Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…ing. For this step, the re-stringing, he stopped after a few strings, explaining that he was ruining his drum by showing us. Here, you saw the real skill levels of the drum maker. With his hands moving very fast, he was taking out the stitch of nylon string, cutting off the former holes, creating new holes and re-lacing the drum skins together with leather strings. Very fast. 9. Tuning The final stage is tuning. He showed us in detail how he uses…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…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, equally important reason: the revival of the Bigwala trumpets was the model we used for the restoration of the Royal Drums. We felt it was critical to check in on their progress. We focused on three main things on this visit: Interviewing James about the instruments themselves…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…ke up to the sound of gun fire. At first, I wasn’t too scared and rose to brush my teeth as I always do. But the guns got louder – the Central Government was attacking the Buganda Kingdom and had attacked the Parliament first, which was about a kilometer away from the palace. I realized it was very real when bullets started hitting the palace and the hut where we kept our drums caught fire. People started running around all over and I was getting…
The Return of Bigwala News
…s of this unique gourd, which were thought to have been lost, to be rediscovered and grown. Now over 100 students have been trained in building the instruments, and have played at two royal celebrations. There 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-saf…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…rofessor and his students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpG0HLNxVQA The Singing Wells team united in Nairobi on November 28th and flew together to Kampala on November 29th. We are: Tabu Osusa, Jimmy Allen, Steve Kivutia, Patrick Ondiek, Hunter Allen and Nick Abonyo. After a night at the Fairway Hotel, we met James Isabirye at his university, Kyambogo University, to record the Entenga. Centre: James Isabirye We have been working closely with Jame…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
A year ago we brought you the news of Entenga players performing in front of King Ronald Metebi at the 25th anniversary of his coronation (available here). At this event they also performed a piece with the Akadinda xylophone in front of the Asantehene (the monarch) of the Asante people from Ghana. A recording of this performance has just become available, and is posted below https://youtu.be/CCQ72al2pEo Fore more information about the Entenga dr…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…Bulawayo, who worked as a senior manager at Kenya Meat Commission, and the Russia-educated Jose Kokeyo, who was a District Officer. The seventies were the era in which Oluoch Kanindo, a former technician with the Kenya News Agency and the Voice of Kenya (KBC) grew into a massive music production guru whose dominance and supreme authority over Benga generated many controversies. One of the first big benga bands of that decade, Victoria Kings, was K…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…nal Luo music. Nelly worked with his Congolese mentor for a while before joining The Ogara Boys Band in 1962. The Ogara Boys Band also consisted of founding members John Ogara Odondi and Aketch Oyosi. Together the trio started and developed a unique sound that got the name Benga, in 1963. In 1966, Nelly left Ogara Boys Band to pursue his career elsewhere. He briefly collaborated with another Benga legend, George Ramogi. He has a very intricate way…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
We have received wonderful news from Singing Wells partner Prof. James Isabirye that he and the rest of the Entenga players performed for the second time at the coronation anniversary of King Ronald Mutebi. https://youtu.be/HgKF14j5LrM We were first introduced to the Entenga drums in 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 o…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…(drums). The Music Groups Twone Mbee The group is led by Christine Kisove, using the Itheke dance styles (Mwen-yenyo, Mutundo). The group is part of the Kamba ethnic community (Ukama wa Kitui), from the village of Kiongwe, Ngungi Sub-Location, Thua Location, Nzambani District. They performed three songs: Asyai: they use the Ileve (Tin Shaker) and Vilingi (Whistle). David Kithome performed with the shaker and Christine Kisove and Eliza Musyoka play…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
A few years ago we learned about a group in Tanzania who, like Singing Wells, is working to preserve traditional music, but for them the act of preservation is quite literal – the Tanzania Heritage Project is scrambling to digitise reams of reel-to-reel tape recorded between the 1960s and 1980s, which has been literally rotting for decades in the moulding archives of the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation. Some has already deteriorated to the poi…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…p with the idea of doing a combined lullaby involving each of the singers, using a traditional song from their village. James directed the group through rehearsals and Maita played guitar to three separate lullabies: from Jovah, from Passy and from James. We did one with guitar and one version without. Here’s the Lullaby Song: I Hear the Sound: Jacinta had written song inspired from her time with us about hearing the sounds of African music. Last…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…song. Mulirwana: it means neighbor and the song is about people who don’t trust their neighbors and they believe that anyone that doesn’t trust their neighbors is a witch. Ssewaswa: This is about twins Wasswa and Kato and praising twins. Anamwinganga: This was apiece composed by his father in 1945 and recorded in the 1960’s. It talks about who will attack the king. He has all the security and people are there to protect him so he should be safe. N…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…ighted to find a English football match on the TV (Arsenal vs. Southampton). And we were greeted by Air Conditioning which is most welcome by those of us from the North but feared and mistrusted by those of us from Nairobi. We look forward to recording tomorrow in Kampala. Apparently there is a marathon. We shall provide the soundtrack….
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…tional and modern sounds to create a unique blend of catchy fusion music (trust me, you will be humming their Window Shopping tune all day). We interviewed them to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeRj9BrTT20 Hi Holly. Tell us about yourself and Ndoto Afrika – what’s your story? They say stories live forever and one famous Kenyan writer keeps saying that a story is good, until another is told. We are here to share with the world how…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…hen of one of our cottage rooms and have the groups either perform on our dining patio or our porch. We had three groups today and the drivers were sent out to round them up from the surrounding areas. The Bigwala Cultural Group One of this group’s primary purposes is to restore the Bigwala, the big Ugandan trumpet, to Ugandan musical culture. According to our local musical expert, James Isabirye, it was close to dead, but a Unesco project has hel…