.
The two musicians first met at North Carolina’s LEAF festival in 2011, and within minutes, they were playing together on stage. Fifteen years later, their friendship and their musical partnership have deepened, and the collaboration has produced a new studio recording and music video, Kirungi. Both were released on April 1, 2026. Collectively, the two artists have performed in over 100 countries, and have spent more than sixty years touring as professional musicians. Though their music would generally be categorized in completely different genres, they immediately made sense to each other, both musically and personally. Now they are performing and creating music together, and working toward a duo album to be released in 2027.
After many invitations across the years, in late August, David finally accepted Chinobay’s offer to travel to Uganda together. Their plan was to experience the rich culture and music of Uganda, to see the non-profit work that World Bridge Foundation is doing, and to hang out with some friends of Chinobay’s. As it turned out, they also co-wrote, recorded, and shot a video for a song about Uganda that did not exist when they touched down in Kampala.
About David LaMotte
Songwriter, speaker, and author David LaMotte has had an extraordinary couple of years. In 2024, his TEDx Asheville talk, Why Heroes Don’t Change the World, went viral as a “TED Editor’s Pick” with over 60,000 views, and an entire college course was taught on his most recent book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not. That same year, he heard his own voice singing on Broadway in a modern revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town, when the play prominently featured a recording of a song he co-wrote and performed with the trio, Abraham Jam. In 2025, he played music for an audience of more than 16,000 people as a keynote speaker for the opening plenary of the Rotary International Convention in Calgary, Canada.
David has performed over 3500 concerts and released thirteen full-length CDs of primarily original music, touring in all of the 50 states and on five of the seven continents. The Boston Globe writes that LaMotte’s music “pushes the envelope with challenging lyrics and unusual tunings, but he also pays homage to folk tradition.” His most recent album, Still, spent six months in the Top 40 on the Folk Radio Charts, and his song September Me hit #1.
About Chinobay
Rooted in the rich cultural and musical traditions of Uganda, Chinobay is a musician, cultural ambassador, and educator who has opened hearts across the globe, inspiring audiences in more than 75 countries, and performing as a featured artist at top tier festivals like New Orleans’ JazzFest, Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD, and the Vancouver Folk Festival. There is arguably no better-known Ugandan artist on the world stage, and those who have heard his music understand why.
As a child, Chinobay lived in a small home near the Kanyange king’s palace. Constant immersion in the traditional music coming from the palace left an indelible mark on him. He embraced the folk tunes he learned from these musical elders, crafting early works that paid homage to the music of his own tribe, the Baganda people.
Over years, he mastered a broad array of traditional instruments. Today, he is a seasoned songwriter, crafting original compositions that breathe life into the diverse stories of humanity, showcasing Africa in its full spectrum of richness, transcending its frequent portrayal merely as a backdrop for adversity.
Chinobay’s music moves from Afrobeat rhythms to jazz inflections, transcending genres and creating a sound that is both distinctive and accessible. In all of his performances, Chinobay incorporates traditional instruments such as the kora, a West African harp-lute; the kalimba, a thumb piano native to East and Southern Africa; the tamani, a West African talking drum from Mali; and the endongo, a traditional Ugandan lyre.
Humanitarian Work
Chinobay and David have each founded non-profit organizations, in Uganda and in Guatemala, respectively, to create pathways out of poverty and toward meaningful and generous lives through education and arts. They both remain deeply committed to education and mentoring, and they have a dream of bringing the two groups of teens together to learn traditional music and dance from each other. To learn more about their organizations, please visit senderosguatemala.org and worldbridgefoundation.org
What Lies Ahead
The two friends plan to record an entire album in Africa (Uganda and Kenya) in late 2026, and to tour with a full band and African dancers in Africa, Europe, and North America in 2027 and 2028. To keep in touch, please follow the Esaze Facebook page.
To learn more about each artist, please visit davidlamotte.com and chinobay.com.
