Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…ormation of the kingdom we played a couple of times but we have not played together since the sixties and no one listens to the music and the king never asks for musicians.“ Of course, each of these discussions is disturbing, but we share them to give you a sense of the desperate situation with this music. We have told you of the royal drums and our efforts to revive them. And of a younger, incredibly passionate drummer, Shaban, who is now extreme…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…e first stage of stringing the drum, “you tie the top skin and bottom skin together with nylon strings then take the tied together drum and put this into the sun for 24 hours.” This is a hugely skilled job. Essentially, he is tying the top skins to the bottom skin through a series of stitches that wrap around the drum. The top is pulled evenly down about two inches over the lip of the top. The bottom is a more uneven cut and so sometimes the botto…
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
…d and caned. And they kept asking people where the King was. I didn’t want to get beaten to death so I said I knew where the King was. I was the keeper of the Throne Room Key at that point, so had a key to one of the Throne Rooms. So I said I had this key and knew the King was hiding in the room. They told me to take them to the King. Well, we were very close to that Throne Room, but I didn’t want to get there fast. I needed them to calm down and…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…of the attack itself (more on this here). James met him and realised that together they could begin to build the drums. Working closely with Albert and Shaban, a professional drummer who now leads the new band, they built a new set of Royal Drums, recruited a team of passionate drummers to learn how to play the drums, learned to tune the drums and ultimately learned to play new music. Over the course of their studies, the new drum students (most…
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
…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 concerned you? GT: What really concerns me is that the resources we have at…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…with a steady rise to a climax or crescendo and an equally quick refrain, together with the arrangement and sectioning mark benga apart from other music. Luo guitarists long cultivated a unique technique of playing the guitar. They commonly do not massage the strings as their Congolese counterparts do but rather they pluck and pick single notes rapidly in a fashion akin to playing a nyatiti—the traditional lyre of the Luo people. Benga is undoubt…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…for Singing Wells in Nairobi. Ketebul and Abubilla Music personnel joined together to record some of the most important ‘bridge’ artists in Kenya – a group of musicians that build a connection between the music of their villages and modern music. These were the founders of Benga, the African Twist, ‘Luhya Omutibo’ and the ‘Yoodle sound’ and represent the Luo, Luhya and Kikuyu ethnic communities. We dedicated six days of studio time at Ketebul Mus…
Latest Field Trip – Kenya 2018 News
…We’ve returned from our latest field trip, this time to western Kenya. Field reports coming soon….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…brant performers, racing all over the 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 tho…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…the chair from the ground and moved it to a new location. The boys decided to get an ‘arty’ picture with the chair. From the lovely views in Ruthumbi Forest, we then travelled back to Nkubu hotel to record three additional groups (our route is below). The first two we recorded in the main court yard and the last we recorded near the outside pub, where Gregg later served as a DJ. Muturi Wa Wandindi His actual name is Geoffrey Mutwiri, Mbaraka. He i…
Naizungwe Drums News
…ng 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 been under way for a month now…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…rning that James knew ethnomusicologist Peter Cooke, the king invited them to the palace to perform. They performed the song “Ganga alula”, a version of which we recorded during our visit in 2016. James played the Kyawakati and Entemyo, John Ssempeke played the Nakawombe and the younger boys played the rest of the drums. This is a wonderful story for the Entenga players, and it is really encouraging to know that the king continues to support the g…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…is twice, once with and one without the ladies humming (they needed to hum to get the beat right). Kangema Urban Women Group The group is led by Jacinta Njoki Mwangi and formed in 2006. 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…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…era, focusing on the key vocal and instrumental performances. Video 3 is to provide more interesting shots and is typically ‘super zoom’ or actually a wide angle shot to get a feel of the recording site. Typically, a final mix will be 90% Video 1, 8% Video 2 and 2% Video 3….