African Music – The Blog of Samite

Archive for the ‘African Music Blog’ Category

Samite has just released his ninth CD, “Trust,” as a fundraiser for the non-profit organization of which he is the Founding Director. Musicians for World Harmony will receive all the proceeds from the sale of this CD. To learn more about the music and the making of “Trust,” visit TrustCD.org.
Read a review below (and more reviews at trustcd.org)

Samite Mulondo, Charles Evans, Jr., & Tony Cedras
Trust
Samite.com

I admit that I have sat on the recording Trust by Samite, Charles Evans, Jr. and Tony Cedras for over a month because I didn’t know how to frame the music on the CD. First, and most important, Trust acts as a fundraising album for Samite’s nonprofit Musicians for World Harmony which brings music and music therapy to at-risk groups in Africa, mainly East Africa. Second, the CD comes with a warning that the music that appears on the recording is from the movie Addiction Incorporated in which Samite composed the soundtrack. And with all that gravity, you probably expect sad ballads with social messages, none of which you will find on this CD.

The musicians mention in the press notes that they wanted to create a danceable African recording without drums. And darn if you don’t want to get up and dance listening to these polyrhythmic songs that feature acoustic guitar, and accordion played South African style, Samite’s kalimba, flute, and vocals, along with a diverse lineup of guest musicians bringing in horns, penny whistles, cello, percussion, electric guitar, and bass to the mix. Yet, even with this menagerie of instruments, Samite’s signature comes through, just interpreted through new eyes of the guest musicians. Take a listen to Wise Man’s Story and you will recognize one of Samite’s songs reincarnated for this album. Trust falls into world-jazz with the horns coming on board and the effervescent production comes through crystal clear.

So if you seek happier music and want to support a good cause of healing refugees and war victims through music therapy, then pick up Trust. Everybody wins.

From: The Whole Music Experience

by Jessica Rich

In this African Music Blog post, Samite shares his experiences from his most recent trip to Uganda in May 2010.

First, it is important to provide a brief introduction to the most recent political situation in the region. Over the past several years, the Acholi people of Northern Uganda have emerged wounded, but not broken, from a violent rebel movement led by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The goal of Kony, a self-described religious prophet, is to restore the Ugandan Constitution with the Ten Commandments, an effort that he directs by weakening the will of the Acholi, devastating their homes and their families.

In the past two decades, according to the Enough Project, Kony’s army “has abducted as many as 40,000 children, forcing them to serve as soldiers, porters, or sex slaves.” Many children, who will have witnessed the brutality with which the LRA ravaged their villages, were orphaned and taken to protected camps for internally displaced people (IDP). While the LRA’s influence in the region has waned since 2006, due to the Ugandan government’s efforts to restore stability, the group’s violence has left many children and adults with horrific memories and few resources with which to cope.

This past spring, Samite traveled to Kampala, Uganda on behalf of his organization, Musicians for World Harmony, which was developed, as Samite states, “to bring joy and healing to war-torn areas.” The trip was coordinated with help from the Soroti-based agency, Action Against Child Abuse and Neglect (AACAN). Working with children of war is a rewarding yet complex undertaking. Despite international humanitarian efforts in places like Northern Uganda, Samite has seen that child soldiers are often ignored. “I feel like they need a voice. Their childhood is stolen [and] they need to be taken care of.”

During Samite’s most recent trip, he partnered with Maurice Kirya, a Uganda-based musician. In keeping with the African tradition of healing communities through the power of music, Samite and Maurice worked with former child soldiers to provide them with an artistic outlet through which to recover from the trauma of war. Samite and Maurice met with three young men, Mercy, Phillip and Justin, in hopes of bringing another form of healing to their world with music. The musicians introduced different instruments to the group, including the guitar, as well as traditional African instruments such as the finger harp (or kalimba).

In our next post, the African Music Blog will share the music that Samite and Maurice created with these three young men.

Responsibilities of child care often fall on grandmothers.

IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camp

The study of African Music History is derived from archaeological findings, oral historical accounts, rock paintings and petroglyphs, and field notes from travelers from the Middle East and Europe.  As the continent is the cradle of human beings, music evolved and traveled the globe to influence music everywhere.

Ancient cultures from what is known as the “green Sahara” created vast amounts of written history in the form of rock paintings. These are among the earliest sources of African music.  The most primitive rock painting was discovered by a French explorer in 1956 in the Tassili-n-Ajjer plateau of Algeria.  It depicts music and dance and is astonishing for its similarity of costume and style of movement to what is still practiced today.  The rock painting in question dates from 6,000 to 4,000 bc.

The study of African musical instruments is somewhat limited by the natural materials used to create them.  Those made from vegetables like horns and drums of gourd did not survive in the earthen deposits of sub-Sahara, however those made from stone or clay did endure for discovery.

From these discoveries, scientists conclude the pressure drum called dundun, and one used throughout the Savannah region, was likely formed in the 15th century.  Also created during that century were the double iron clapperless bells, pellet bells and tubular bells with clappers.

By the 17th and 18th centuries, lamellaphones, with iron keys, grew in influence throughout the Zambezi valley and into Angolan society.  As use of the instruments spread they became smaller and portable.  These became known as travel instruments.

The small lamellaphone became popular in the Congo where it was named the likembe, still in use today in Zande, Ngbandi and Gbaya.

It is fascinating to realize Latin America has a wealth of knowledge about African Music History, as slaves carried their oral histories with them to their reluctant new homes.

Like the continent, African musical culture is as vast as the distinct musical traditions of its regions and nations.

The music of North Africa has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music. Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa, its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music. East Africa and the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean have slight Arabic music influence but also by the music of India, Indonesia, and Polynesia. The region’s indigenous musical traditions, however, are primarily of the sub-Saharan Niger Congo-speaking peoples.

Similarly in the broad sub-Saharan musical tradition Southern, Central, and West Africa draw their ancillary influences from Western Europe and North America. The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and many Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa and other clave-based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which have in turn influenced African popular music.

There is a close connection between music and language in many African cultures because many African languages are tonal languages. The tonal pattern of the text puts some constraints on the melodic patterns in singing. But in instrumental music, a native speaker of a language can often perceive a text or texts in music. This effect is also the basis of drum languages (talking drums).

Besides the use of the voice, a wide array of musical instruments is used. African musical instruments include a wide range of drums, slit gongs, rattles, double bells as well as melodic instruments like string instruments (musical bows, harps, the kora, and fiddles), many types of xylophones and lamellophones like the mbira, and different types of wind instruments like flutes and trumpets.

Drums used in Africa include tama talking drums, bougarabou, and djembe in West Africa, water drums in central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums or engoma in Central and Southern Africa. Other percussion instruments in African musical culture include many rattles and shakers such as the kosika, rainstick, bells, and woodsticks.

To visit Samite’s main website and order CD’s, CLICK HERE

An assortment of east African music mp3 has transformed the way devotees can listen to the music from this ancient land.

Like all recorded music, African sounds are available in digital format to a global audience for a small fee.

Our dear friend Samite offers his music to fans in an MP3 downloadable format.  Even as far back as 1992, his Pearl of Africa Reborn is available in digital format.  There are 10 tracks on this album.  The 5 minute track Munomumo requires 5.15 MB, but most of his songs need less than that, in the 3 to 4 MB range, with the soulful Kasambajiro running 3:01 and 2.76 MB.

Samite’s Stars to Share has 12 tracks for download.  Some examples are Tindiba, Esawayo, Bring Back the Music, Old Man’s Wisdom, Sala Endongo, Stars to Share and Cradle with Love.  These songs demonstrate beautifully Samite’s command of both ethnic and New Age genres and they make him a popular artist among a growing legion of fans.

There are CDs offering a compilation of artists too, for those who want to sample a range of East African musical styles.  The Great East African Trip CD features some of the top modern and classic artists from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  You can sample the sounds of Samba Mapangala of Kenya, Kidum from Burundi, Super Mazembe from the Congo and Priscilla and Qute Kaye from Uganda.

East African artists keep it real with their fans and they encourage interaction.  Samite offers a free download mp3 on this blog.  You are encouraged to try it and contact us to let us know what you think of Samite’s latest efforts.

Of course, like many other popular artists of today, there are Samite ring tunes also available for downloading to your cellphone so that those around you can hear the beautiful strains of east African music mp3 whenever you take a phone call.

Linking traditional African music with the United States, there are generous grants being offered to preserve the history and culture of traditional African songs, dances and musical instruments.

The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has been quietly assembling samples of African music.  Most people think of the State Department efforts as a fund to save historic buildings,  museums and historical sites, however some of the monies have gone toward saving the music that is in danger of being replaced by modern sounds.

A project funded by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation dispatched archivists throughout Africa with recording equipment.  In Burundi alone, the historians returned with 230 recordings of traditional music.

In an effort to make this music accessible to future generations, the field recordings of questionable quality were enhanced with Burundian musicians who ‘’filled the gaps” with traditional instrument.  The famous Burundian drums are now highlighted in 176 songs on CDs.

African youth are being exposed to new kinds of instruments and village elders are concerned the indigenous sounds will disappear.   An Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grant also went toward a research project for young Africans to explore their musical history and to learn from the elders how to make the instruments themselves.  The young people recorded the music on these instruments to have an audible record.

In the process, the youth are learning entrepreneurial skills to market and sell the instruments to a new generation who would otherwise not be exposed to this cultural treasure.

Lastly, in Madagascar, the AFCP funded an attempt to preserve the unusual Malagasy dances, music and instruments.  The various districts there have distinct sounds and costumes.  All of it was recorded and shared in the classrooms of school children, insuring that future generations will be comfortable and knowledgeable with the sounds of their ancestors.

Like all African music, sub-Saharan African music is traditionally functional in nature. Performances can get very long and usually involve the audience participating in it.

There are many different kinds of work songs; songs accompanying childbirth, marriage, hunting, and political activities; music to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead, and the ancestors.

None of these is performed outside its intended social context and much of it is associated with a particular dance.  Some of it is sacral music or ceremonial and courtly music performed by professional musicians at royal courts.

The shared rhythmic principles of sub-Saharan music traditions constitute one main system. Similarly, the sub-Saharan African rhythmic principles have a profound homogeneity. The sub-Saharan rhythm is characterized by cross-rhythm and key patterns.

The joining of two or more rhythms is called polyrhythm. The regular and systematic superimposition of cross-beats over main beats creates a specific sub-set of polyrhythm called cross-rhythm. The technique of cross-rhythm is a simultaneous use of contrasting rhythmic patterns within the same scheme of accents or meter.

The main beat scheme cannot be separated from the secondary beat scheme. The cross-rhythm three-over-two (3:2), hemiola, is the most significant rhythm ratio found in sub-Saharan rhythm. Cross-rhythm is the basis for much of the music of the Niger-Congo peoples, the largest linguistic group in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Cross-rhythm pervades southern Ewe music.

Key patterns epitomize the complete rhythmic matrix and are typically clapped or played on idiophones like a bell, a piece of bamboo, or wooden claves. In some ensembles, such as “iyesa” and “bata” drums, a key pattern may be played on a high-pitched drumhead.

The most commonly used key pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is the seven-stroke figure known on ethnomusicology as the standard pattern. It is expressed in both a triple-pulse (12/8 or 6/8) and duple-pulse (4/4 or 2/2) structure.

Traditions may coincide entirely, partially, or not at all with geographic, political, linguistic or cultural boundaries. African folk music traditions, including sub-Saharan African music, overlap in varying degrees with each other.

News on an Africa music blog shows Africa remains a continent with trouble spots.   In Mogadishu, Somalia, music radio stations are struggling to reconcile two disparate directives.

On the one hand, the stations received an ultimatum from Islam in April, 2010 to stop playing music.  On the other hand, the government warned that any station that complied with the threat would be shut down.

The conflict underscores the question of exactly who is in charge in Somalia, a near anarchical country.  A brave contingent of independent journalists perseveres, even under the threat of violence.

The insurgent Islamic group Hizbul warned of “serious consequences” to any radio station that did not adhere to a deadline to halt all music, due to its “un-Islamic” nature.   Some defiant station owners filled the dead air with recitation of lyrics, and sound effects of loud items like gunshots, animals whinnying, and engines revving, as they determined their next step.

The government meanwhile was taken aback by this challenge to authority and held a news conference announcing that any station that buckled to the demand by Hizbul would be ordered shut down.

The general secretary of the Mogadishu administration of the Transitional Federal Government , Abdikafi Hilowle Osman, accused the broadcasters of “working with” the radicals.

The fight over radio stations is the latest problem in an escalating conflict over Western ideology in Islamic land.  The Islamic radicals seek to purge these influences and have even threatened to ban Voice of America and BBC programs.

Also recently, in a village north of Mogadishu, the country’s most powerful insurgent group Shabab, banned school bells there.  It said the noise too closely resembled the sound of church bells and was therefore un-Islamic.

All internationally recognized observances such as World AIDS Day were banned as well.  For a lighter side of African music news, please stay tuned to this blog.

More common than non western African music, westernized African music has similarities but not the true soul born of an ancient history.

Non western African music is also known as World Music and it owes its origins to the sub Sahara Desert.

Music and dance in Africa are closely intertwined.   All important life events are celebrated with music: birth, marriage and death.  And the Ruler’s Courts include music as well.

Poet Leopold Senghor, the first President of Senegal, once commented that African rhythm is “comparable to all the technical achievements” of Western civilization.

The many drums used in African music showcase the importance of percussion in African society.  There are jembe drums enjoyed by the Manding people and their dancing parties.  A large tabale drum indicates the signal for war.  In fact, drums in the sub Saharan desert are more effective and common than a telegraph.  The resonant beat is carried for miles to great distances.

The violin-drum chong is used in West Cameroon.  It’s a stick bow placed into a hole in the drum membrane.  Secret cults and societies beat the chong drum to scare off non members of the societies.

Music as an art form is understandably pure in Africa.  The human species originated on that continent and then spread around the world.  While civilizations advanced in the Middle East, the Far East and Europe, sub Saharan Africa stayed distinct and apart.

Africans evolved from hunters and gatherers to agriculture, but a lack of written history makes details of the evolution of society in Africa a challenge to study.  For that reason, the music remained unblemished by outside influences.  Indeed, the sounds of Africa today are close to their evolutionary roots.

There is homogenization of cultures throughout the world, but non western African music is enchantingly reminiscent of the ancient beginnings of its people.

The definition of Kadongo Kamu is “single guitar” and it is the first type of music played in Uganda.

Though Africa has an ancient history with a music culture handed down through the generations, the music of Uganda is very much a story of the tumultuous 1980s.  There was another CD in the 90s featuring a group of Ugandan musicians referred to as the supergroup.   One of the Ugandan performers, Geoffrey Oryema, was involved in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios/Real World record label.

One of the most exciting developments is the blending of styles between the West and East Africa.  America with its hip hop element, is ripe for influence from the rhythms of World Music from Africa.

The home of Kadongo Kamu is the Wandegeya area of Uganda and it is more popular with the older population.  Some of the original artists are deceased but the symbol of this style of music is Bernard Kabanda.

Among the other premiere performers of Kadongo Kamu are Samite, Jose Chameleon, Bebe Cool, Radda Dee, Bobi Wine, Madoxx Ssematimba and Babaluku.  Some of the younger artists are merging traditional Ugandan sounds with rap in the mother tongue.

An article on Kadongo Kamu would not be complete without a mention of the passing of a great African musician, Fred Hannington Masagazi Muwonge.  Muwonge died in 2009 in hospital, he was considered the grandfather of Kadongo Kamu music.

He sang, played guitar and acted his music on stage in the 1960s and 70s.  Perhaps most significant, he achieved success tying Kadongo Kamu to the western version of country music.   Muwonge’s first hit was Atanawa Musolo which was released one year before Independence.

Masagazi Muwonge is survived by his wife, eight children and nine grandchildren, leaving a void in the hearts in all who were inspired by his groundbreaking music of Kadongo Kamu.