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…o rings used both by themselves, and also together with the Nyangile, a wooden box topped with two of the rings, one of which is held with the feet, and beaten with a stick. Their musical style combines the modern sounds of Benga with more traditional rhythms and instruments, which shows how these young men are still continuing their Luo musical legacy whilst embracing the changing sounds of modern East African music. Winyo Shiphton Onyango adopte…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…ara Tribe Population: Around 900,000 History: They were known in the 19th century as ‘The Naked People’, due to the lacking importance of clothes in their culture. In the early days, the Lugbara were a mainly chiefdom-based community. They did not have kingdoms and kings presiding over them as like other ethnic groups in Uganda. They mainly had chiefs who were their leaders. They formed friendly alliances with neighbouring chiefdoms to ensure thei…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…f “a plucked string instrument with no fingerboard, having strings running parallel to the soundboard tied on a yoke at the upper end of the instrument” (1). According to Hornbostel– Sachs(2), all four would be classified as composite chordophones, more precisely under the 321.2 category of: “Yoke lutes or lyres – The strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the same plane as the sound‐table and consists of two arms and a cross‐bar.” Through a…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…us Luo ohangladrum); ENDONYI – a medium sized two-skin drum played with wooden sticks; EBESI – larger two-skin drum (bass); EFURIMBI – a whistle; OLWIKA – antelope horn; MANYANGA – shakers made out of a metal tin filled with seeds. We recorded ten (10) songs, presented in groups according to the occasion they are normally played in, notably general entertainment, burial and wedding songs. We also recorded Magic Moments with Ekhunjwe instrumentalis…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…fits so well in any band he joins, like a tomato works with any sauce or salad. The drums were from smallest to largest: Chaavo Ndogo – small drum The Kinganga (Makonpe) or Kidalidali (Zaramo) – smaller drum Chapuo Kubwa – big drum. Boi – long drum, one sided Ndungula – big bass drum Nyanga – the shakers, made of empty tins filled with small pebbles. Fire tuning is common across all of East Africa. Many traditional African drums are ‘untunable’,…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
December 3rd: reflections at the Kampala museum This is our final day in the field in Uganda. Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi to record in the Ketebul Studios: we identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the kingdoms of Ug…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
December 1, 2015: Checking the progress of the Bigwala trumpets Today, we travelled 3 hours from Kampala to Jinja, to the village of Bukakaire, to listen to the Bukakaire Bigwala Players, led by the last surviving trumpeter from the Busoga Kingdom, James Lugolole. A woman playing the Bigwala First, why are we here? Well, there’s the obvious: at Singing Wells, we record and share the great music of East African villages. But, there’s another, equa…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…Jessie playing together in Kisoro. And as we plan for our next trip to Kampala this Autumn, we can’t wait to publish new songs, new dances and new stories from East African music. But, we always recognized that there was a hierarchy of needs in East Africa. No matter how threatened the culture of music was, we understood that East Africa was facing ‘bigger problems’ – be it famine, disease, tribal conflicts, etc… Music was important, but the threa…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…t. We then hinted at problems. Rather than leave at 13:00 to travel to Kampala, we were forced back to Soroti with a broken wheel and only managed to hit the road again at 15:30. So we knew we were in for one of those ‘African Night Drives’ we so often do and so often swear we’ll never do again. We’ve decided night driving in Africa is like child birth. While you’re in the throws of it, you’re swearing to the lord almighty that you won’t go throug…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…he Adungu instrument (a traditional Ugandan bow-harp) and the Agwara (a wooden trumpet). Pakwach and Nebbi: Next we visit the Alur and Lugbara tribes in Nyaravuru and Pakwach. Click here to learn more about these tribes through our Alur Profile and Lugbara Profile on the Singing Wells website. Here we will record the Adungu and Agwara but also the Ndara, one of the traditional giant Ugandan xylophones, however this type are unique as they’re mount…
Lugbara Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…Pakwach) Population: Around 900,000 History: They were known in the 19th century as ‘The Naked People’, due to the lacking importance of clothes in their culture. In the early days, the Lugbara were a mainly chiefdom-based community. They did not have kingdoms and kings presiding over them as like other ethnic groups in Uganda. They mainly had chiefs who were their leaders. They formed friendly alliances with neighbouring chiefdoms to ensure thei…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…photos. This is an indication that Singing Wells can deliver, if Singing Wells can send photos that means even other things they can. This is the same group that came to Kisoro and gave us a lot of money last which made Batwa a nice food that time. This is Winyo, we shall always remember him for his passionate and his sweet soft voice. Winyo loved the song a parake yacu yo mgahinga. UOBDU say thanks to Singing Wells. Those are the comments from th…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…ippers in Hurlinghan, having drinks and enjoying live music by Samba Mapangala, Winyo and Ayub Ogada. Jimmy was not aware that I kept on peeping to see the images my love was capturing. Day 2: Off to Malindi I was up by 5:00am in the morning, and was all showered and packed shortly after.I had breakfast and by 6:30 I was out of the house. Nairobi has serious traffic jams and to get somewhere on time one has to leave early. When I arrived at the st…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…his was a culmination of months of planning and exchange of email correspondence between Abubilla Music and Ketebul Music. Day 1: The Briefing Jimmy and Andy from Abubilla Music, came to Ketebul Studios for a pre travel briefing and to go through the new equipment and software with Ketebul Music engineers on the afternoon of March 27th. They had flown into Nairobi from London the previous evening. I must confess we started off on the wrong footing…