Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…eceived the news of the death of a musician who we were set to meet that afternoon, Taarab Singer, Mzee Makame Faki. A brilliant musician and our thoughts are with his family and friends….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…of the desperate situation with this music. We have told you of the royal drums and our efforts to revive them. And of a younger, incredibly passionate drummer, Shaban, who is now extremely motivated about mastering these drums and teaching others. We’ve told you of the Bigwala, and the fact that there are now four new groups, and the farmers are growing long gourds again. This is what we are trying to do and the stories are up-lifting, but the re…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…. Preparing the outside of the drum “You then focus on the outside of the drum and prepare it” (the tool used is Embajjo). He had a second carving tool that he then used to shape and smooth the outside of the drum. The goal is to make it very smooth so the skin forms around it tightly. 4. Cutting and soaking the cow hide “You then size up the skin for the top and bottom of the drum and you let it soak in water for 24 hours until the skin is soft….
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…yers are made up of three separate groups of musicians: the trumpets, the drums and the xylophone. Let’s look at each in turn: The Bigwala trumpets These trumpets are made of long gourds and a trumpet group is made up of at least five trumpets (or more), each of which plays a specific role. They are tuned to the pentatonic scale and like the royal drums are often tuned to the xylophone. Our group had five trumpets: The Enhana: meaning ‘calf’ — thi…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…ach of the groups throughout the day. Why 3AM? Because the King loved our drums and chose the quietest moment in the day to have us play, so he could enjoy the beauty of our sound. I loved my life and felt so proud being a drummer. I remember one performance where the King loved our song so much that he gave a bull just to the drummers to enjoy in a big feast. And then he asked us to play the song again and again. And this beautiful life all ended…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…f passionate drummers to learn how to play the drums, learned to tune the drums and ultimately learned to play new music. Over the course of their studies, the new drum students (most of whom are actually highly accomplished drummers and professors of music) starting calling Musisi ‘The Professor.’ Left: James, Right: Musisi And that is why we found ourselves under beautiful trees on the campus, facing the 15 drums and six drummers of an Entenga e…
The Return of Bigwala News
…seems to be a promising future for this important thread in the tapestry of Uganda’s cultural history. Sources: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ugandan-music-bigwalahttps://ich.unesco.org/en/news/uganda-young-ugandans-mobilized-for-safeguarding-bigwala-music-and-dance-00251https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333991/bigwala-busoga-royal-music-dance…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
…na. A recording of this performance has just become available, and is posted below https://youtu.be/CCQ72al2pEo Fore more information about the Entenga drums, read our series here or watch our documentary of their restoration here. …
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…e drums: they needed to re-assemble the drum kit, building each of the 15 drums and re-making the Enga, the sticks used to play the drums (named after the swamp plant). Tune the drums: they had the old recordings and Musisi’s 50 year old memories and they gradually figured out how to tune them. Much like a xylophone. Learn to replay them: Musisi knew a lot of the songs, but they needed to learn each complex part for each of the six drummers. Perfo…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…rio’s guitar work was evidently inspired by influences from way beyond Luoland and was pretty much ahead of its time. It is possible that its ingenuity came from itinerant guitarists from the Congo, Uganda and Zambia who were already visiting Nairobi in the 1960s. Musicians such as Jean Bosco Mwenda, Edward Masengo, Nashil Pichen, Peter Tsotsi and Ugandan bassist Charles Sonko introduced exotic styles which were snapped up by their local collabora…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…yer who was the first ‘secular player’. He often visited Wanganangu’s homeland and recruited Wangangangu to pursue a musical career. We recorded 6 songs with Wangangangu over two sessions: Cal Wa Kadogo Ngurumo ya Saba Saba Muhiki Nyakairo Maito Njeri Rocine Kerokp Muumboro Osumba Rateng We first worked with Osumba during our trip to Nyanza in 2011; he is the founder of the Sega Sega band and ‘Flora’ remains a Singing Wells favourite. He is one of…
Bigwala Trumpets perform for coronation anniversary News
…es Isabirye has informed us that the Bigwala trumpets performed last Wednesday (13th September) at the coronation anniversary of Kyabazinga William Gabula Nadiope IV of the Busoga kingdom. The trumpets can be seen here performing at Budhumbula in front of the Kyabazinga (the elected ruler of the kingdom) and processing behind him. https://youtu.be/HtHhkMrlXWw Read about our contact with the Bigwala players here. James tells us that soon some of th…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
This day is mostly about the Ameru, or Meru, and their dance troupes. We recorded 32 separate songs across 5 performers in four separate locations. On the way, we learned a lot of detail of the boys’ rite of passage through circumcision. After breakfast (each of us coming at separate times), we travelled an hour to Mariene, to record our first group on the grounds of the New Apostolic Church. This was our route: It was a lovely location, deep in…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…2015 and have since been supporting James in an initiative to revive the drums and teach younger musicians how to play them (read the field reports here or watch our documentary for more information of this project). The Entenga players were mentioned in the king’s speech, which James translated for us as: “ … I would like to thank especially those who played instruments of the palace, and in particular – Abatenga (Entenga players). I remember wh…
Tanzania 2017, Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo News
…We’ve just returned from our latest field trip discovering the music which took us to the eastern side of Tanzania. We witnessed an amazingly rich offering of music and met some extremely talented musicians. Read our field reports here to learn about our experiences with a snake dance, an amazing performance of a female initiation ceremony ,and recording members of the extraordinary Zawose family….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…ho acts as the on-site Singing Wells representative, formally meeting the band and handling all their questions about the project and their role in it. Tabu is typically joined by our local music expert, in this case Gregg, who took the lead in interviews. Gregg has a worksheet prepared in advance that he uses to capture information on the group, their songs, and their unique instruments or musical styles. Here he is with Christine Kosove of Twone…