Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-Help Group Group
… Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-help Group, formed in 2000 with 21 young men, and is led by Edward Kiogura. They play in the Authi style and are from the Ameru ethnic community, from the Irimbene Village, upper Kiungone Sublocation, Abogeta West Division. The group uses Mbere (shakers) worn by Bernard Nkonge, Ginfold Mbae, Amos Munthi and Fraras Ikunda. They also use a flute, Coro, which is performed by John Mwiti….
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…eneration 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 naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video documenting the progress of the drums thus far. https://youtu.be/66qF_RYumJM…
Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…ars. 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 wore a vest called a Mjuga. They played five songs: Malala Kujunga: Essentially means ‘be calm and quite, we are about to p…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…here the porters who were carrying massive loads to be shipped finally got to stop and rest. Near Bagamoyo is the village of Kimara Ngombe where we recorded Toroka Uje, a drum and dance band. Toroka Uje Toroka UjeWe arrived just as they were tuning their drums, by fire, and quickly interviewed a band member, Steven Jonas about drum names. Steven is also known as “Tomato”, a name given to him because he fits so well in any band he joins, like a tom…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…invited Sophie into one of the huts to watch their dance in private. In Uganda and Kenya we have a lot of recordings of rites of passage, mostly around male and female circumcision rituals – happily the songs survive but not the rituals in the places we visited! But we have far less on the theme of ‘women for women’ songs of instruction, or the rites of passages of women preparing for adulthood. We encountered these in three separate villages and…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…h are the poisonous snakes and which are safe and dancers grow up learning to handle the non-poisonous snakes. The medicine doctors learn cures for snake bites. Snakes are kept as pets and feature heavily in their dances, which involve acrobatics, ‘clown acts’ and yes – snakes. Our snake was an 8-10 foot python, fat and seemingly healthy, feeding on 4-5 live chickens or rabbits a week. The Snake Dancers came out masked in Unga (flour), with a big…
A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…estoring the Royal Entenga Drummers, and is currently working on a project to restore the lost lyre, the Entongooli. You can read more about this project on our website here. We are very grateful to be partnered with such a visionary for the future, and protector of traditional East african music and instruments. We know that generations to come will be grateful for the work he has put in to continue these traditions. He has also written a report…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our prayers to Matthew and his family in this difficult time….
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…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 Ketebul Music Studios or…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…s. I told Musisi, ‘please teach our boys 100 songs.’ I told Shaban, ‘you must learn every part and every song.’ And that is how we ended up on this road. We filmed the drums yesterday and today we are going to see the Bigwala and discuss more lessons learned. Tomorrow, we are going to find out how much more there is to do.”…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…: we 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 20…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…ng 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 channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…ly. 4. Cutting and soaking the cow hide “You then size up the skin for the top and bottom of the drum and you let it soak in water for 24 hours until the skin is soft. You use the skin of a cow to do this, and we pick Uganda’s breeds where skin is very strong.” He cut and fit two pieces. The first, in the form of a circle, is for the top of the drum. He cut the skin about 50% bigger than the drum top by putting the drum head down on the skin and c…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…e and instruments were destroyed, the King exiled, the royal musicians disbanded and much of the music forgotten. In 2013, we considered any idea of reviving the Entenga to be very unlikely, because we thought all the drummers who had played in the palace before 1966 had died. But in 2015 James discovered the sixty-something Musisi, possibly the last surviving drummer. Musisi was just a teenager at the time of attack and barely survived the night…
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…