Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…ul Studios: we identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the Kingdoms of Uganda. 2) Recording again Albert Ssempeke’s Buganda Music Ensemble. Given that we first decided to rediscover the Royal Drums after recording Albert’s g…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…ul Studios: we identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the kingdoms of Uganda 2) Recording again Albert Ssempeke’s Buganda Music Ensemble. Given that we first decided to rediscover the Royal Drums after recording Albert’s gr…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…s at the palace for generations. I started to play at the palace in the 1940’s and believe I was born around 1929. Sadly, at the time of Hugh Tracy I also wasn’t good enough to be on those recordings. We lived in the palace and when we were needed to play we played for the king. I loved it. During the attack in 1966 my friend and I were at home. After the attack we didn’t go back. But in 1967 they brought us back to pay some wages and thank us for…
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…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…his own story. Musisi being recorded on camera telling his story We are in Uganda to revive the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom, the Entenga. This project was the result of the work of a very large team, but at its center is Musisi, the last surviving drummer that we know of. Here is his story, in roughly his words: “My father was the leader of the flutes at the Buganda Kingdom, and as his son, I was trained to play the flutes and eventually jo…
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…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…nga. Centre: James Isabirye We have been working closely with James since 2013. During a conversation with James and Albert Ssempeke in 2013, we talked about reviving the Entenga, the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom. Along with flutes, trumpets, strings and xylophones, the Entenga were part of a set of ‘royal instruments’ and much of the music was lost in 1966 when the palace of the Buganda Kingdom was attacked by government troops. The palace…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…we listened to the drums formally performed for the first time in almost 50 years. So, over the course of several months, the team created the drums, the drummers and their music. And on November 30th, at Kyambogo University, they revealed the drums to the Singing Wells team and an audience that grew and grew as they played. Here are four things we learned about these drums on Day 1: There are 15 drums. 12 of the drums operate as a collection, se…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…t 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 stea…
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
…people in Uganda. James led 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 picture…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…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 Irimbene Village, upper Kiungone Sublocation, Abogeta West Division. The group uses Mbere (shakers) worn by Bernard Nkonge, Ginfold Mbae, Amos Munthi and Fraras Ikunda. They also use a flute, Coro, is performed by John Mwiti. The group was in beautiful costume and so energeti…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
After a quick breakfast, we loaded up and departed at 09:00 for a 10:00 session in Kangema. Here’s our map: Our 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…
Entenga: Music that soothed kings News
…We’re delighted to annouce that our esteemed colleague and Singing Wells partner Prof James Isabirye has been featured in an article in Uganda’s Daily Monitor about his work to revive the Entenga Royal Drums. Read now. You can watch the full documentary of our initiative to save the Royal Drums here….
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…no better than the other Batwa so I thank you for choosing me. I am happy 1000 times over. My message represents the rest of the Batwa people. I listened to the recording of my song – it was so nice, so sweet.’ But we had one last special treat of music. We then played for Jovah an influences session with Eddie Grey, where he produced Inyange. We played it back to her and she danced with her new baby, Gerald, for the full song. She said that her h…