Kenya’s Amazing Musical Instruments News
…he kick drum with his big toe (wearing a metal ring) banging on the bottom of the Nyatiti. The rest of the band joined in clapping, dancing and providing wonderful backing vocals: Orutu After the Nyatiti, the Orutu is the second most important instrument in Luo music (though we also encountered it in central Kenya, where it’s called the Wandindi). When well-played, it takes on the role of the “fiddle” found in Irish or American country music. The…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…ter politely agreed to hold off on his duties. We set up the band in front of one of the huts. Oh, and there were no trees. Oh, and it was sunny and hot. We cooked. Buganda Music Ensemble The Group was founded in 2004, led by Albert Bisaso Ssempeke Jr. Son of Dr. Albert Senior, a legend. Music style: Kiganda. Dr Albert Ssempeke, father of Junior was a legend. He was a palace performer for the King. Albert Jr’s grandfather was a palace gatekeeper a…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…ile Beat because I have so many feelings about it. But what I’m most proud of its contribution to the preservation of Ugandan culture by organizing the only festival since 2005. Many people are performing around the country today due to those festivals. The group is very literate in music and we had a clear vision from 1990 of what we wanted to do. We are not doing badly and have a comfortable life from the performances. Some musicians who didn’t…
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…ting for an audience space and what’s making it twice difficult is that you have to compete with international foreign brands who in most cases are the radio favourites. A brother has to dream on though, giving up is so ‘unAfrican’ they say. Anything else you want us to know? In the banks of these rivers, shoes of these great lakes, thickets of these forests and slopes of these mountains, there lies a sound so beautiful and pure that you can never…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…er Cooke, a retired ethnomusicologist and Research Associate at the School of African Studies, London. We’ve referenced Peter many times in our field reports and blog posts: in our history of recording East African music summary, in our post about music archives across the world, when reflecting on the importance of archiving traditional music and, most recently, in our posts about our journey to discover and record the Royal Drums. It was James I…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…recording studio. We have been able to set up the computers in the kitchen of one of our cottage rooms and have the groups either perform on our dining patio or our porch. We had three groups today and the drivers were sent out to round them up from the surrounding areas. The Bigwala Cultural Group One of this group’s primary purposes is to restore the Bigwala, the big Ugandan trumpet, to Ugandan musical culture. According to our local musical exp…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…iences’ 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 is to open up a hair and beauty studio so they can support the bride with her beauty and music. We are here on site to…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…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 of the royal palaces. We posted regular updates about our…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…also spent quite a bit of time filming ‘drum tuning’, which involves a lot of fire, a lot of water, some spitting and very careful brick placement. We had two groups. The “first group” started with a drum solo, but then handed over to the second group to give a full performance. So, for story telling purposes, we’ll move the drum solo to later in the narrative and switch the first group to later. Are you following this? The Music Groups Busolwe Po…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…omeone 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 Isabirye, our musical expert, about this group. “This group does not perform formally anymore, because they have no platform. The King invited th…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…please keep visiting our channel and sharing the traditional music of East Africa with the world. Recording Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club perform in Gede, Kilifi, Kenya on our Singing Wells Pilot trip in 2011. A brief collage of the story of the recording of the music of The Batwa in Uganda and then back in Nairobi at Ketebul Studios. The Watmon Cultural Group, recorded in December 2012. The Elgon Ngoma Troupe sing about the circumcision ritual….
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…e two sponsors for this recording trip. Firstly, The Mara Group are sponsoring a full recording day and have chosen to support our day in Mbale (Day 4: Thursday 21st Nov). We are also very pleased to have the support of Gorilla Tours, owners of the Airport Guesthouse who have provided one of the transport vehicles and a driver for the week, as well as offering us accommodation at the Guesthouse while we are in Entebbe. …
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…nd 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 Sol – one of Kenya’s most popular bands. She described their m…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
…t can we do to excite people? One of the challenges with building any kind of platform or promoting an initiative to young people is that it has to connect really closely with what they stand for and believe in, otherwise it won’t work. If you could find a way of making Singing Wells relate to what young people believe in, that might just work. I reckon film or TV would be a great way to get the message out, and I’d really drive home your work wit…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…Ketebul is situated in the Go Down Arts Centre, a graffited music enclave of made up of some seriously hip outlets. The main purpose of my trip, besides hanging out with the team and trying to absorb some of their street cred, was to chat to the main man: Mr Tabu Osusa. Sitting across from me in his office in his bright yellow patterned t-shirt and flat cap he looked laid back as he sipped his cool beverage. His easy smile broke every time I said…
From African Twist to Benga News
…tween the music of their villages and modern music. They were the founders of Benga, the African Twist, Luhyia ‘Omutibo’ and the ‘Yoddeling’ sound adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We dedicated six days of studio time at Ketebul Music in Nairobi to record this set of legendary musical artistes, all of whom are now in their 60s and 70s and are critical to Kenyan music history. We are very proud of this unique album and hope you enjoy lis…