Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…wadays, they wake up early and go to work. Olugend’olw’ebukakkata: He went to visit a village called Bukakkata. He found a girl who was seeing two men who didn’t know each other. She was still in her parents’ home so she was not allowed to be seeing men. One day, the parents found a man peeping through the window and canned him because he was trying to disturb his daughter. The second boyfriend was also about to peep but they both ran away on disc…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…told us. “So to fill up that airtime they would send out recording safaris to various rural villages to record these ngoma dances and drumming sessions.” This traditional village music was combined by state-funded bands with the Cuban-flavored rhumba coming in from the Congo. The resulting mélange, she said, “is characterised by these high guitar riffs, and then a lot of African polyrhythmic drumming in the background, and even featuring horn sect…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…er immediately. This was devastating for the spread of Aids because the surviving spouses, who were often infected, immediately partners with another and passed on the disease. In late 90’s you could only find little children and very old people because the disease spread so fast before it was detected. It is only now that we have adults again. As you noticed, this is a young group, with a huge future. They are moving from amateur to professional…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…he culture. Now we have city in Sweden that is starting to partner with us to advance cultural exchanges.” Tabu asked James, “Why did you want to do traditional music?” James answered, “We love traditional music of any ethnicity I understand it now in the context. We started with our music from our villages. The three founders of Nile Beat grew up with the music, we love it and felt we had no choice [The three founders are: Haruna, the MD who is r…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…ust lead the procession of the king. But right now there are only three surviving master players who know the songs/traditions and can train the youths. One already died in May to move the number from 4 to 3 and one of the three surviving is very ill. But it is almost certain, now that the trumpets won’t disappear. Young people have some interest, thankfully, and are learning.” Click here for further reading on the Bigwala. Here’s their music: Ada…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…re, London, I received my first lesson in playing the Kiganda amadinda xylophone from the South African musicians Andrew and Paul Tracey before their evening show Wait a Minim.” “My work in Uganda led me to begin exploring that country’s traditional music initially with the aim of collecting useful materials for teaching purposes. That exploration has continued since then, apart from during the chaos of the periods of the rule of Amin and the Seco…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
The Journey To Site From the Mt Egon Hotel of Mbale, we drove to the Elgon Ngoma Troupe Centre, a short 20 minute drive. The Recording Site We were greeted there by Julius Wolimbwa, the founder of the Elgon Ngoma Troupe. We were recording at his youth centre, which was a fairly large single story building in the middle of a field just off a small road in Mbale. The field was filled with drummers and dancers. The field was also filled with a large…
Before They Pass Away News
…t four years travelling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these last remaining tribes continue their lives amid a changing world. But rather than charge in and start pointing his camera at these people, Nelson had to get to know them and to gain their trust. When he met the Ch…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…s started we also spent quite a bit of time filming ‘drum tuning’, which involves a lot of fire, a lot of water, some spitting and very careful brick placement. We had two groups. The “first group” started with a drum solo, but then handed over to the second group to give a full performance. So, for story telling purposes, we’ll move the drum solo to later in the narrative and switch the first group to later. Are you following this? The Music Grou…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…d Tabu In early 2015, one of our team members moved to Nairobi and so went to visit the Ketebul studios and meet the team. Harriet interviewed Tabu, who talked about some of the most exciting upcoming artists in Nairobi who are using traditional music to influence their work, as well as the importance of the Singing Wells project overall. Here’s Tabu’s interview. 6. We surpassed 500,000 YouTube hits! In September 2015 we were delighted to see we h…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…nkard and drinks excessively. He starts to abuse people and pee himself. Sivve Wano: This song is sung by the town drunk and it means, “I will not leave this place and he will not go back hom becauase he is enjoying too much his drink. Empawo: This is the gourd that has abigger opening because it is cut from the neck. It is usually given to those who had not had alchol yet. The would also drink too much and talk about everything that came to their…
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…about. Many genres of popular music like Blues, Jazz, Salsa and Rumba derive to varying degrees from traditional music in Africa. These rhythms and sounds have acted as influences (see more on our influences work here) and have helped newer genres form. The same works in the opposite direction of course, and African popular music has emerged as a combination of traditional African music and an adoption of certain elements – particularly some musi…
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…ng everyone should listen to when they wake up to start the day with positive vibes. 2. Ochieng Nelly – Osare I’ll admit, a few weeks ago I knew very little about the history of Benga. But the more I’ve found out, the more meaningful this song is. Ochieng was one of the founders of Benga, a Kenyan music genre adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We were privileged to have the chance to record him and preserve his music in March 2014. Sadly…
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
…l East African musicians and music groups recorded by Singing Wells. Head over to our Bozza page here. About Bozza “Bozza is a plug & play solution for musicians, poets, photographers & film makers to promote and sell their digital products to their fans throughout Africa. The platform is available to emerging and established artists from around the continent and can be easily accessed by visiting www.bozza.mobi from mobile phones and PCs.” Thabis…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…ent looking at traditional Ugandan music, who used to Klaus Wachsmann archive to further his research. The British Library has approximately 3.5million sound recordings in total available to listen to onsite, with a Reader Pass. However, thanks to the Archival Sound Recordings project, from 2004-2009, the British Library was able to make over 50,000 of these available for listening online. The first phase of the project only enabled online listeni…
Archiving Guidelines News
…epository software, which are basically softwares that allow organisations to give access to their data. The first is DSpace, “very popular and widely adopted repository within the higher education and research sectors, although knowledge of its use within the museums and cultural heritage sectors is limited but growing.”[1] The second is FEDORA. However, it is clear that to set up an online data repository, to be used as an archive, substantial t…