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…songs and traditional dance. We were also able to tell the story of their lives since they were moved from their forest homes in order to create a National Park to protect the mountain gorilla population in the area. We would like to thank the IIE for their generous support of the project which has resulted in a wonderful catalogue of Batwa songs and dance traditions. We continue to support the Batwa communities we visited through our strong rela…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…Some of the children here tell us about their reasons for learning the instruments, what other instruments they are learning and how they are enjoying the process. We cannot wait to see their progress and finally watch them perform with this incredible instrument, given a new lease of life by the next generation of musicians! From Embaire to Entongooli: Part 1 For these musical scholars, their musical journey actually starts with another fascinati…
Group 1: Inganzo Ngari Group Story
…tion – a modern twist on the tradition. These were performed just be male drummers. These drums were once used for announcements among the ancestors, summoning people to the village, for celebration, and – most unexpectedly – for when the king was sleeping, to gently soothe him with rhythmic drumming. The individual drum is called Ngoma. Then came a slow dance (Umushagiriro), an ancestral dance just performed by female dancers that honors the eleg…
Singing Wells Stories Page
…e Luo of Kenya To learn about the instrument the Nyaiti, check out the instrument page here: Nyatiti Instrument page Jovah We met Jovah on the second day of our trip to record the music of the Batwa in South West Uganda. We travelled out of Kisoro to the village of Mperwa. The Mperwa dancers performed in their village in a lush setting in front of cultivated hillsides and the Viriunga volcano. Jovah takes a lot of pride in her music and is full of…
Discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms Gallery
…the Entenga royal drums we’ve been searching for The story of Musisi – a drummer from the royal palaces and the fall of the Buganda Kingdom Some information on the progress of the Bigwala trumpets – an instrument we restored on a previous field trip Interviews with the palace players and a great deal of information on the art of drum making…
Watmon Cultural Group Group
…Amin’s regime, many people were looking for an escape, and the troupe presented just such an opportunity. The group performed for President George Bush during a state visit to Uganda. They were also recorded in 2012 for the BBC’s World Routes album, presented by ethnomusicologist Lucy Duran. Their performance was described by Sounds and Colours as an ‘instrumental extravaganza’. Sources: Sounds and Colours www.dailymonitor.co.ug The Guardian…
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…w generation of musicians and listeners who might not consider it relevant today. So we have developed the Influences series: new compositions comprising a fusion of traditional and contemporary styles, themes, harmonies and instruments. Influences is led by musicians from Ketebul Music or singer/songwriters from the areas we are travelling to during our field visits. “Singing Wells can’t be just about archiving. We can’t be fossil collectors. We…
Arrival to Rwanda, Background and Objectives Story
…s of Singing Wells. Tabu is a legend of East African Music and founded and runs Ketebul Music in Nairobi. Jimmy runs Abubilla Music in London as well as the Abubilla Music Foundation which support Singing Wells. Here we are with Abdul, who you will meet in two days (Tabu far left, Jimmy far right. And here’s the founding, original team of Singing Wells, during the presentation of a Commemorative 10 year map of all of our work (this time, not to tr…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…tarted playing music in 1958 and has mastered several Teso traditional instruments. Today he plays with an old friend – Mzee (Edler) Ikobulo (born 1932) and his daughters as back-vocals. Through a series of 8 songs, he showcased three major instruments: ADEUDEU – 5-strings arced harp; AGEREGERE – a one-string traditional fiddle; ACCORDION. All through the session, Obasie was accompanied by a percussionist on a drum called atenus amwatonitand by Mz…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video documenting the pro…
Music of the Royal Palaces Story
…In 2016 we continued our recordings of music of the Royal Palaces, which we started in 2015. You can read our report on the Royal Entenga Drummers in the 2015 field report….
Day 6: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 Story
…rris We then interviewed Daudi about Mzee Morris: “I met Mzee Morris when I was younger and saw him play. I loved his style from the first moment I heard it. I also listened to him on the Tanzania Broadcast Corporation, because his drums was used hourly to announce the news. I spent three months trying to learn the drum riff he used. I could never understand how a blind drummer could remember where all 10-12 drums were. Amazing.” Here’s Daudi:…
Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
…full plate is a metaphor for an abundant life and good harvest) Part two: We then brought in Henry and Leo Mkanyia, Rajab-Alli Morris, Steven Jonas (Tomato) and Elliot Wenman and Sophie Grant to play five more songs. These were: Marugaro Sanaa: arts Chipela: When you’re hungry you gather lots of fruit from the fruit tree). This song featured Ndanhini on the thumb piano who created the most amazing rhythm, which played off Henry’s bass brilliantly….
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…e drum. Our sessions are typically filled with lots of smoke and video of drummers running back and forth in/out of camera range tuning their drums as they play. See example: Here’s the Group: The group played 6 songs: Ndio Kwanza (We’re just starting and haven’t done anything yet) Mama Shughuli Yako Tomeiona (Now, you’ve seen how we play) Boga (Pumpkin), or Mboga in the local dialect Nina Ubembeleza Undugu (I’m begging for us to be brothers) Drum…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…say’ Utalikologa Utalinywa: If you mix it, you will drink it. Kiingereza (English) This is Leo’s song from his album, Bangili (bangles) This was a wonderful day of recording for three reasons: We had the whole day so were able to record a large number of songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a…