Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…ched to the Ageregere and played three songs: Omaune: This song is about a greedy man who eats alone and doesn’t share his food or time. Okitalee He then switched to the accordion and played three songs: Akidaun Ipejok Ore: A song welcoming visitors to the home. O’enera: Alomuni Kitsese Ko Djibouti: A song about the country you came from. Given that we are linking everything to the actual performances, the less words the better – enjoy the music a…
Mchele Mchele Sanaa Group Group
…This group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). …
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…and was carrying what I can only say was a magic electric gun. He told me to stop brushing my teeth and lie down and he began to shoot the government soldiers around us. […] I’m telling you all this to tell you that this was the last day I played drums in the palace. I was arrested and I stayed in jail for a couple of weeks. Then, in 1966, I got employment at the Kyambogo music department for Peter Cooke (who was head of the music department at t…
Day two: From Sirisia to Mabuyole Falls Story
…had a Magic Moment with just percussion from the group. We then travelled to Lugulu to record Plus Wafula. We were in a stone quarry to record them next to Mabuyole Falls. Beautiful but hot. We were recording Webuye International Band. They played in the Tinkikti style. The group was formed in early 2000, when founder Webuye Juakali was a backup singer for separate band. In 2009 he became the main singer of the band. It has the following instrume…
James Allen Staff Profile
…eads the firm’s Global Strategy practice. He has 20 years of experience in international business and has worked in Africa extensively during that time. Jimmy launched Abubilla Music in 2008, a small label dedicated to developing young recording artists. The following year he began developing the idea for the Singing Wells project with Ketebul Music, sharing their passion for preserving and promoting the traditional music of East Africa. Jimmy has…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…aking comprises 24 drums of big, small, medium and small sizes. We decided to make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizung…
Day 7: Friday, February 24th, 2017 Story
…role’ is more physical – she is working to preserve all the physical recordings of Tanzania musicians, many of which are rotting away on dusty reel to reel recordings. And that is it. We then rushed to the airport to depart to Nairobi for a weekend of recording at Ketebul Studios. And thus ends our first Field Visit to Tanzania. Enjoy the videos as we produce them. …
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a professional musician, Leo also teaches music to school children so he is a natural with kids. On all the songs that he did, he had the whole village singing and laughing. We learned about the Bi Kidude and Unyago style. Throughout this trip we will enco…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…reating a specific post for him, so he could continue drumming for all visitors to the government. Because he was blind, he was invited to perform with specific women groups, of songs for women by women, of songs that no males could see. Every day we will tell more about Mzee Morris and his music (see picture below). We will also talk about his legacy and the attempts of his family and fans to keep his name and his music alive. Like all Singing We…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…knew Sebuwufu, a xylophone player who knew all about the drums and agreed to help me. Together, we found out that Peter Cooke had recorded the drums and we listened to some of these recordings. But then, Sebuwufu passed away in August 2015 and I realised I had a big problem now. He might have been the last person who knew the drums. But I remembered that Sebuwufu had heard of someone named Musisi, a drummer that had played at the palace. Musisi h…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…e proven wrong. Musisi is looking for more drummers and the ones we talked to today are desperate to find others that played with them. Richard Ssewannyana We first travelled about an hour from Mukono to the village of Bamusuta B Kizimula to meet with Richard Ssewannyana. As we believe Musisi is the ‘last surviving’ royal drummer, we believe Richard is the last surviving royal flutist. Please, let’s be wrong here. We first interviewed Richard: “I…
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
…my village 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 san…
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 Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…wn: 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 Neza from UOBDU who travelled from Kisoro with Jovah and her four month old baby Gerald, help translate the song for us. This is how Jovah described the song: ‘During the eviction everyone was running and crying out “our forest has been taken from us”. They lamente…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…tend to cause havoc with the rest of family members (please note similar story to song we heard about impact of deforestation on spirits. Lead vocalist this song is Hellen Flavia The back-up vocalist for this song was Diana Natero. And the wild dancer was Lubowa Bashir. Omwenge (a local brew): This is about how the local brew is made in stages and sets out each procedure to produce the brew. The lead vocalist is: Magic Moment: No vocals, and we c…