Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…ces – long for long drums, short for short drums. Then you bore the hold into the log,” (the tool used is Ekifumu) “you then let the wood dry in the sun.” Here Abass showed us a wooden ‘pail’ that had the rough outline of a small drum, but needed to be hollowed out. He did this by carving deeply into the wood with a large scraping tool that he used to carve wood from the centre. 2. Cutting the wood to size “You then cut the wood to size” (the saw…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…the great ethnomusicologist, recorded the Entenga in the 1950s, and thanks to the International Library of African Music we brought his recordings with us and have repatriated the music back to Uganda. In addition, Lois Anderson recorded some performances of surviving musicians, wrote about the tradition and published transcriptions of about 26 tunes. His articles, ‘The Entenga tuned-drum ensemble’ (1968) and ‘Essays for a humanist: an offering to…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…llage life. When we gathered for big celebrations, the entire village took to the road to walk for miles to a central location. We walked all night. And we sang all night. The old people walking with the children, all of us singing. And now we have a nice road that probably gets us to that site in 20 minutes by car. But what have we lost? We’ve lost the connection that comes with all generations singing together, with laughter and joy. We sang eve…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…g’ Kabaselleh, a Luo pop artist who occasionally teamed up with Laban Juma Toto, formerly of the Hodi Boys band, to produce some of the best rumba melodies sang in the Luo language. Kabaselleh’s love for rumba saw him adopt the name of Congo’s celebrated pioneer musician, Joseph Kabaselleh ‘Le Grand Kalle.’ Some of Ochieng’s sons like Babu Kabaselleh and Reggie Kabaselleh are now well-known musicians in their own right, same to his siblings who ma…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…. I Love You Kanini Mukabi This is the son of the great omutibo player George Mukabi; we recorded 5 songs with him all of which were his father’s: Mutoto Si Nguo Ram Lus Tunga Kweli Nougo Om ulanga Wa Muka Kunywa Kidogo …
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…y of the circumcision, they are woken very early and taken as a group down to the local river and they are covered in mud. This is meant to be an anesthetic and the boys are told it will help them with the circumcision. They are then told to march to the site of the circumcision itself – in Steve’s case, this was a hike to his grandfather’s village. Along the way, the boys are shouted at and pushed around by other men. Women and boys are meant to…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…we hit the road. We met our local contact, Jane Kagai, and then travelled to the KCC area, a lovely field about 100 meters below the road. While a lot easier than the hill we faced in Kisoro (SW Uganda), we nonetheless had to take our 44 bags down to the site. We set up under a tree and recording 4 separate groups, all of whom stayed for the day. The 80 or so band members, all in full costume, were scattered across our 100 meter field. Unfortunat…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…ts that finds it surprising that there is musical recording happening next to their room. We thank them now for their patience with us. It is also important to say that today will be more unstructured. We have one formal new group, which we’ll describe below, but we have also invited artists from two of our trips to join us and create new music. For part of the session we were joined by Brad Gibbs from The Mara Group, who had sponsored part of thi…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…s of the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation. Some has already deteriorated to the point where it’s unplayable, and the rest will suffer the same fate if nothing is done. The music they’re trying to save, called muziki wa dansi (“dance music” in Swahili), is not just catchy and danceable (although it certainly is); it’s also an essential part of the country’s cultural history. When Tanzanian independence leader Julius Nyerere took over from the Bri…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…shirts. The Recording Site We packed and drove east, just outside Kampala to the Kyambogo University, where James teaches. It was a beautiful gated campus, very quiet, big trees, lovely red dirt paths – it seemed to be a preserve for the lovely Ugandan greens and reds we’ve grown to love. Students walked everywhere with packs. We set up in the garden of James’s class room, under big trees, in tall grass. It had rained the night before and morning…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…ave so many feelings about it. But what I’m most proud of its contribution to the preservation of Ugandan culture by organizing the only festival since 2005. Many people are performing around the country today due to those festivals. The group is very literate in music and we had a clear vision from 1990 of what we wanted to do. We are not doing badly and have a comfortable life from the performances. Some musicians who didn’t even have a bicycle…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…e, it was close to dead, but a Unesco project has helped to draw attention to the group by pointing out the instruments and its players are threatened with extinction. He also says there is a horn shortage because people don’t grow the right kind of gourds in the right shape – so he has a standing order throughout the area to buy any gourd that can be shaped into the horns (he is also trying to start a gourd revolution so people start using them a…
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…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
The Journey to the Site We woke for 7AM breakfast and were on the road by 8:30AM, a half hour AHEAD of schedule. We drove about 210 kilometers from Kampala through Jinja toward Iganga and then turned north toward Mbale. We went directly to the Budaka District, Lyama Sub County, to a small village near the Budaka Progressive School. The Recording Site: Given our early departure we arrived before our groups were ready to perform so we had plenty of…
Who’s looking at you? Story
…This little fan joined us along Lake Victoria to record some of the best Nyatiti players in Kenya in November 2011….
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…with the team and trying to absorb some of their street cred, was to chat to the main man: Mr Tabu Osusa. Sitting across from me in his office in his bright yellow patterned t-shirt and flat cap he looked laid back as he sipped his cool beverage. His easy smile broke every time I said something that amused him. Here’s our interview: Who are the most exciting modern artists you’re currently working with, and why? Some of the most exciting artists…