Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…called the National Teachers’ College at Kyambogo) and had established the new music department. During his time at Kyambogo, Peter had recorded much royal music. Excitingly, we also learned that Peter knew Musisi, one of the last remaining entenga players from the Buganda Palace, whom we met during our last trip in December 2015. Musisi is now working with James at Kyambogo to implement our entenga restoration scheme to preserve and promote this…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…n Hero Brass Band. When you combine the two bands, the traditional and the new brass sound, Julius says, they blew audiences’ minds. As the bands have grown there are roughly 160 total members of his group, of which 100 are performers. They are roughly divided between the two bands. For income, they do performances and also work four acres of land to feed themselves. Many of the members also do arts and crafts or a skilled trade – Julius’s dream i…
Before They Pass Away News
…ing weeks or months immersing himself in the tribe’s way of life. In Papua New Guinea, for example, Jimmy met with the Kalam tribe who decorate themselves with masks, wigs and plants to scare off potential enemies. In Vanuatu, he witnessed the traditional dance ceremonies that tribal people believe is crucial to gaining wealth. In Papua New Guinea’s highlands, he recorded how the Huli people shave their heads when they become a man, and continue t…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…d are more formally trained. They act as music judges and help to identify new talent. Most of the members are teachers that are being trained and are training. They are highly creative and dramatic.” The Namaddu Troupe The second group was the Namaddu Troupe, with 28 members and was formed in April 2009, led by Ndoboli Ramathan, and from Lyama Sub County. Their style of music was Namaddu Dance. Their costumes were Gomasi, Kanzu and skins (emondo-…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
Happy new year! We hope your 2016s have gotten off to a good start, and that you’ve been bringing in the year by listening to lots of traditional East African music. Before we start posting exciting news about the upcoming year, here’s a quick recap of what we got up to in 2015: 1. We went discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms In Nov/ Dec 2015 we travelled between Kampala and Jinja in Uganda in search of the lost music and musicians…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…Nandi Kulamudde: This is the story of the older, dead king, talking to the new king. He offers to help the new king but complains that first someone will need to wake him up. The Amadinda percussion reminded us a lot of the Likembe bands of Northern Uganda— very soothing and seductive rhythms. For the last two songs they were joined by Passy Nassonko the lead female singer of the Kika Boys Cultural Troupe (our second group). We talked to James Isa…
We’re discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms News
…s field trip Interviews with the palace players and a great deal of information on the art of drum making You can also keep up to date with our latest news from the field via our Twitter and Facebook pages….
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…acted as influences (see more on our influences work here) and have helped newer genres form. The same works in the opposite direction of course, and African popular music has emerged as a combination of traditional African music and an adoption of certain elements – particularly some musical instruments and recording techniques – from Western music. Last week I was in a taxi driving through Nairobi’s Westlands and talking to a girl about Sauti So…
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
I’m new to Singing Wells and I’ve spent the last few weeks listening to pretty much every song on the site, getting to know the amazing traditional music of East Africa! It was tough to pick, but for my first blog post I thought I’d share my top 5 songs so far. 1. Otacho Young Stars – Amilo Love The Singing Wells team first encountered the Otacho Young Stars group on a trip to record the music of the Luo in Western Kenya in December 2011. They we…
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
There’s now a new way for audiences to discover and listen to traditional East African musicians and music groups recorded by Singing Wells. Head over to our Bozza page here. About Bozza “Bozza is a plug & play solution for musicians, poets, photographers & film makers to promote and sell their digital products to their fans throughout Africa. The platform is available to emerging and established artists from around the continent and can be easil…
Current Leading Figures News
…cribed as a ‘key part of the East African music industry’, Tabu has been a promoter, producer, composer and band manager and, since 2007, the founding Executive Director of Ketebul Music. However, the projects in which he is involved reach far and wide, with his expertise and passion not just being limited to the invaluable work he does at Singing Wells and Ketebul Music. Tabu co-chairs the committee of the “Spotlight on Kenyan Music“ project – a…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…that supplement the music recordings they have available. For example, the latest issue, Peace, features an article, Coffee, Music, and the Performance of Peace by Jeffrey A. Summit, which explores issues surrounding the music they produce, namely the album Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith Harmony in Uganda. 5. BBC Radio 3: World Music Audio Archive Presented by Lucy Duran, the World Routes programme on BBC Radio 3 is a mixture of inter…
Archiving Guidelines News
…they are still able to be played back in the long term, due to support for new media or data formats – as in conjunction with OAIS. Chapter 7, Small Scale Approaches to Digital Storage Systems, is of particular use because it contains straightforward information for smaller would-be archives, such as those wishing to archive East African music, concerning both the digitisation of audio or the online storage of the data. It cites two viable options…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…Africa is forever evolving. It is wonderful that Jimmie Rogers inspired a new song and it is amazing that the Otacho Young Stars were inspired to sing a song about a factory manager. At Singing Wells, we do not celebrate static village music – that would be to deny the very essence of music, which is to evolve organically as the musicians are inspired by new things. We simply want to celebrate the evolution of music that innovates while building…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…have is our ‘everything now’ culture. 50 years ago, if you got a job, you knew that if you worked hard and stayed with the job and got promoted you could buy a home for your family, or a car. Or help your children to be educated. Once you got a job, you knew not to lose it. Now people work for a little bit and then quit and they complain about how hard life is. I tell them, “Why did you stop the job? You just lost a home, or education for your chi…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…13. Here is the voice of Tabu. “A New Studio: Our first big milestone is a new studio. We refurbished our studio and brought in new equipment. We used our own savings for this to build a better studio and are very proud. Nick Lader, a sound engineer from the UK, helped improve the studio with bass traps, etc… so we could really do a better job. Nick was very hands on and did a great job. He now does a lot of work with us, mastering and mixing our…