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
…villages. There were people singing and dancing to preserve the music – this is real life and largely in Nairobi we are cut off from the reality of real life, the soul. To still realize that it is available in its authentic format was great. SW: What was your favourite moment on the trip? GT : Day 3, when we recorded the Mariene Traditional Dancers: To see this group sing was to connect with real life. They weren’t singing to perform. They were s…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…genre and Ketebul has kindly given us permission to publish in full their history of Benga music. Here it is: Retracing the Benga Rhythm From simple traditional village entertainment to a national and regional music genre, this is the story of the making of benga music. Setting the Background A characteristic of popular music the world over is the element of mystery surrounding the origins of the genre and sometimes also, the real meaning of its n…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…d have spawned so many imitations that they had to add the word ‘original’ to their name. They are Ameru, of Tharakanithi County. The group plays on all occasions, during harvests, births, weddings, marriages. The play the Mwinjira (Drums) and Biringi (Whistle). This was a tricky set to record because they are such vibrant performers, racing all over the place. When we tried to contain them to get good vocals, we lost the explosive force of the dr…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…rd and dies with it. In the song he calls for those who will really listen to what he has to say (this is the wonderful refrain at outset) Magic Moment: Simon doing gospel interpretation of Mariri. Magic moment: Arabamba mwarone as vocal solo with lead vocalist Their costumes were wonderful: Before we left we gave everyone Singing Wells t-shirts: We then broke down the set and as we were departing the group led the van off the site and wished us g…
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 and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…ving at 10:00AM. We picked up our local contact, Dominic Mukora, and drove to the Kiongwe Market to record our first group. Here’s our route: The site passed the first Singing Wells test, lots of chickens and children; we find their noises the perfect backing track for all our recordings. The market structures were beautiful with the typical brick structure, light blue paint and the red earth of Africa bleeding up the walls. The market itself was…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…d in 1971 in Polygram studios in Nairobi. His peers include Dan Mugula, Christopher Ssebaduko, Vincent Muwunge, Sulayiman Mayanja. Dan influenced him hugely. Matia stayed with us all day to play lots of songs, but for his ‘set’, he played 5 songs; these were: Abapangisa, featuring Passy Nassonko from the Kiki Boys Cultural Troupe. The song talks about challenges you face when you’re renting a house. Someone should work so hard to build his or her…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…h 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 British in 1961, he worked hard to foster a local musical style that the new country could call its own. We spoke to Rebecca Corey, who started the project in 2010 and still coordinates it today. “They started phasing out all foreign music from the local stations” in the 1960s, she told us. “So to…
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
…he condition, however: that she should never play in the rain. Amagombe: This is a song about the death of the leader’s father. He wrote it after his father’s death. 95% of the song is about what his father told him before he died. Ebibira: This song talks about the dangers of deforestation. The forest is where the spirits of the fore fathers can rest. If you destroy the forests, you destroy their homes so they will be loitering around and the liv…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…ing 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 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 ki…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…s is someone’s name, meaning Paul, son of Wawanyera. Paul was a chief. He visited certain places and found they had made him party with lots of food and drink. He actually visited his brother in law who was jealous of him as a chief. So he decided to poison him. Sinairi Mukhana: The person who killed Paul was a Wanyera. He had killed a chief because he was jealous of him. During the burial he pretended to be sad, but the family members of Paul rec…
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…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…them to play but no longer does. They have great songs, they have a great history but today they are silent. No one asks to listen to them. This is so sad. How do we revive demand for what was one of the sixth great ensemble bands commission by the king to play exclusively in the palace?” The Kika Boys Cultural Troupe The singers from the Kika Boys (and Girls) Cultural Troupe joined the Amadinda players for the final songs, featuring Passy Nassonk…