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…r, and the popularity of this group continued to grow as the people of Kampala looked for an escape after the fallout of the war against Idi Amin’s regime. Watmon saw that his cultural heritage still brought joy, escape and peace to so many people and, under his leadership, he continues to provide that for people, young and old, today. Who else is leading the way? Amone Watmon Matthew is just one person who is leading the way for future generation…
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
…cation to do a detailed interview with Wilbert. Popularly known as “Chapa Ilale”, after his biggest hit, Wilbert started playing the litunguin 2005 while he was still in school. After he completed school. He started playing locally at weddings, funerals and other functions with his group. They left their home village – Michimeru in 2007 and settled in Bungoma town, doing day jobs and playing in local pubs at night. In 2009, they got the opportunit…
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…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…ikely to play using the Adungu, and also the Ngwara Gwata (a hollowed out calabash). The musical styles are likely to be: “Kiri” a war dance – where the women dance wielding knives and the men carry spears. “Myele” a style which is performed when celebrating the birth of twins. Soroti: In Soroti we will record the music of the Iteso tribe. The Iteso people speak ‘Ateso’ and are from the Teso region. Traditionally, they play the Akogo (a thumb pian…
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
…to Sippers for drinks and dinner and a musical performance by Samba mapangala, Winyo, and Ayub Ogada, that he had organized to welcome our friends from Abubilla. We all joined them later, and I couldn’t believe how late it was when we finally left to go home. Jimmy made a point to check with me whether I knew when we were to depart from Nairobi according to my itinerary. Yes, Jimmy can be a funny guy. Day 2: The Road Trip to Malindi On the day…