Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…da. They had 27 members join us (32 in total), roughly divided between instrumentalists (drums/shakers/Endingidi – the Luo Orutu) and dancers/singers. Their leader was Charles Dumba and they are from Masaka Nyendo. They have performed for roughly six years together and their musical style is Nganda from Buganda. They are called the ‘Boys’ band, but there are girls in the group too. They sang three songs: Mbidde (Medley): The Mbidde is the banana p…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…usician Bulasio Busuulwa, one of the former royal flute players, who was already working with me at Kyambogo, I also recruited his young friend Musisi – a former member of the royal entenga group,” says Peter. “They made an excellent team – making numerous traditional instruments in the department’s workshop and teaching them to the music students and to music teachers who came for in-service courses. Like Musisi, Busuulwa had not found conditions…
Before They Pass Away News
…that they continue to add to throughout their lives. He followed the Samburu people in Northern Kenya as they travelled across the land searching for new plains for their cattle, and the Maasai in Tanzania. Singing Wells too has travelled extensively across Kenya, meeting remote tribes like the Pokot Tribe, the Marakwet Tribe and the Ameru Ethnic Community. In a Ted Talk, he shared some of the fascinating rituals that he came across on his travel…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…e checked in on the preservation of the Bigwala trumpets The Bigwala is a trumpet-style instrument made from gourds. Singing Wells has been supporting the work of James Isabirye to preserve this fantastic traditional instrument, so in 2015 we went back to Uganda to check on the progress of the project. 4. We learned about the art of drum making During our 2015 trip to Uganda, we had the privilege of being able to watch and record the making of the…
We’re discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms News
…the lost royal drums of the Buganda Kingdom Context on the Entenga royal drums we’ve been searching for The story of Musisi – a drummer from the royal palaces and the fall of the Buganda Kingdom Some information on the progress of the Bigwala trumpets – an instrument we restored on a previous field trip Interviews with the palace players and a great deal of information on the art of drum making You can also keep up to date with our latest news fr…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…moment. We need to look for a platform to promote our stuff, whether it’s online, digital radio, TV – we need to make the music more accessible to all. Why is Singing Wells important? Singing Wells is important because we’re trying to capture our East African heritage. Many of the musicians we record from remote tribes are old and we run the risk of the traditional music in Kenya dying out, we don’t want to see that happen. Further, most recordin…
From African Twist to Benga News
…o the ‘old masters’. Our recordings are particularly poignant as Ochieng Nelly sadly passed away shortly after the making of this album. Read our report from the studio sessions here. …
The repatriation of Kenya’s music heritage News
…returned to the communities in which these songs were made in the 1950s by English ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey. The repatriation of these recordings began in August, during a two-week pilot project in Kenya’s Rift Valley led by Prof Diane Thram, Director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in South Africa and the team from Ketebul Music, supported and funded by The Abubilla Music Foundation as part of the Singing Wells project….
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…tures in his masterpiece Soge (and this is the tube fiddle, the sister instrument of the Orutu which inspired Benge in the Luo tribes): What do Singing Wells, Jimmie Rogers and ILAM have in common? Read here. The Otacho Young Stars and the Sadness of Joyous Praise: Travelling around Africa you always pray a little to the gods above that Africans would enjoy the benefits of a few more responsible folks with power, in power. And then we ran into t…
Room with a view…but where is it? Story
…4127m at the peak, its an extinct volcano at the easternmost end of the Virunga range. On the right is smaller Mount Gahinga (3474m). During the Singing Wells field visit to record the Music of the Batwa, we stayed at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro and this was the view which greeted us each morning. It was a wonderful place to stay and the staff were incredibly helpful and let us set up a recording studio under the verandah in the garden,…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…h of course it helps to know what you are looking for – and one can either search a location or artist in the search bar, or browse through the various collections. The International Library of African Music has many of its albums available to download, under the ILAM collection. As it is a record label, its material must be bought, which is of course a barrier to access, but it is still an incredibly valuable resource for traditional music and en…
Archiving Guidelines News
…ritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy’ (IASA-TC 03). When researching guidelines for the online archiving of sound, the term metadata is often mentioned and this is the largest part of the edition that was revised for re-publication, stressing the importance of extra information being attached to the sound file, describing the location the sound was recorded, the artist, the date, etc and other technological information. Another iss…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…- Ebigwala, bigwara , amagwara, magwara, amagwala etc. for the Soga gourd trumpets,’ that make searching on the British Archive, regarding East African music, often a tricky task. In addition, sometimes it is difficult to know, for those who are not experts, exactly how the East African words are spelt: Cooke suggests that ‘a “fuzzy” keyword search facility seems very necessary.’ Moreover, the British Library online archive is difficult to use for…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…l on East African music, which, in turn was created in large part by Black-American music, directly inspired by early African village music. We listen to the likembe music in Uganda and here the steel drums of Calypso music. We listen to Benga blues and here the music of Cuba, demanding that we look further into the circles travelled between musicians between the Congo and Cuba, and we listen to Samba drumming and particularly the tambourin only t…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…listening to them. James: We need to move from being a nobody – neither a American/Englishman (but trying to be one) nor a Ugandan. We need to move from being a nobody to being somebody, to understand what makes us unique. When we hold festivals, we ask the musicians to talk to the audience, tell them their stories and who they are. For almost every festival, I am told by some government official that they want to open the show and talk about cul…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…Singing Wells project is to make traditional East Africa music relevant to today’s artists and audiences. We want to celebrate and promote the music heritage of East Africa in a contemporary context. We are doing this with ‘Influences’. We were staying at The Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro and the staff kindly allowed us to set up the studio under the verandah and it was there that we recorded our first ‘Influences’ session – a fusion of Batwa m…