JumbieRecords

Report on the Xylophone Section of the Ugandan Music Festival

by Haruna Walusimbi, Director
Nile Beat Artists                      

from Jumbie Journal, April 2006

I must say thank you very much Jumbie Records for your noble cause of supporting one of Uganda's threatened treasures- Uganda's indigenous music, particularly the Embaire (xylophone) music. Special thanks to Mark Stone, known in Uganda as "Kakaire", who fell in love with Uganda's Indigenous music, especially the Embaire, and has continued to be our strongest ambassador. "Webale nyo Kakaire!" (Thanks very much Mark!)

The xylophone section in our festival was one of the most exciting and it captured a lot of peoples' attention. The 21-slab instrument is very unique, the players are so gifted, and the dancers are extraordinary. By the end of the festival, the xylophone had become the talk of everyone and most importantly our local sponsors, Uganda Breweries Limited. There were four very strong xylophone groups in the festival but three got eliminated at the district and regional levels leaving only one, the Muwewesi Xylophone Group from Iganga District, to represent them all at the national level.

The Muwewesi Xylophone Group was one of eight music ensembles from all the regions of Uganda to go to the National music competition and there they emerged as the overall winner. It's rare in our local music competitions for other groups to accept defeat, but at the end of the festival the other seven groups came and shook hands with the xylophone group leader. "You were too strong for us, how do you do it?" asked the group leader from the Northern region. They had a party together because all the groups stayed for that night. "When I saw your dance, I knew we were finished, actually all of us started competing only for the second position." said the leader of the group from the West Nile Region.

The winners— Muwewesi xylophone Group— walked away with 6 million Uganda Shillings (approx. $3500) and a huge trophy that they will defend this year.       

We are very grateful to Jumbie Records who extended their helping hand to the xylophone groups. Costumes and the quality of instruments are very crucial to these groups. However, because of Jumbie Records' support, this is one of the areas where the Muwewesi Xylophone Group scored highly at the national competition. They used Jumbie Records' donation to buy very good costumes including bikoyis, kanzus and dancing skins.       

We are already planning the festival for 2006. This year's festival is going to be much bigger because it will involve 800 groups across the country compared to these past years, which had 320 groups. This year's competitions will start on June 2nd at the county levels and the finals will take place on December 9th.

Thank you very much Jumbie Records for your timely support and we look forward to working with you in this exciting field of indigenous music.

Haruna Walusimbi,
Director, Nile Beat Artists
(organizers of the Senator National Cultural Festival)

Click for more photos       

 

The Embaire of Busoga

by Mark Allen Stone
from Jumbie Journal, April 2005

On April 30, the AXF (African Xylophone Festival) will present the first-ever concert appearance in New York of the embaire xylophone of Uganda. This giant 21-key instrument, which takes 6 musicians to play, comes from the Basoga people of this East African nation.

Like many East African instruments, embaire keys are made from the very resonant ensambiya wood. The keys are struck at the end (not the center like balafon or gyil) with sticks made from a heavier wood called enzo.

Traditionally,         the keys of an embaire are laid on plaintain stems stretched along both sides of a large hole dug in the ground, aprox. eight feet in length and one and a half feet deep. Long thin bundles of elephant grass are then laid on top of the plaintain stems, creating a cushion for the keys to vibrate freely. Finally the keys are placed on this frame over the hole in the ground. The embaire keys are tuned to a relatively equidistant pentatonic scale spanning just over four octaves.

Because of the profound spiritual connection that music has in Busoga, there are many traditional religious beliefs connected with the embaire. For example, a chicken is sacrificed when the keys are tuned and a goat is sacrificed for every new instrument. It was explained to me by members of the Nakibembe xylophone group that these sacrifices are performed to remember the spirits of ancestors and late members of their group. In the ceremony for a new instrument, blood from a goat is splashed on the underside of the 15th key (from the top). This key is considered to be the heart of the xylophone.

There are six different interlocking parts played on the embaire by three musicians sitting on each side of the instrument. On one side the omusansazi, omuwobato, and omunene parts are played and on the other the omutabuzi, omudumi, and omugabe parts are played. Omusansazi can be translated as the "starter" because it typically begins each composition. This player performs a steady stream of notes in unison octaves. The performer sitting opposite of the starter is the omutabuzi or "mixer". This performer also plays a rapid stream of notes in unison octaves. However, his notes are placed exactly between the notes of the starter, literally mixing their notes together to create a dense stream of tones. This tonebank is at times played as fast as 10 beats per second.

The omuwobato or "player of the small keys" plays the embaire's highest pitches and listens carefully to the tonebank to create a resultant part. This player improvises patterns that he hears within this horizontal tonebank similar to the way jazz musicians improvise melodies based on vertically stacked chord progressions.

The         remaining embaire parts are played on the lowest keys of the instrument and are based on kisoga drumming. These musicans play the same rhythms that drummers would play for the popular kisoga dances irongo ("twins") and tamenhaibuga ("do not break my gourd"). They accomplish this incredible feat by playing the xylophone with their bare hands, often striking the edge of a xylophone key with a stick and the center of the key with their hand. The omugabe, or "player of the long drum," plays the lowest key of the instrument and performs rhythms normally played on the lizard skin drum of the Basoga people. The omunene, or "player of the big drum," performs the rhythms of the large enene drum while also at times shadowing the starter part. Finally, the omudumi is the "commander" of the group playing the offbeat endumi rhythms while shadowing the mixer part and leading the ensemble.