Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…e drums This group had five drums and they were: The Engoma’nene: the big drum The Enduumi: the middle drum The Ngiringidi: the smaller drum, so named because the name sounds like the drumbeat The Engaabe: the long drum with a lizard-skin playing surface The Endyaanga Namaganda: the short drum with a lizard-skin playing surface, and the bass drum The xylophone Here, we will focus on the players, verses the xylophone instrument itself. We have reco…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…s having. We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us over the last few years, and for creating such a thriving community in the comments below. As we build towards our ten year anniversary in 2021, we are thrilled to know that we have the support of such an engaged audience. Here’s a few of the highlights from our channel. First place on the view count – at 272,000 views, goes to our awesome session with Otieno Aloka in hi…
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
…ing so abolished the kingdoms and made illegal the performance of Bigwala, the instrument had to be played in secret, and gradually died out. When the kingdoms were restored in 1990, very few players with knowledge of constructing and playing the bigwala remained alive. James Isabirye, a Lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts of Kyambogo University in Kampala, has been striving since 2012 to restore knowledge of the instrument, receiving he…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…rking closely with Albert and Shaban, a professional drummer who now leads the new band, they built a new set of Royal Drums, recruited a team of 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: J…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…emble’ (1968) and ‘Essays for a humanist: an offering to Klaus Wachsmann’ (New York, 1977, pp.1-57), are available at SOAS and at the British Library . But, with few exceptions, this music largely died when the Buganda palace was attacked and destroyed on May 23-24, 1966. The king fled, the musicians were disbanded, the drums destroyed. And the Entenge were considered dead. That is how we felt in 2013 when we considered reviving the drums. But we…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
…ante 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 drums, read our series here or watch our documentary of their restoration here. …
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…we had finished recording, they were still singing. They had such joy, because they saw how much we loved their music. As we started to drive away they formed a leading party, singing the whole time as we exited the site. It was not a performance. It wasn’t even really thanking us. It was simply their joy. It was very deep. And it made me think back to my village life. When we gathered for big celebrations, the entire village took to the road to w…
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
…val in Algeria, and this led to introductions to Miles Davis and a tour of the USA. Angelique Twist Twist ni Nzuri Tama Amina Makashi ya Mrembo DK Mwai DK’s full name is Daniel Kamau Mwai. He was born in 1949 into the Kikuyu ethnic community and is one of the pioneers of Benga music, bringing it from the Luo to the Kikuyu ethnic communities. He started playing professionally in the late sixties and his first big hit came with the song I Love You,…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…lages, Suri Location, Bogeta Division. They are 11 men, 12 women, led by Cyrus Kirigia. Their style is Kwimbo, and the songs ares sung to celebrate the harvest mostly in August and March. They are from the Meru ethnic community and use the Kibere (leg shakers) and Vilingi (whistle). They performed 6 songs, and were performing in the pitch black of night-time as they sang late into the evening (luckily we bring lights, but unluckily, for the video…
Naizungwe Drums News
…at we have agreed to support James in his endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has been under way for a month now. We will be documenting the progress of these drums with pictures and videos here, and more details about the project and the instruments themselves are to follow soon so you can stay updated….
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…ms 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 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 rememb…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…chunks of your lower leg were being carted away. We recorded four groups. The Music Groups Gacharaigu Gitiro Women Group The group is led by Fidelia Nyambura Mwangi. They are from Munuga Village, Munuga sub location, Muguru Ward, Muguru Division, Kamgema District and was formed in 2006 and dedicated to self-help. Their style is Ndumo, an old women’s dance purely for entertainment and preservation of culture. For all their songs, the ladies used t…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…“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 sections.” T…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…The guesthouse has a lovely garden and we set up in one corner so we could run the recordings from one of our rooms. The setting is generally quiet, but it is in the name really – we are near the airport. Every day for an hour or two, the local military facility likes to start up all their helicopters. This is noisy. We had to shift recording at that point to inside one of the rooms. Hot but quiet. We are also joined by bird noises (loud, but surp…