A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…to Rebecca Corey, who started the project in 2010 and still coordinates it today. “They started phasing out all foreign music from the local stations” in the 1960s, she told us. “So to fill up that airtime they would send out recording safaris to various rural villages to record these ngoma dances and drumming sessions.” This traditional village music was combined by state-funded bands with the Cuban-flavored rhumba coming in from the Congo. The r…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…ep and about hard working women. Unlike those days when women used to wait for men to provide for everything, nowadays, they wake up early and go to work. Olugend’olw’ebukakkata: He went to visit a village called Bukakkata. He found a girl who was seeing two men who didn’t know each other. She was still in her parents’ home so she was not allowed to be seeing men. One day, the parents found a man peeping through the window and canned him because h…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…nda. Dr Albert Ssempeke, father of Junior was a legend. He was a palace performer for the King. Albert Jr’s grandfather was a palace gatekeeper and flute player in the palace. Albert Junior started to play at 10 years old and his father taught him all the main instruments – he plays the Enanga (harp, where there are only 3 master players) and the endongo (Bow Lyre). His best moment was playing for Ronald Mwenda Mutebi’s wedding in 1998. The band m…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…r told him before he died. Ebibira: This song talks about the dangers of deforestation. The forest is where the spirits of the fore fathers can rest. If you destroy the forests, you destroy their homes so they will be loitering around and the living won’t have any peace. Omukazi Ow’omwano Tanoba: Tamenha Ibuga Nalufuka: This was an incredible dance number that ended with all the Singing Wells crew, and many of the hotel staff, jumping up and danci…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…e had two legends of Ugandan music visit us today) – Natha Matta Nyende performing for us with his band the Bakuseka Majja Matta Group. Nathan is 76 years old and has been blind since 1956. He formed his group in 1952. They play in the Kisoga style and are from Kasokoso in Iganga District. They are four members. Nathan plays the Endongo, which is the local name for the small thumb piano. Kirunda Awali sings and plays the Endere, which is a flute….
Before They Pass Away News
…only do we want to sustain the musical heritage of East Africa, we want to promote it in today’s world. With this in mind, we’ve been following the work of British photographer Jimmy Nelson with interest, who spent four years travelling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…es Isabirye, our musical expert, about this group. “This group does not perform formally anymore, because they have no platform. The King invited them to play but no longer does. They have great songs, they have a great history but today they are silent. No one asks to listen to them. This is so sad. How do we revive demand for what was one of the sixth great ensemble bands commission by the king to play exclusively in the palace?” The Kika Boys C…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…the contract, Smithsonian had to keep nearly all of the albums ‘in print’ forever, for posterity. It honours this through its custom order service: “Whether it sells 8,000 copies each year or only one copy every five years, every Folkways title remains available for purchase.” Their mission, which the legacy of Asch, is ‘to document “people’s music,” spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world’ and is committed to ‘to cultural dive…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…om 1978. He is stated to have recorded hundreds of tribes and is commended for forming close relationships with them, which allowed him to gain permission to record their music. Mary K. Oyer, b. 1923 Mary Oyer graduated from Goshen College – a private Christian college, historically affiliated with the Mennonite Church – in 1945, but was soon to return as she was invited to teach the General Education course integrating the study of music and vi…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…y wanted what is best for me, but this is part of a larger problem we have today. I’ve taught for 20 years now and my concern is that our entire system is training us to be like a white person from England or America, not to be Ugandan. The English and Americans don’t want to know me because I am like them – they know I am not. They want to know me because I am Ugandan, because I am different. And yet that is not what we teach. Tabu: Exactly. Rath…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…has been helping the villagers to preserve the music, by encouraging them to grow gourd trumpets, teach it to the youth and increase the profile of the music, by performing it at more occasions. Nevertheless, their efforts are stumped by limited resources and finances. …
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…he ancestors. This is Bashitsi Bahire, the welcome song which the group performed for us. This was our first experience of the traditional music of the Batwa people and we were all overwhelmed by the quality of the performance, so before leaving the Birara we invited Francis Sembagare and the three female vocalists, Jolly, Paskazia and Vastina, to join us in Kisoro so that we could record more of their songs with the Ketebul Music artist Winyo….
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…ities. And most leading thinkers concerned with African development, argue for efforts to maintain village life, to work with people in a village, with all the support that entails, rather than to work with folks who are already displaced, on the move, entering the big cities for the first time (see the Millennium Village Project and some recent commentary about it – and here) The village is the preferred conduit for aid and support. With good wat…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…is music to the next generation, to inspire them to look to their heritage for inspiration before they look elsewhere. We do this with ‘Influences’ artists… Like Winyo, an unbelievable Kenyan musician that was blown away by the music of the Batwa and couldn’t help but joining Jovah in song: 5. Singing Wells is about bringing together tribal music and wonderfully talented young performers like Akello from Uganda… We brought Akello to Northern Ugand…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi District. It was the very first video we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to record the music of the Mijikenda tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where…
The Influences Series from Singing Wells News
…ch 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, featuring musicians from Kenya, Uganda and the UK collaborating in this a unique song to celebrate and support Singing Wells. 71 Hours to Monday Ou…