Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…he next generation of trumpets. There are now four trumpet groups and about 20 trumpets, with many more growing in the fields in different parts of Busoga. Everything about the Bigwala model has become the inspiration for our attempts to rediscover the lost royal drums. The trumpets are thriving and young people are starting to learn the instrument again. And James Lugolole is thriving. In his interview he told us, “I am so happy. I feel now, when…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…am now so happy and they call me The Professor because I’m teaching these drummers how to play the Royal Drums and I want to do nothing more with my life than to help this music be heard.” Musisi’s work: drummers setting up to perform And we’ll stop there. We will report more on Musisi as the week goes on, but we felt this was the right place to start, the telling of his last night at the palace, the last moments the Entenga were played at the pal…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…DTtU…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…ur favourite artists, the Elgon Ngoma Troupe, is seeking sponsorship for a new piggery on their project. The piggery will allow the troupe to establish a sustainable form 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…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…ltimately learned to play new music. Over the course of their studies, the new drum students (most of whom are actually highly accomplished drummers and professors of music) starting calling Musisi ‘The Professor.’ Left: James, Right: Musisi And that is why we found ourselves under beautiful trees on the campus, facing the 15 drums and six drummers of an Entenga ensemble. We used our time to record eight songs and interview Musisi, and survived a…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…This 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 u…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…emble’ (1968) and ‘Essays for a humanist: an offering to Klaus Wachsmann’ (New York, 1977, pp.1-57), are available at SOAS and at the British Library . But, with few exceptions, this music largely died when the Buganda palace was attacked and destroyed on May 23-24, 1966. The king fled, the musicians were disbanded, the drums destroyed. And the Entenge were considered dead. That is how we felt in 2013 when we considered reviving the drums. But we…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…y item – you don’t really need to support it. The government is focused on politics and big money items like tourism and business is focused on marketing which demands immediate return. So on one hand, our government investing in messages that say ‘see our animals not our people.’ And business is looking for big numbers which means popular things, which sadly means easy to digest, disposable pop culture. The whole drive to “marketing” is killing o…
The Return of Bigwala News
…la https://ich.unesco.org/en/news/uganda-young-ugandans-mobilized-for-safeguarding-bigwala-music-and-dance-00251 https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333991/bigwala-busoga-royal-music-dance…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…hen it first became a mainstream genre. Typical of many other music genres worldwide, the struggle to pinpoint the origins of a style is especially difficult when its name is unrecognizable in any known ethnic language. Some of the musicians who were interviewed claim the word originated from the Congo. In the 50s a number of Luo people travelled to that vast country for work and adventure and came back home with the term. Other players and enthus…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…ed traditional music – but I kept telling them I was taking their music to new places. We knew we were on to something big because everyone responded well to it. I think it is fine to be creative and innovative and rebel – but be a rebel with a cause. Too often kids rebel without a cause – they aren’t rooted. I was a session musician at AGS (African Gramophone Studio) and CMS (Capital Music Studio) studios, both on River Road. I formed Sega Sega a…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
A year ago we brought you the news of Entenga players performing in front of King Ronald Metebi at the 25th anniversary of his coronation (available here). At this event they also performed a piece with the Akadinda xylophone in front of the Asantehene (the monarch) of the Asante people from Ghana. A recording of this performance has just become available, and is posted below https://youtu.be/CCQ72al2pEo Fore more information about the Entenga dr…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…knife is cutting away his old life and forcing him into a new life. Ruuji rukuru, led by John Gitoriga, means ‘old water’ and is a song to prepare a boy for manhood. Water is a cleanser so the water cleanses the boy and moves him from childhood to a new life. The boy is taken to one of the old rivers and hot mushrooming spring. Hence ‘old water.’ Remember that in all cases the boys are led to a river, covered in mud, and then are marched to a new…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…The group plays in thee Gitiro style – the dance performed by women during ruracio, a dowry payment occasion. Gitiro: led by Jacinta Njoki. Ndumo (ya iritu): led by Jacinta and Mary Njoki. Kibuthi: led by Jacinta Njoki. Kangema Mwomboko Dancers The group is led by Maina Kirhoro. From the Kikuyu ethnic community. They are from Kiangunyi Village, Muguru Sub-location, Kangema District. The group has 45 members and was started in 2000, but the origina…
Naizungwe Drums News
…ing new project he was hoping to undertake – the revival of the naizungwe drums of the Basoga people in Uganda. James led our revival of the entenga royal drums of the Buganda kingdom starting in 2015 and contacted Singing Wells with the hope that we would support him with funding for his new project. We are excited to announce that we have agreed to support James in his endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has bee…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…i. https://youtu.be/HgKF14j5LrM We were first introduced to the Entenga drums in 2015 and have since been supporting James in an initiative to revive the drums and teach younger musicians how to play them (read the field reports here or watch our documentary for more information of this project). The Entenga players were mentioned in the king’s speech, which James translated for us as: “… I would like to thank especially those who played instrum…