2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…was taught how to make drums by two of his uncles who shared their wisdom and experience with him, and tells us that ever since he was young, his relatives and neighbours have all been drum makers. This begins to make sense when he says that one drum offers 54 different jobs: cutting the tree, shaping the trunks, putting cow dung on frames, drying skins, making strings etc. For the 24 individual drums that we are making, the amount of work quickl…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…king. We hope the final performance will be a reflection of our musicality and what we hear in the recording.” We will be documenting the progress of these drums with pictures and videos here, and more details about the project and the instruments themselves are to follow soon so you can stay updated….
Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…ord the group Liwambwe. The Group Leader is: Atanas Teleni. It is a fairly new group, having played off and on for three years. They had unique drums, including small drums with wooden spikes on bottom to be embedded in sand, called the Siganga. They also had a pair of drums called the Likuti and a long drum called the Msondo, and a very long thin drum called a Neya. Here’s the set: In the dance they had a character in a mask called a Lipiko, who…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…They then arrive in secondary school to be taught advanced subjects in a brand new language they’ve never heard. And many fail out. In Kenya, the children are taught in English from day 1 of primary school. Leo’s song points out the absurdity of this and argues that the children aren’t dumb, but the policies are. Afrika: This is a beautiful song about the continent. The Singer asks, “Africa, why are you so dirty, so filthy, with broken roads and c…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…n the villages. In Mission 2, we are ‘fusionists’, trying any old blend of new and old that fancies us at the time, that inspires our artists to go in new directions. So, there will be chaos. We simply want to enjoy music and the cultural collisions we create are part of the fun. We also try to tell a single story on these visits. For this trip we are retracing the drums of Mzee Morris. We will tell his story as we go. So, we’ll tell you about the…
A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…s and Social Sciences, Kyambogo University, Uganda. His research interests include: social constructivist learning and teaching, decolonization of music and general education, and the roles of indigenous practices in those processes….
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…ondition in hospital. We are urgently trying to raise funds to support him and his family in this difficult time, and we hope that some of our followers may be able to help us. If you are based in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…we are now calling this the ‘Bigwala Model’, although that sounds a bit grand, and sounds like we had a perfect grand plan. Of course, things evolved more organically. You’ll remember in 2013, Singing Wells came to Uganda and we started to discuss the issue of the royal instruments. At the Kampala Museum, Singing Wells, Albert Ssempeke and I talked and all concluded: we really have to focus on the Entenga, the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom….
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…, 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 Ketebul Music Studios or place your order by…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…wing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the kingdoms of Uganda 2) Recording again Albert Ssempeke’s Buganda Music Ensemble. Given that we first decided to rediscover the Royal Drums after recording Albert’s group in 2013, we…
The Revival of Ohangla Music! News
…Traditionally played at weddings and funerals, the music is having new life put into it by young artists like Otieno who use electronic production, combined with incredible musicianship, to create a whole new genre. Otieno’s song Kanungo Eteko is massive on Youtube, and we were lucky enough to record him in one of our sessions in Nyanza here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPaBQwODTtU…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…could go and wait back in the prison another week. But I didn’t want that and knew I needed to leave. One of the boys had a mother that was close by: she was at Kyaliwajjala. So a group of the young boys all decided to go with him to his mother, and we all climbed in a bus to travel to his house. There was an older man on the bus who knew the village. When he climbed on the bus, he knew Kizito (the boy who’s mum we were visiting and Musisi’s half…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…ing out the stitch of nylon string, cutting off the former holes, creating new holes and re-lacing the drum skins together with leather strings. Very fast. 9. Tuning The final stage is tuning. He showed us in detail how he uses the four instruments to tune, using a new bigger drum that is already stringed with animal skin strings. “I fix the wood, hammer them in to stretch the strings and then use the awl to pull the string up and then move to the…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…ged 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 field trip, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkyDtBXfunI Watch Julius, the leader of the group, explain who the Elgon Ngoma troupe is, and their mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Wk0YnbByk&fbclid=IwAR27BBeDBEx-5jMqkKxFTL9…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…iving Bigwala player from Busoga. He started there at 12 and his father, grandfather and probably others before were all trumpet players. The traditions died as the kingdoms died and he felt the trumpets had gone for good. In fact, the knowledge of how to grow the gourd to make the trumpets was lost and the seeds for the long gourd were almost impossible to find. A tradition literally dying on the proverbial vine. James Isabirye found James Lugolo…