Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…w if you play the music the children will come. I know if you set up a xylophone in a village and play good music, the children will come. We can’t blame them for not liking the music – they don’t hear it. When they hear it, they come and dance. Kopoliano Kyobe Finally, we had a brief discussion with Kopliano Kyobe: “I was born in Ggavu on the main road. I learned to play the xylophone (Amadinda) as a young boy and they took me to the palace in 19…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
December 2: Drum making and palace players On our third day in the field we focused on two things: 1) Understanding better how the royal drums of the Buganda Kingdom are made 2) Interviewing other surviving musicians from the Buganda Palace Here’s our summary of part one: Part One: Drum Making The Singing Wells team was joined by James Isabirye today as we travelled to Mukono, to visit Ssebengwa Drum Makers (P.O. Box Mukono near Colline Hotel, J…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…e 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 recorded a lot of Ugandan xylophones over the years, but this time we really wanted to understand the players themselves as the arrangement mirrors in many ways the royal drums. There are generally six players, 3 on each side, configured very roughly as follows (I say roughly, because…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…that say ‘see our animals not our people.’ And business is looking for big numbers which means popular things, which sadly means easy to digest, disposable pop culture. The whole drive to “marketing” is killing our culture. If the numbers don’t come in on something than you stop it. But culture is hard to really invest in. You don’t go for the popular musicians doing the big things. You have to go to the real groups in the rural villages. And they…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…in active music. The era of 78 rpm discs and His Master’s Voice (HMV) gramophones had been ushered in by European producers when Kenya’s first recording studio was set up in 1947. This is the magical year in which pioneer guitarist, Fundi Konde, who was a member of the Entertainment Unit during the Second World War reportedly played Kenya’s first electric guitar. European recording companies were to hold a monopoly over the East African music indu…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…cause – they aren’t rooted. I was a session musician at AGS (African Gramophone Studio) and CMS (Capital Music Studio) studios, both on River Road. I formed Sega Sega and we had a drummer called Katoi and Juma Otheth. We did a huge amount of studio work and as Benga became popular, the three of us played on a lot of others’ songs. This meant that our Luo sound was getting on a lot of records. The early sixties was mostly about studio work but by…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…The final day – we record the Original Chuka Drummers and then head back to Nairobi, concluding our field visit to Central and Eastern Kenya….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…nts and vocals that will be used and make sure these have appropriate microphones and will be seen by the video team. The purpose of Video 2 is to zoom in on these performances so we want our ‘leads’ stationed close to Video 2 if possible. Song Length Our first job is to record the song as written no matter the length. But it is very common for the groups to honour the Singing Wells team by extended their songs – this is a huge complement to the a…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…A trip down and up the hill to record three lovely women groups. We were also introduced to Ndaiga Muchiri, the mad Karingaringa player. We’ll hear more from him tomorrow….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…Muranga on the Thika road, arriving at the Nokras Hotel in Muranga at about 1800. Here’s the route: We were all pretty shattered, so had a quick dinner (only quick if you ordered fish or meat, the chickens were apparently hard to catch and took considerably longer), drank the mandatory round of Tuskers and slipped off to bed. Working Practices: Roles and Responsibilities of the Team Each day, we will also bring you a set of ‘working practices’ we…
Tanzania 2017, Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo News
…We’ve just returned from our latest field trip discovering the music which took us to the eastern side of Tanzania. We witnessed an amazingly rich offering of music and met some extremely talented musicians. Read our field reports here to learn about our experiences with a snake dance, an amazing performance of a female initiation ceremony ,and recording members of the extraordinary Zawose family….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 0 – London/Nairobi Story
…Day 0 is always a day of prep and planes. The Ketebul and Abubilla Music teams, with assorted guests, assemble in Nairobi to launch the first of our 2014 Field Recordings; this time focused on Central and Eastern Kenya. Here’s our team….
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…dle players and 2 thumb pianos. They also have the traditional Ugandan Xylophone. All instrumentalists also sing and are supported by three ladies who sing and dance. The three core members are: Walusimbi Nsibambi Haruna: He the Founding Director of Nile Beat Artists. Walusimbi was once the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassador for Africa after winning the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassadors Competition in Marikina-Philipines. Nabayaza Sumaya Baiga: Sh…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…re, London, I received my first lesson in playing the Kiganda amadinda xylophone from the South African musicians Andrew and Paul Tracey before their evening show Wait a Minim.” “My work in Uganda led me to begin exploring that country’s traditional music initially with the aim of collecting useful materials for teaching purposes. That exploration has continued since then, apart from during the chaos of the periods of the rule of Amin and the Seco…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…s/traditions and can train the youths. One already died in May to move the number from 4 to 3 and one of the three surviving is very ill. But it is almost certain, now that the trumpets won’t disappear. Young people have some interest, thankfully, and are learning.” Click here for further reading on the Bigwala. Here’s their music: Adagha Nalya Drama Group Our second group was from the Bukoona Village and called the Adagha Nalya Drama Group. Their…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern Uganda, our work to share the music of the Batwa community and the Luo community. We’ve told the story of repatriating Kenya’s music heritage after 50 years and celebrated magic moments – where we’ve found an extra-special artist on our journeys and recorded their work. 7. We spoke to a young Kenyan about the future of traditional music During our outings in Nairobi…