1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…velopment, which has been under way for a month now. James gives some background about his inspiration for starting this project: “I led the revival of entenga royal drum music of Buganda kingdom. At the time of doing this, I received an audio recording from Peter Cooke, telling me of his recording on his first field trip in Uganda in 1967. The multi-rhythmic texture of the drumming, Basoga traditional yodeling and humming plus the poetic recitati…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…instrument made from a gourd, which comes in three sizes Ilimba: A lamellophone or modified thumb piano. The large one is call a Chilimba. Junga: shakers for ankles. Kayamba (Shakers) Chilemba (large) and Ilemba (small) thumb piano https://youtu.be/RSE3dMgCEVk From the Boma Village we travelled to our hotel, the Bagamoyo Country Club and recorded music with Henry Mkanyia, his son Leo Mkanyia, Rajab Alli Nyunyusa, Tomato (Steven Jonas) Sophie Gran…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…laughing. We learned about the Bi Kidude and Unyago style. Throughout this trip we will encounter multiple stories about ‘women for women’ songs. In this case, the women in the village have a special dance that is performed by women only for women. It is all about teaching young girls to prepare for womanhood, be it how to behave in the village, how to behave as a wife, and how to be a mother. The women invited Sophie into one of the huts to watch…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…– to the home of Mzee Morris’s son, Rafael Nyunyusa Morris. “Retracing the lost drums of Mzee Morris Nyunyusa” is the purpose of this trip, so before discussing today’s music, let’s now give you a bit of background. Mzee Morris is Tanzania’s most famous drummer. The ‘Mzee’ in front of his name is a sign of respect – think, ‘Old Man Morris’. He was born in 1920. At two years old, he lost his sight as a result of a bout of small pox. He died in 1999…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…ave to focus on the Entenga, the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom. If we lose these, we’ve lost something truly unique. Singing Wells then agreed to kick-start a project based on what we had done together on the ‘Bigwala Model.’ So after Singing Wells left, I started the search for the drummers. I thought I was in great shape, because I knew Sebuwufu, a xylophone player who knew all about the drums and agreed to help me. Together, we found out t…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…out intervention, they will die. They are unique and extraordinary: if you lose these drums, you lose the peak of Ugandan drumming. No one else is performing the complex tapestries of the Entenga drums, which mirror the xylophones, which are written for six musicians, each with their own parts, playing melody and bass lines, and harmonizing across both. You will not hear this richness in any current drums. They are exciting, vibrant, modern and re…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…orried that they aren’t training the next generation and the music will be lost. But I also know if you play the music the children will come. I know if you set up a xylophone in a village and play good music, the children will come. We can’t blame them for not liking the music – they don’t hear it. When they hear it, they come and dance. Kopoliano Kyobe Finally, we had a brief discussion with Kopliano Kyobe: “I was born in Ggavu on the main road….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…d thin. But he does this by rolling about a foot of string against his leg round and round until the entire length is tightly twisted. 8. The second stage of stringing the drum “Now, I have to restring the drum, replacing the nylon strings with animal skin strings. As I do this I cut away the holes from the old strings. As you can see the drum skins stick on the wooden drum. The first stage of stringing is called ‘Amabago.’ The second stage is cal…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…s and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…m of income for the project, which houses children from disadvantaged backgrounds through performance of traditional music, through breeding and meat production. Donate to Elgon Ngoma’s gofundme page here! And you can watch one of their brilliant performances, recorded on our 2014 field trip, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkyDtBXfunI Watch Julius, the leader of the group, explain who the Elgon Ngoma troupe is, and their mission: https://ww…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…was filmed back in 2011, on the very first day of the Singing Wells pilot trip to Kenya. Seeing the generations of Nyerere’s family performing together was a special moment (his son Mr Bado is also a musician). We captured a great fusion of old and new https://youtu.be/-MU13FLg_io You also need to check out the Elgon Ngoma Troupe, performing a traditional circumcision ritual dance. Please keep following our channel – with new videos going up the…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…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 sang every song we knew. We sang the whole night. We were learning about our cultures and rituals as we sang but we didn’t know that. We were just singing. I was reminded on Day 3 that this is their way of life and it is pure joy. This was very deep. SW: What most con…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…erence for Congolese music also added to their woes and soon some started closing shop. The few of these indie labels that are still in active business include Jojo Records and Studio Sawa. With most indie labels closing shop the demand for session musicians went down. Many of these pioneer ‘sessionists’ have since passed on. Only a few of the sessionists are still in operation. They include Osumba Rateng, wo has since relocated from River Road to…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…is one of the most important musicians in Benga. I interviewed him on March 10th to learn more about his playing style. This is what he told me: “I started playing music in school and I had a cousin Aoka Meja, who had a guitar. We copied the style of Adero Onani who played traditional music on the guitar. In 1958, I got my first acoustic guitar and played Rumba. In 1965, I started to play Benga. Benga was influenced by the beat of the Nyatiti and…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…he place. When we tried to contain them to get good vocals, we lost the explosive force of the drums. When we let them run wild it was pretty difficult to get a good vocal or audio take. Also, we were accidentally constraining them by asking them to go through their songs one by one, when in fact, what they loved to do was race through all the songs at once, in a single act. We finally sorted through all this though. Ultimately we did three ‘takes…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…nces Song’, where Ralph performed with him on guitar; this is a song about loss as both men struggled in sadness The Kenyan National Anthem: He closed our day with a performance on the Wandindi of the national anthem. Work Practices: Briefing The Groups to Record in the Field We are gradually learning how to brief the groups before they begin recording. There are typically four issues to address: The Performance Area: Width and Depth We work to ma…