The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…y, and has remained there since. It is at Chandarana’s studios that a vast number of musicians from western Kenya first put their work on spool tapes. Chandarana’s business acumen was in large part responsible for the replication of the Benga sound by singers from the mid-Rift Valley region. His shop and recording premises in the town are still in operation, though he has retreated into reclusive old age and is hardly keen on granting media interv…
Bigwala Trumpets perform for coronation anniversary News
…William Gabula Nadiope IV of the Busoga kingdom. The trumpets can be seen here performing at Budhumbula in front of the Kyabazinga (the elected ruler of the kingdom) and processing behind him. https://youtu.be/HtHhkMrlXWw Read about our contact with the Bigwala players here. James tells us that soon some of the Bigwala players will begin paid jobs teaching the instrument in schools, which is a testament to the continuing success of this project,…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…nd wished us good travels. We drove to Murungurune, where we met our local contact, Chief Kimathi, and then had a hard 3-4 kilometers ride up a very rough dirt road through the Ruthumbi forest to a high hill that overlooked the beautiful green valley below. Here’s our route: Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self Help Group This group formed in 2000 with 21 young men. They are led by Edward Kiogura. This is Authi style, they are Ameru from the Irimben…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…first joy was the site of Mount Kenya as 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 scattere…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…to Kitui, on the Mombasa Road, arriving 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 u…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 0 – London/Nairobi Story
…(Video 3), who is from the Meru ethnic community and has been our primary contact person to support this trip (e mail: lkoome2000@yahoo.com) Raphael Sipalla (Audio 4) our ‘Influences’ artist (e mail: ruffmaud@yahoo.com) We will be interviewing them throughout this trip to provide additional color to our Field Reports. We spent our Saturday packing and preparing the vans for the trip. Let’s remind you of our team – we cheated and took photos from…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…to these cultures folk songs demand actions and drama. If you give them an open space they will bring much more drama to the equation.” Here’s their music The Journey to the Next Site We then packed up and left the University Grounds and headed back into Kampala to the Uganda Museum. The Recording Site We set up directly in the Museum grounds and were surrounded by an open air museum which was a collection of traditional grass thatched huts from t…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…his 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 living won’t have any peace. Omukazi Ow’omwano Tanoba: Tamenha Ibuga Nalufuka: This was an incredible dance number that ended with all the Singing Wells crew, and many of the hotel staff, jumping up and dancing with the group. Here is their musi…
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…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…ree different groups. The Elgon Ngoma Troupe Julius wanted to make sure we opened our morning with him with two major performances from the Elgon Ngoma Troupe, both centered around the tradition of circumcision to mark a boy’s transition from child to man. “In our tradition, if you are 80 years old and have not gone through the ritual of circumcision, you are not a man and cannot sit at the adult table. If you are a two year old and have been circ…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…hive. It is located on the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University and is open for listening from Monday-Friday: 10am-12pm then 1pm-5pm, except during the Summer when it is only open 1pm-5pm. 9. Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie CREM (Research Centre for Ethnomusicology) is a French institution in Paris, which houses an extensive archive of world music; a vast and crucial resource for ethnomusicologists and PhD students. Collaborations with…
Archiving Guidelines News
…f audio or the online storage of the data. It cites two viable options for open repository software, which are basically softwares that allow organisations to give access to their data. The first is DSpace, “very popular and widely adopted repository within the higher education and research sectors, although knowledge of its use within the museums and cultural heritage sectors is limited but growing.”[1] The second is FEDORA. However, it is clear…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…part of the pagan culture and needed to be erased. Traditional songs about spirits, about witch doctors needed to be ended and replaced with Christian music. James: I think that explains some of it. But the church no longer does that and yet we still reject the old ways. I think another reason is we were all taught to aspire to a “White Man’s identity.” This goes way back. I remember by Grandmother used to always greet me saying ‘Welcome back from…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…some way in the future. Showcases Visited Mike and I were present at the opening concert – curated by Cerys Matthews at the fantastic Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performances from Matthews herself, The Welsh Ballet and The Treorchy Male voice choir. I heard a bit of a day showcase from the Emily Portman trio on the daycase stage at the Motorpoint arena. Louise joined our tr…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ese groups were identified by James Isabirye who will be our local liaison contact while we are in Uganda. Steve met James following a chance meeting with an old friend while in Kampala for the ‘recce’ trip. Here’s an extract from Steve’s notes: “I had a chance meeting with an old friend from Addis Ababa, Teshome Wondimu, who runs an organisation called Selam which hosts an annual festival in Addis Ababa. While chatting to Teshome, I mentioned tha…