1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…drums emerge. I have seen how people are excited about Bigwala. We need to create opportunities for our people to believe in themselves and their values. Our history has weakened our minds and what is left is for man to eat man. No values! No identity! No humans! Just creatures moving the path of God’s gift called life and breathing the air meant for humans.” Below are excepts from Peter Cooke’s recordings of the drums that James talks about: http…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…ill be chaos. We simply want to enjoy music and the cultural collisions we create are part of the fun. We also try to tell a single story on these visits. For this trip we are retracing the drums of Mzee Morris. We will tell his story as we go. So, we’ll tell you about these missions in these field reports, trying our best to record accurately the songs, performers and instruments. We welcome all corrections as we recognize that there will be mist…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…trip giving three reasons: They are on the endangered list. 15 drums and six musicians is a big expensive ensemble and most villages will have never heard these drums or their performances. Without intervention, they will die. They are unique and extraordinary: if you lose these drums, you lose the peak of Ugandan drumming. No one else is performing the complex tapestries of the Entenga drums, which mirror the xylophones, which are written for si…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…within an inch of the top skin and sometimes within four inches or so. He creates the stitches by punching an awl through the edge of the top or bottom skin to create a hole to lace the string through and then pulling tightly. At this stage, this is nylon rope. The end result looks like a drum, with the skin tight along the top and bottom and stitched together along the edge. 6. Preparing the cow hide strings “I then cut animal skin strings by cu…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…itional Ohangla Music Traditionally played at weddings and funerals, the music is having new life put into it by young artists like Otieno who use electronic production, combined with incredible musicianship, to create a whole new genre. Otieno’s song Kanungo Eteko is massive on Youtube, and we were lucky enough to record him in one of our sessions in Nyanza here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPaBQwODTtU…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…lex part for each of the six drummers. Perform live to understand how to ‘mix’: the final step is to play live and learn the right mix of instruments – the volume of each drummer, when to come in, when to be silent. In many ways, this was what we did during our field visit in November. We helped ‘mix’ as we listened to the drums formally performed for the first time in almost 50 years. So, over the course of several months, the team created the dr…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…think about rich Kenyans and how they can support the music of their village with our help. We need to think about corporates and get them off the popular big number kick they are on and get them to work on authentic things. You guys can get better and better at producing videos, but until we make this bigger and more sustainable, the project is always one heart attack a way from stopping. But let me end simply – this is amazing and keep it going…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…hestra Kiam were frequently imitated by these Benga groups. This borrowing created a new trend where the spark of the Benga guitars was fused with rumba to create a potent form of dance music. This experimentation later saw Sam Mangwana together with other Congolese musicians like guitarists Lokassa ya Mbongo, Ringo Moya, Nyboma Mwandido, Bopol Mansiamina and Syrian Mbenza form the African All Stars in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, in 1978. By this time…
The Return of Bigwala News
…ked and sawed at the point where the hollow fruit expands to a bulb, which creates a ‘bell’ shape that helps the sound to carry. Often multiple gourds can be bound together to create the right shape. It is also the name of the dance that accompanies this type of playing. Our first encounter with Bigwala was when we captured a performance by the Bigwala Cultural Group in late 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2HnP36EVK4 The story of bigwala is…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…s in front and as much as possible doesn’t dance with the rest. Where this creates real trade-offs, we will do two takes – one with the vocalist stationary and one, without a lapel mic, where they are free to dance as they normally would. Lead vocalists and instruments We also work to identify all the major instruments and vocals that will be used and make sure these have appropriate microphones and will be seen by the video team. The purpose of V…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…rate influences sessions with her: Bashitsi Bahire with Winyo and Inyange mixed by Abubilla Music, both of which feature on a sampler of music we gave away at Womex this year. Here’s Inyange mixed with Abubilla Music: She finished the day with two songs of her own: Barabasuhuza: The song talks about passing greetings from home (Batwa) to visitors Imparake: This is the heart-breaking song of the Batwa, about the loss of their forest home. Henry Nez…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…sion. They are not limited to 22, because there is no royal role. Anything between 21 and 23 is fine. If they could extend it, they would. The limit is the deeper you go, you can no longer tune the slab. It stops going deeper. The nature of the wood limits the distinct notes to between 21-23. You also saw them dance. They play all the dances they would do with drums with xylophones across the three dance styles of: Tamenhaibuga, Nalufuka, and Iron…
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…of the band Ndoto Afrika. The band blends traditional 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…
Before They Pass Away News
…only do we want to sustain the musical heritage of East Africa, we want to promote it in today’s world. With this in mind, we’ve been following the work of British photographer Jimmy Nelson with interest, who spent four years travelling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these…
Current Leading Figures News
…imself, struggling to pay the university tuition fees, he saw how he could create a better life for himself – but most importantly others – through the power of both traditional and Western music. “Do I want another semester of education, with no promise I will be able to fund another, or can I take this money and start to make a difference?” He took the money and invested in the traditional kadodi drum. From only two members with drums, Julius no…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…ommercial use, he strayed from the popular African music he was helping to create, and continued to focus more on the traditional. He secured funding from various projects, after a lecturing tour in the UK, and set up The International Library of African music in 1954, where his 20000 recordings are today stored. The ILAM will be explored further in a later blog of this series. There are a few of Hugh Tracey’s recordings available online on the Br…