Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…o this song before actually and it’s a popular story around this region of Uganda. Essentially the name “Waiswa” means the first-born male twin. But our hero “Waiswa” in this case is impotent. While the song lyrics repeat that when one comes to shake his hand, he pulls his hand away, everyone knows the singers mean he has to run from any ladies’ advances due to some technical problems in the engine room. Mughe (more detail to follow) Mperekera Omw…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…DTtU…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…his own story. Musisi being recorded on camera telling his story We are in Uganda to revive the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom, the Entenga. This project was the result of the work of a very large team, but at its center is Musisi, the last surviving drummer that we know of. Here is his story, in roughly his words: “My father was the leader of the flutes at the Buganda Kingdom, and as his son, I was trained to play the flutes and eventually jo…
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
…g 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 of whom are actually highly accomplished drummers and professors of music) starting calling Musisi ‘The Professor.’ Left: James…
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…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…the demand for session musicians went down. Many of these pioneer ‘sessionists’ have since passed on. Only a few of the sessionists are still in operation. They include Osumba Rateng, wo has since relocated from River Road to his rural home in Sega, Siaya County. And as new trends emerge on the market and technological advances pose new challenges, Benga continues to hold its own as the definitive Kenyan sound. END Reprinted for MIA with permissio…
The Return of Bigwala News
…eems to be a promising future for this important thread in the tapestry of Uganda’s cultural history. Sources: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ugandan-music-bigwala 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…
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…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…ll in Nicabune’ – it is a song to prepare the boys being circumcised for a new thing that is about to befall him, e.g., the circumcisers knife, responsibility (new ones that they don’t have), not going back to the mother’s hut, etc… In this context, the 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 wate…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…rs below the road. While a lot easier than the hill we faced in Kisoro (SW Uganda), we nonetheless had to take our 44 bags down to the site. We set up under a tree and recording 4 separate groups, all of whom stayed for the day. The 80 or so band members, all in full costume, were scattered across our 100 meter field. Unfortunately, the field was also shared by biting red ants – this created some interesting video moments, trying to keep the camer…
Naizungwe Drums News
…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
…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 group so new musicians can thrive. Update: The Entenga players have since performed again in front of the king at the opening ceremony of the 25th Buganda parliamentary session. https://youtu.be/m3FW0jzyh-c?t=3m33s …
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…talk more about Jovah below. The group practiced and performed two songs: Ugandan Lullaby: We knew that Jovah and Maita knew lullabies and James came up with the idea of doing a combined lullaby involving each of the singers, using a traditional song from their village. James directed the group through rehearsals and Maita played guitar to three separate lullabies: from Jovah, from Passy and from James. We did one with guitar and one version with…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…g many people how to play the tube fiddle and xylophone. He would showcase Ugandan music at the Ugandan museum, together with lots of other musicians of his time. He gave dozens of workshops in Europe. But he was illiterate. Peter Cook was taught by him. And his son Andy Cook who lives in Edinburough. “ Here’s their music And that was it for Kampala. We packed and divided up. Jimmy, Tabu and James drove together to continue to learn more about the…