Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…music. And yet, we all walked away convinced that you will see an exciting new East African artist writing new amazing music with these drums as part of the rhythm section. Are there lessons from this journey? Yes, and the most important of these is our discovery of a single repeatable model to restore these instruments: we refer to this as the Bigwala Model. What James Isabirye discovered from his work to restore the Bigwala trumpets is a five st…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…TtU…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…ed in a bus to travel to his house. There was an older man on the bus who knew the village. When he climbed on the bus, he knew Kizito (the boy who’s mum we were visiting and Musisi’s half-brother, shared mother). The gentlemen said that when we reached the village he would bike ahead and tell the village we were coming, so we walked very slowly to the village. But when we got to the village I saw a sight I had never seen before. By the time we ar…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…gon Ngoma troupe is, and their mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Wk0YnbByk&fbclid=IwAR27BBeDBEx-5jMqkKxFTL9vtS5NxBwun0psDF9hCNmfQe0PQodki2Cns3U…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…the bottom and will wrap up from the bottom of the drum and end up about 50% up the drum’s length. So this piece was about 30% larger than the drum’s bottom, which is smaller than the top. 5. Stage one of stringing the drum In the first stage of stringing the drum, “you tie the top skin and bottom skin together with nylon strings then take the tied together drum and put this into the sun for 24 hours.” This is a hugely skilled job. Essentially, h…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…dying on the proverbial vine. James Isabirye found James Lugolole around 2005 and set out to restore the tradition. They formed a new group, which we recorded in 2013, and they re-discovered the gourd seeds and started coordinating farmers to grow the 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…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…of the highlights from our channel. First place on the view count – at 272,000 views, goes to our awesome session with 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://…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…s gardens. The King asked him to go out and report any news. He came back 10 minutes later and said the soldiers were now far closer having broken into new rooms closer to where we were. The King asked him to go out again and find any other news. The man didn’t return and the King told me that meant he was killed and we must run. Soldiers were everywhere. He grabbed me and we ran through several palace gates and came into one of his Throne Rooms (…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…g closely with Albert and Shaban, a professional 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…
The Return of Bigwala News
…ch were thought to have been lost, to be rediscovered and grown. Now over 100 students have been trained in building the instruments, and have played at two royal celebrations. There 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…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…he swamp plant). Tune the drums: they had the old recordings and Musisi’s 50 year old memories and they gradually figured out how to tune them. Much like a xylophone. Learn to replay them: Musisi knew a lot of the songs, but they needed to learn each complex 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,…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…African countries—Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania—covering an area of over 68,000 square kilometers. The Luo who live around its shores in Kenya speak a western Nilotic tongue distinctly different from their Bantu neighbours to the north and south, and their Kalenjin distant cousins to the east. The Luo comprise close to 3 million people. Their forefathers migrated south from the Bahr al Ghazal region in what is today know as Southern Sudan in a stead…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…Osala on guitar and Enos Okola on percussion; they played throughout the ’60’s and ’70’s. Their style was linked to three part harmonies, two finger picked guitars and a ‘fanta bottle percussionist.’ In the 80’s, Shem formed a new band, Les Bunyore , before reforming Abana ba Nasery in the ’90’s. We recorded six songs with him. Muhanna Mulando Obuyanzi Kali Munda Olubo Mary Queen John Nzanze One of the founders of “African Twist”, John enjoyed a m…
Naizungwe Drums News
…our revival of the entenga royal drums of the Buganda kingdom starting in 2015 and contacted Singing Wells with the hope that we would support him with funding for his new project. We are excited to announce that we have agreed to support James in his endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has been under way for a month now. We will be documenting the progress of these drums with pictures and videos here, and more…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…stream. The Music Groups Mariene Traditional Dancers This group formed in 2003 and is led by Simon Munuki. They are from the Ameru Ethnic Community. Their musical style is Kirarire and Authi. The lead singer wears Murungi, an ornament on both sides of the arms which is worn by the initiator/circumciser; it signifies a man of respect and authority. Their costumes include Lesos, necklaces, face painting, spears, fly whisks, gourds, and head gear, ca…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…e then invited to shake hands with the king, and upon learning that James knew ethnomusicologist Peter Cooke, the king invited them to the palace to perform. They performed the song “Ganga alula”, a version of which we recorded during our visit in 2016. James played the Kyawakati and Entemyo, John Ssempeke played the Nakawombe and the younger boys played the rest of the drums. This is a wonderful story for the Entenga players, and it is really enc…