Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…kangania Field Notes: After an early breakfast the following morning we drove from Ilesi to Mukumu Girls’ High School, situated along the Kakamega-Kisumu road. Our first recording of the day was to be with Johnstone Mukabi, son of the legendary guitarist George Mukabi. The senior Mukabi is regarded by all as the pioneer of omutibo, arguably the most popular musical genre in the region. It would not be our first meeting with Johnstone Mukabi since…
Day 3 – Monday 3rd July 2017 Story
…iti making from his step‐father and commented on the custom of making a sacrifice upon completion of each instrument in an equally liberal way: “it’s upon the client”. Thus, our day with Sewa Oriwo was, I believe, very pertinent, since it was at the same time technically the most complete demonstration of nyatiti making and revealed the commercial side of the craft and the evolution of nyatiti making….
Day 4 – Tuesday 4th July 2017 Story
…happen, occasions they used to play in (mostly funerals) and a recently revived association of nyatiti players. According to him, he was one of the first players to do a studio session in 1954 in Kampala. After he listed over 30 nyatiti players from different locations in Luo land, he also helped us date the appearance of the famous “Koblong” tune to approximately 1954. Finally, he showed us his instrument tuning technique, which seemed well elab…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…w the violin wants to come in, the guitar wants to come in, so now I need tuning.” In any case, both his tunings and his finger plucking techniques are very much different from the traditional nyatiti players. He says he created his own style of music and learned to “adapt in order to survive”. At his home, we encountered another talented musician – Martin Njoroge “Papillon”, whom Ayub has been mentoring. Papillon played for us a few tunes on an o…
Kirundo Group
…d has been together for 2 years. Songs: Mwaludeje – Tradition after the harvest. New composition. Mjomba – Uncle, celebrating the good hunt. New composition Uye – Come Back Please, used at a wake after someone is buried. New composition. Uringe – Be Proud. Old Traditional song Kyaso – old traditional Zanzibarian song of celebration Mnyamwana – Respect for women. New Composition. They sang in a combination of Hehe and Kigogo, both languages from ma…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…drums and dancing Nchuma: A song about traditional music that the elders love to play Mrondogomo: A wedding song Kidedeya: A send off song, a marriage song Kidedeya: Freestyle Magic Moment: Omusingero again https://youtu.be/AtwkoD3sDFo From recording we then drove eight hours to Sigiir. We woke and spend January 23rd driving onward to the New Dodoma Hotel. That evening we had a private meeting with Dr. Harrison G. Mwakyembe (MP), Minister, Mini…
Ayub Ogada Group
…rom the traditional nyatiti players. He says he created his own style of music and learned to “adapt in order to survive”….
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
The next morning we drove about an hour to Kisesa (A) to record two groups: Group 1: Mchele Mchele Sanaa Group: This group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). We recorded five performances: Ntale Atabihyala: ‘The boss, who is always wrong, wants to be al…
Day 2 – Sunday 2nd July 2017 Story
…nyatiti tradition, tunes remain the same, whereas the lyrics can change, evolve. They are the fruit of a specific player’s imagination and can be adapted to the occasion and/or to tell the praise of a different person. The fact that Meshack picked up the instrument only once his father had passed away brought about several hypothesis on the meaning of this generational gap and questioned the possibility of an existing cultural taboo concerning tw…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…Previous Next We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of supporting the revival of the Entongooli, an incredible stringed instrument that is on the brink of dying out. Our friend and colleague Professor James Isabirye, who has also headed up the revival of the Royal Entenga Drums and the Bigwala, has travelled to visit Mr Mukadisi, who is educating a group of children on how to build and play this instrument in the hopes of continuing it’s legacy…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…e musical acts and the first to arrive was Peter Akwabi, one of the few surviving omutibo pioneers from the era of George Mukabi. Akwabi’s rubato musical style was quite a challenge for both Fiston Lusambo and Ben Mukabwa. It took almost an hour for the two to figure out Akwabi’s unorthodox, expressive free style for most of his songs before the actual recording began at 2:00pm. After a few false starts we finished the recordings of Peter Akwabi a…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…truments to modern instruments, all of the four other string instruments involved fall under the category of lyres per definition of “a plucked string instrument with no fingerboard, having strings running parallel to the soundboard tied on a yoke at the upper end of the instrument” (1). According to Hornbostel– Sachs(2), all four would be classified as composite chordophones, more precisely under the 321.2 category of: “Yoke lutes or lyres – The…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…est hits, songs that any Kenyan can easily identify with: “Kweli Ndugu”; “Mtoto si Nguo”; “Sengula Nakupenda”; “Kunywa Kidogo” and “Watu Wanasema Uongo”. Fadhilee’s reaction to this last session was worth the wait, as he discovered the author of “Kweli Ndugu”, a song he had done a cover of years ago. Therefore, we recorded one last Influences with Fadhilee playing the song alongside Mukabi. The day was closed with a photo session ringing together…
Camera Group
…Camera, who has been performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE….
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…rs to be brave. The song closes with a section about the boy having and surviving the ritual. “In our tradition, if you are 80 years old and have not gone through the ritual of circumcision, you are not a man and cannot sit at the adult table. If you are a two year old and have been circumcised, for us, you are an adult.” Julius Ngoma (also called engoma or ng’oma or ingoma) are musical instruments used by certain Bantu populations of Africa. Ngom…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…Song during girl ceremony where she reaches puberty and now must be hidden from village for 40 days (song acts out how girl learns to reject the advances of men, represented by two men playing shakers) Muziki: A song to gain support of the people for the music and dance Muziki: Freestyle Muhongwa: another song from the circumcision ceremony, named after the instrument used (the wooden trough) Group 2: Nyati Muchoya (also spelt Mchoya): From Nzal…