2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…aking comprises 24 drums of big, small, medium and small sizes. We decided to make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizung…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a professional musician, Leo also teaches music to school children so he is a natural with kids. On all the songs that he did, he had the whole village singing and laughing. We learned about the Bi Kidude and Unyago style. Throughout this trip we will enco…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…ars old, I would sit at my drums just trying to recreate that one riff. It took me three months of non-stop listening to get it down. And that was just 30 seconds of his lifetime of drumming. All I want to do is master his style.” As Daudi mentioned, Mzee Morris became the sound of Tanzanian news. The TBC announced each hour with a drum riff of his drums. Every hour, for decades. He was honoured in his time, with the then Prime Minister creating a…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…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 advance copies from K…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…w I had to find Musisi. He said his sister-in-law lived in Kasawo. Well it took me forever to find that village. After crossing swamps and taking wrong turns I kept asking for the village. Finally I found it and started asking for the sister-in-law. I found her and had only one question: is Musisi alive? He was, she said. But he lives in Kiboga which was about three hours away. She gave me his son’s number and Musisi’s and we called. I talked to h…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…almost doubled our views on our Youtube channel and are now approaching 5 million total views across our videos. When we started Singing Wells almost ten years ago, we set an aim to bring the traditional music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channe…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…my village life. When we gathered for big celebrations, the entire village took to the road to walk for miles to a central location. We walked all night. And we sang all night. The old people walking with the children, all of us singing. And now we have a nice road that probably gets us to that site in 20 minutes by car. But what have we lost? We’ve lost the connection that comes with all generations singing together, with laughter and joy. We san…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…g’ Kabaselleh, a Luo pop artist who occasionally teamed up with Laban Juma Toto, formerly of the Hodi Boys band, to produce some of the best rumba melodies sang in the Luo language. Kabaselleh’s love for rumba saw him adopt the name of Congo’s celebrated pioneer musician, Joseph Kabaselleh ‘Le Grand Kalle.’ Some of Ochieng’s sons like Babu Kabaselleh and Reggie Kabaselleh are now well-known musicians in their own right, same to his siblings who ma…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…he only festival since 2005. Many people are performing around the country today due to those festivals. The group is very literate in music and we had a clear vision from 1990 of what we wanted to do. We are not doing badly and have a comfortable life from the performances. Some musicians who didn’t even have a bicycle not have houses. We are showing you can have a musical career. We are growing our knowledge and getting better at representing th…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…s also trying to start a gourd revolution so people start using them again to store liquids and stop using plastic) The coordinator and lead female vocalist in the group is Irene Nabirye. The group is made up of 6-7 Bigwala players and drummers, plus dancers and singers. They performed four songs and then we did a magic moment with their instruments; these were: Muwe Bwobona Asaba: When someone asks you kindly assist them Mperekera Omwana Womuremb…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
Report from Womex 2013 News
…splay, and some even got played by some of our fellow Womexians as this photo from Louise shows: I gave an interview for Icelandic radio about the project. And around 150 people entered our competition to win an iPod shuffle – direct from one of our listening station. We’ll be making the draw soon. Cards in the Kalabash We were pleased to host a few meetings for our friend Guy Morley who used our stand as a meeting place. We were delighted also…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…st Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) We can also combine the two recording units into one to increase the number of inputs, while still working off battery power. The laptops use Avid ProTools recording software – an industry standard for recording and music production. The microphones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selec…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…itional songs far away from politics. The tides did change, the government took over and again the band leader’s village was invaded; this time by the government seeking to punish rebel sympathizers. The band leader was assaulted but convinced the government that he had not supported the rebels, but played for them as a hostage. There was enough evidence that he had avoided political songs that the village was spared and the band re-adopted to be…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…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 we met and recorded the wonderful Batwa people. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global tra…
A new type of city Story
…ple . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….