Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
…full plate is a metaphor for an abundant life and good harvest) Part two: We then brought in Henry and Leo Mkanyia, Rajab-Alli Morris, Steven Jonas (Tomato) and Elliot Wenman and Sophie Grant to play five more songs. These were: Marugaro Sanaa: arts Chipela: When you’re hungry you gather lots of fruit from the fruit tree). This song featured Ndanhini on the thumb piano who created the most amazing rhythm, which played off Henry’s bass brilliantly….
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…e Morris’s grandsons, Abdala Nyunyusa Morris on vocals and Rajab Alli Nyunyusa Morris on drums. Rajab is the only of Mzee Morris’s offspring to make his living as a drummer. Here he is with Morris Drums: Here is the group: They played seven songs: Jembe ni Mali: a song to encourage farming Kilongo Salale: a call to unity Rasilmali Ya Mnyonge: The worth of a poor man. Bendera Ya Taifa: The flag of the nation The Snake Dance Sarakasi: Circus. This i…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…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 place your or…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…cians learn these drums. 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
…and shortest, sharing the same note as the Enkologi, but octave different. Today, they were supported by the royal drum, Mbuutu (not to be confused with the 15 drum ensemble of the Entenga). They played the following songs: Sematimba ‘Ne Kikwabanga Anamwa Nganga (with accents over the ‘g’s’) And with that, we faced a thunderstorm and packed ourselves up for the hotel, and packed in the hotel for our flight on December 4th back to Nairobi. We will…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…is support, build the infrastructure. This involves seeds for gourds for trumpets, or drum-making for drums. Inevitably something needs to be invested in the infrastructure. Step 5: Bring on the young. Inevitably, you then need to bring on the people to learn and enjoy this music. And here we had an interesting debate. Some of our palace musicians felt the young people didn’t care anymore. But it was Ben Nsumugo Ntabula who provided a wonderful c…
Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…est groups to record during our upcoming field visit in February. We are struck once again by the amazing talent this country has to offer, and can’t wait to capture some amazing moments with these artists when we visit again with the full team in a few weeks time. Thanks to the good people at Dhow Countries Music Academy for helping us with the information and contacts from their database. Getting a private crash course on the ganun from ganun vi…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…rviving’ and we would love to be proven wrong. Musisi is looking for more drummers and the ones we talked to today are desperate to find others that played with them. Richard Ssewannyana We first travelled about an hour from Mukono to the village of Bamusuta B Kizimula to meet with Richard Ssewannyana. As we believe Musisi is the ‘last surviving’ royal drummer, we believe Richard is the last surviving royal flutist. Please, let’s be wrong here. We…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…d, “They would all have been made by people in our village. But for royal drums, our drum makers were invited to the palace to make the drums on site, next to the King.” He said that every child in his village loved to make drums and viewed it as a good trade to create pocket money. “If you ever need money as a child, you helped the drum makers and learned the craft.” Abass did this and was a casual drum maker with a friend of his. But then his fa…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…he next generation of trumpets. There are now four trumpet groups and about 20 trumpets, with many more growing in the fields in different parts of Busoga. Everything about the Bigwala model has become the inspiration for our attempts to rediscover the lost royal drums. The trumpets are thriving and young people are starting to learn the instrument again. And James Lugolole is thriving. In his interview he told us, “I am so happy. I feel now, when…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…am now so happy and they call me The Professor because I’m teaching these drummers how to play the Royal Drums and I want to do nothing more with my life than to help this music be heard.” Musisi’s work: drummers setting up to perform And we’ll stop there. We will report more on Musisi as the week goes on, but we felt this was the right place to start, the telling of his last night at the palace, the last moments the Entenga were played at the pal…
The Return of Bigwala News
…seems 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-bigwalahttps://ich.unesco.org/en/news/uganda-young-ugandans-mobilized-for-safeguarding-bigwala-music-and-dance-00251https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333991/bigwala-busoga-royal-music-dance…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…ssional 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, Right: Musisi And that is why we found…
Entenga drums perform with Akadinda Xylophone News
A year ago we brought you the news of Entenga players performing in front of King Ronald Metebi at the 25th anniversary of his coronation (available here). At this event they also performed a piece with the Akadinda xylophone in front of the Asantehene (the monarch) of the Asante people from Ghana. A recording of this performance has just become available, and is posted below https://youtu.be/CCQ72al2pEo Fore more information about the Entenga dr…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…) of Kenya’s provincial agricultural shows and seedy small-town pubs or at rural market centres. Although clubs like the Carnivore have opened up to Benga acts, it is still an occasional thing. Save for the culturally-themed nights–‘Mugithi night’ for the Kikuyu, ‘Kililimbi night’ for the Kamba, ‘Mulembe night’ for the Luhya and ‘Ramogi night’ for the Luo – which are few and far apart, the rest of the entertainment fare is dictated by the DJs, who…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…the first ‘secular player’. He often visited Wanganangu’s homeland and recruited Wangangangu to pursue a musical career. We recorded 6 songs with Wangangangu over two sessions: Cal Wa Kadogo Ngurumo ya Saba Saba Muhiki Nyakairo Maito Njeri Rocine Kerokp Muumboro Osumba Rateng We first worked with Osumba during our trip to Nyanza in 2011; he is the founder of the Sega Sega band and ‘Flora’ remains a Singing Wells favourite. He is one of the most i…