Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…ord the group Liwambwe. The Group Leader is: Atanas Teleni. It is a fairly new group, having played off and on for three years. They had unique drums, including small drums with wooden spikes on bottom to be embedded in sand, called the Siganga. They also had a pair of drums called the Likuti and a long drum called the Msondo, and a very long thin drum called a Neya. Here’s the set: In the dance they had a character in a mask called a Lipiko, who…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…n traditional Tanzanian music and his band features the Marimba (Tanzanian Xylophone) and a modified version Morris drums. He noted, “I want to play in the Morris style, but I can’t use his drums. They require fire for tuning and this isn’t practical as a gigging artist. So I have modified congas and bongos to replicate his drums. I’ve changed the skins to cow skins. When you combine these drums, the Mtoji, with the Kin’gan’ga (the two standalone…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…tains a snake). The first part of their act is pure comedy and acrobatics. One dancer knows what is in the box and is teasing the other to open it. There are mock fights, gymnastics, clown faces and general mayhem, until eventually the snake emerges. From then on, the dance is about how close the pair can get to being bitten or strangled by the snake without getting hurt. Occasionally the snake is set upon the audience but one of the dancers pulls…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…ic in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Benga playing a dominant role. Currently, you can get ad…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…r 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 that Peter Cooke had recorded the drums and we listened to some of these recordings. But then, Sebuwufu passed away in August 2015 and I realised I had a big problem now. He might have been the last person who knew the drums. But I remembered that Sebuwufu had heard of someone named…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…trument written for five or six different musicians – the Royal Drums, the xylophone, the flutes, the trumpets all follow this pattern and there are magical moments that happen in such complex song-writing. Are all instruments the same? Here we are less sure. The xylophone is extraordinary and continues to thrive outside of palace life. Xylophones didn’t disappear in Uganda village life after the fall of the kingdoms in 1966 because they were part…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…e royal palace musicians: a flute player, a trumpeter and two members of a xylophone-drumming team. A note here on surviving musicians: James Isabirye continues in his quest to track down surviving members of the musician corp. The good news is that there are some. The bad news is that the group is declining rapidly. In some cases, we refer to musicians as the ‘last surviving’ musician. This is based on James’ best reckoning, having tried for year…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…Traditionally played at weddings and funerals, the music is having new life put into it by young artists like Otieno who use electronic production, combined with incredible musicianship, to create a whole new genre. Otieno’s song Kanungo Eteko is massive on Youtube, and we were lucky enough to record him in one of our sessions in Nyanza here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPaBQwODTtU…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…her surviving musicians from the Buganda Palace Here’s our summary of part one: 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 Ent…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…er of the group, explain who the Elgon Ngoma troupe is, and their mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Wk0YnbByk&fbclid=IwAR27BBeDBEx-5jMqkKxFTL9vtS5NxBwun0psDF9hCNmfQe0PQodki2Cns3U…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…/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 there’s always something exciting to discover and share. https://youtu.be/mkyDtBXfunI…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…e tuned initially to the xylophone The Empala: meaning ‘leopard’ and tuned one tone up from the Enhana Endhasasi: meaning ‘the one in the middle’, or ‘the one that slices the group in half’, the cutter The Endeesi: meaning ‘the starter of the song’ Endumirizi: meaning ‘the loudest of the group’ The drums This group had five drums and they were: The Engoma’nene: the big drum The Enduumi: the middle drum The Ngiringidi: the smaller drum, so named be…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…where. He grabbed me and we ran through several palace gates and came into one of his Throne Rooms (there were several). There were a lot of us, around the King and in the room there were dozens of soldiers. But I remember at the end of the room was a big white man, and he had a huge gun that he was moving around to shoot us. It would have killed all of us, it was so big. And the King took his magic electric gun and killed the white man first. And…
The Return of Bigwala News
…walahttps://ich.unesco.org/en/news/uganda-young-ugandans-mobilized-for-safeguarding-bigwala-music-and-dance-00251https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333991/bigwala-busoga-royal-music-dance…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…yal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom. Along with flutes, trumpets, strings and xylophones, the Entenga were part of a set of ‘royal instruments’ and much of the music was lost in 1966 when the palace of the Buganda Kingdom was attacked by government troops. The palace and instruments were destroyed, the King exiled, the royal musicians disbanded and much of the music forgotten. In 2013, we considered any idea of reviving the Entenga to be very unlikel…
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…old memories and they gradually figured out how to tune them. Much like a xylophone. Learn to replay them: Musisi knew a lot of the songs, but they needed to learn each complex part for each of the six drummers. Perform live to understand how to ‘mix’: the final step is to play live and learn the right mix of instruments – the volume of each drummer, when to come in, when to be silent. In many ways, this was what we did during our field visit in…