Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…ogether on the ‘Bigwala Model.’ So after Singing Wells left, I started the search for the drummers. I thought I was in great shape, because I 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 p…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…and shortest, sharing the same note as the Enkologi, but octave different. Today, they were supported by the royal drum, Mbuutu (not to be confused with the 15 drum ensemble of the Entenga). They played the following songs: Sematimba ‘Ne Kikwabanga Anamwa Nganga (with accents over the ‘g’s’) And with that, we faced a thunderstorm and packed ourselves up for the hotel, and packed in the hotel for our flight on December 4th back to Nairobi. We will…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…e the King’s entrance and exit, or to ‘proclaim’ something, much like the trumpets of English kings. It is vital that they not be lost and we have actively support the restoration of the Bigwala – and through this project have discovered the Bigwala Model (more on this in a moment). But it is not clear that a contemporary musician will incorporate these instruments into their music – they might be ‘of a time’, and ‘need a king or two.’ Entenga dru…
Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…search of the best groups to record during our upcoming field visit in February. We are struck once again by the amazing talent this country has to offer, and can’t wait to capture some amazing moments with these artists when we visit again with the full team in a few weeks time. Thanks to the good people at Dhow Countries Music Academy for helping us with the information and contacts from their database. Getting a private crash course on the gan…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…rviving’ and we would love to be 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…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…d, “They would all have been made by people in our village. But for royal drums, our drum makers were invited to the palace to make the drums on site, next to the King.” He said that every child in his village loved to make drums and viewed it as a good trade to create pocket money. “If you ever need money as a child, you helped the drum makers and learned the craft.” Abass did this and was a casual drum maker with a friend of his. But then his fa…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…Otieno Aloka in his Luo village. Performing with a traditional band, this video of the famous singer of ‘Kanungo Eteko’ is a great example of the Singing Wells project in action; a modern artist connecting to his musical heritage as he plays the traditional orutu, whilst also inflecting it with his own contemporary style. https://youtu.be/gPaBQwODTtU Also at the top of the list is the legend of Mwanzele, Nyerere Wa Konde, performing with his fami…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…he next generation of trumpets. There are now four trumpet groups and about 20 trumpets, with many more growing in the fields in different parts of Busoga. Everything about the Bigwala model has become the inspiration for our attempts to rediscover the lost royal drums. The trumpets are thriving and young people are starting to learn the instrument again. And James Lugolole is thriving. In his interview he told us, “I am so happy. I feel now, when…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…am now so happy and they call me The Professor because I’m teaching these drummers how to play the Royal Drums and I want to do nothing more with my life than to help this music be heard.” Musisi’s work: drummers setting up to perform And we’ll stop there. We will report more on Musisi as the week goes on, but we felt this was the right place to start, the telling of his last night at the palace, the last moments the Entenga were played at the pal…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…ssional 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: James, Right: Musisi And that is why we found…
The Return of Bigwala News
…seems to be a promising future for this important thread in the tapestry of Uganda’s cultural history. Sources: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ugandan-music-bigwalahttps://ich.unesco.org/en/news/uganda-young-ugandans-mobilized-for-safeguarding-bigwala-music-and-dance-00251https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333991/bigwala-busoga-royal-music-dance…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
A year ago we brought you the news of Entenga players performing in front of King Ronald Metebi at the 25th anniversary of his coronation (available here). At this event they also performed a piece with the Akadinda xylophone in front of the Asantehene (the monarch) of the Asante 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 dr…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…itar upon which the music rides, is considered by many as the single most crucial link between that instrument and modern benga. The tempo of the nyatiti playing along with the sound produced from the rhythmic thumping of an iron ring harnessed to the toe of the lyre player is the rhythm and percussion respectively in modern Benga. The nyatiti which had been made popular by musicians like Otuoma Ogolo, Mbui Jachur and later Ogola Opot also influen…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…the first ‘secular player’. He often visited Wanganangu’s homeland and recruited Wangangangu to pursue a musical career. We recorded 6 songs with Wangangangu over two sessions: Cal Wa Kadogo Ngurumo ya Saba Saba Muhiki Nyakairo Maito Njeri Rocine Kerokp Muumboro Osumba Rateng We first worked with Osumba during our trip to Nyanza in 2011; he is the founder of the Sega Sega band and ‘Flora’ remains a Singing Wells favourite. He is one of the most i…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…ed to contain them to get good vocals, we lost the explosive force of the drums. When we let them run wild it was pretty difficult to get a good vocal or audio take. Also, we were accidentally constraining them by asking them to go through their songs one by one, when in fact, what they loved to do was race through all the songs at once, in a single act. We finally sorted through all this though. Ultimately we did three ‘takes’: Mucii: This is the…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…knife is cutting away his old life and forcing him into a new life. Ruuji rukuru, led by John Gitoriga, means ‘old water’ and is a song to prepare a boy for manhood. Water is a cleanser so the water cleanses the boy and moves him from childhood to a new life. The boy is taken to one of the old rivers and hot mushrooming spring. Hence ‘old water.’ Remember that in all cases the boys are led to a river, covered in mud, and then are marched to a new…