Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…Music have just launched Episode 2 of their online series Shades of Benga Online, to go alongside their book ‘Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…old Musisi, ‘please teach our boys 100 songs.’ I told Shaban, ‘you must learn every part and every song.’ And that is how we ended up on this road. We filmed the drums yesterday and today we are going to see the Bigwala and discuss more lessons learned. Tomorrow, we are going to find out how much more there is to do.”…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…13 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 group in 2013, we wanted to end this field visit with his recordings. Part tw…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…13 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 group in 2013, we wanted to end this field visit with his recordings Part one:…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…roven wrong. Musisi is looking for more drummers and the ones we talked to today are desperate to find others that played with them. Richard Ssewannyana We first travelled about an hour from Mukono to the village of Bamusuta B Kizimula to meet with Richard Ssewannyana. As we believe Musisi is the ‘last surviving’ royal drummer, we believe Richard is the last surviving royal flutist. Please, let’s be wrong here. We first interviewed Richard: “I am…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…Part One: Drum Making The Singing Wells team was joined by James Isabirye today as we travelled to Mukono, to visit Ssebengwa Drum Makers (P.O. Box Mukono near Colline Hotel, Jinja Highway, opposite the Pork Joint). The shop is run by Abass Mirimu, a gentleman from the famous village of Mpambire which is known for its drum makers. Abass was the maker of some of the Entenga drums (the royal drums of the Buganda King). Above: Abass Mirimu To be spe…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…a, and its an amazing reward to see the impact our work is having. We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us over the last few years, and for creating such a thriving community in the comments below. As we build towards our ten year anniversary in 2021, we are thrilled to know that we have the support of such an engaged audience. Here’s a few of the highlights from our channel. First place on the view count – at 272,000 v…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…g the trumpeters Interviewing James in more detail about his life and work to restore the Bigwala trumpets. Part One: detail on the instruments The Bukakaire Bigwala Players are made up of three separate groups of musicians: the trumpets, the drums and the xylophone. Let’s look at each in turn: The Bigwala trumpets These trumpets are made of long gourds and a trumpet group is made up of at least five trumpets (or more), each of which plays a speci…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…3AM? Because the King loved our drums and chose the quietest moment in the day to have us play, so he could enjoy the beauty of our sound. I loved my life and felt so proud being a drummer. I remember one performance where the King loved our song so much that he gave a bull just to the drummers to enjoy in a big feast. And then he asked us to play the song again and again. And this beautiful life all ended in a single night. I was sleeping on May…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…time at the palace. In terms of the music, we recorded the following songs today: Ganga Alula Omusango gw’abalere Mubandusa Ekyuuma kya Bboola Veneneka Olugambo olubuulire Sekanyolya The Drummers In terms of the moment, let’s stress a few things: These drums are magnificent. They are actually 15 drums, 12 of which are tuned to the notes of a xylophone and thus we are hearing a full song – percussion, bass, rhythms and melodies across the six playe…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…le for the drums’ revival. James Isabirye met with Musisi and they set out together to revive the drums. They worked with Shaban, a professional drummer, and John and Albert Ssempeke, who have kept many royal instruments alive, to relaunch the drums. Essentially, this took four major steps: Rebuild the drums: they needed to re-assemble the drum kit, building each of the 15 drums and re-making the Enga, the sticks used to play the drums (named afte…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…my village life. When we gathered for big celebrations, the entire village took to the road to walk for miles to a central location. We walked all night. And we sang all night. The old people walking with the children, all of us singing. And now we have a nice road that probably gets us to that site in 20 minutes by car. But what have we lost? We’ve lost the connection that comes with all generations singing together, with laughter and joy. We san…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…Their forefathers migrated south from the Bahr al Ghazal region in what is today know as Southern Sudan in a steady stream until the 19th Century. Some live in neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania. Today, Benga music is played across a fair share of Kenya—from the lake shores in the west, across the vast floor of the Rift Valley to the slopes of the imposing 5,199 metre Mount Kenya and into the plains of eastern Kenya. From a genre that was previously…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…what worked with audiences and he evolved the song to something he loved. Today, artists go to the studio first – giving birth too early to a work of art. We recorded eight songs with him: Oyango Bwana Ogilo Osare Charles Komora Jaka Beka Okech Maskini Yuni Nyaimbo Jo Seme Wanganangu And Mukonya His full name is Walioshamiri-Mzee Wanganangu and he is a famous Kikuyu accordion player, who played in clubs like the Roasters in Nairobi in the 70’s. T…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…ustace Njuki and Gitar Thura. Mware is about an uneducated woman who wants to be married to an educated man. This song challenges the woman to get an education in order to be at par with the prospective spouse. We then wrapped up and took lots of final pictures, including of three children, practically our only children from the trip! We packed for a final time and departed for Nairobi. We made pretty good time to Ketebul music, where we unloaded…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…d the boys are told it will help them with the circumcision. They are then told to march to the site of the circumcision itself – in Steve’s case, this was a hike to his grandfather’s village. Along the way, the boys are shouted at and pushed around by other men. Women and boys are meant to stay back, and if they do get close to the young boys under-going the ritual, the boys are meant to try to beat them up. The boys are naked but have a Chinyimb…