African Music – The Blog of Samite

Posts Tagged ‘flutes’

Nearly all African music instruments in the United States can be categorized in three ways: string, wind and percussion.  Let’s begin with the string instruments.

Another name for string instruments is chordophone.  These create sound from vibrating strings made of metal or gut, and within the family of strings there are three sub-categories:

Harps- which mount their strings in a right angle to the soundboard.

Citres or Zithers- instruments which don’t have a neck and use the body for the string-mount.  A common zither or citres in the U.S. is a piano or harpsichord.

Lutes – a device with strings supported on a neck and with a resonance chamber.  Americans know this type from guitars and violins.

There are a variety of ways to produce sound from a string instrument.  Musicians can pluck the strings with their fingers or with a plucking device like a pick or even a feather.  Some instruments are played with the assistance of a bow of horse-hair or similar synthetic material.  By moving the bow across the strings, the strings vibrate and create sound.  Lastly, struck string instruments involve hammer sticks to make sound by hitting keyboards attached to strings.

Another category of African instruments in the U.S. are the winds.  Among these are flutes, reed pipes, lip vibrated instruments and free reeds.

Another word for wind instruments is aerophone, both the pipe aerophone like flutes and trumpets, and the free aerophone such as the mouth organ and accordion.  The pipe aerophones create sound by resonating air blown into or over an opening.  The free version controls the pitch by lengthening or shortening the length of the reed.

In some countries reed instruments are made from metal such as the harmonica or the accordion, however the African music instruments in the United States typically use wood and other materials that come from the land.

For great African music click through to Samite Mulondo’s website CD order page.

News about Samite “My Music World” is beginning to spread.  Our good and talented friend Samite Mulondo hosted a release of his latest CD, My Music World last February at the Corning Museum of Glass in Upstate New York.

Samite is a singer and musician of numerous instruments including the litungu lyre, finger piano and flutes.

Described as having a “slight folky edge in places”, with “gorgeous instrumental work”, this is Samite’s first release since “Embalasasa” in 2006, and his 17th CD overall in which he starred or collaborated with other performers.

My Music World has been much anticipated since earlier reviews of his work.  Billboard magazine described the sound this way: “Samite wraps his warm voice around melodies that seem to rise up off the Ugandan plateau, caressed by his kalimbas and other native instruments”.

The New York Post writes Samite “finely interweaves classical guitar, voice and the haunting plucked metal tones of the kalimba…a magnificent piece of music with an ancient quality to it.

Samite brings a true global sensibility to his music.  A native of Uganda, Samite learned how to play musical instruments from his grandfather.  A music teacher gave him another instrument to try when he was a pre-teen.  It was a western flute and it was magic in Samite’s hands.  Eventually he became a premiere flutist in East Africa.

By 1982 Samite fled Uganda and the dictatorship of Idi Amin and settled  in Kenya.  From there he went to Nairobi where he began to impress audiences with his singing in the Luganda language of his home and his instrument playing.

Samite emigrated to Ithaca, New York in 1987 and quickly established a following for his world music.  His CD entitled Tunula Eno topped the number 2 spot in the World Music Charts.

We have no doubt that Samite’s latest effort, “My Music World”, will be his most popular offering to date.  You may order the CD now by clicking this LINK or the banner on the right.

We received a review from Samite regarding his support for a new CD sampler of music from Zimbabwe. We encourage you to check it out and enjoy more African music.

“I recently had the opportunity to listen to a new CD from Zimbabwe titled:

“Zimbabwe Today“.

It is a compilation CD by talented musicians from a place that we were used to hearing only bad news about. It is very exciting to learn that while the politicians in Zimbabwe have yet to figure out how to run their country and feed their people, musicians remain creative and feed their countrymen’s souls.

The songs vary from reggae rhythms to intricate arrangements with marimbas, mbira (what East Africans call kalimbas) and flutes.

One of my very favorite musicians today is Oliver Mtukudzi and when I heard that his daughter Selmor Mtukudzi was one of the featured artists in this compilation, I could not wait to hear it.

I was not disappointed when I heard her track “Mhembwe Rudzi.” I think she is as talented as her father is. While the songs on this CD do not necessarily go well with each other, it does not matter because I think it is a great sampler of what we can expect to hear from Wide World Artists and especially from Zimbabwe.
I encourage you to check them out at www.wideworldartists.com.

Samite”

We asked Samite to forward some information about his instruments and music to post here on the African Music Blog, and this was his reply.

“Most of the instruments I play, find me.

Some of them are given to me by instrument makers, and others like all the instruments I have collected from East Africa, are very old and have been played by masters who are now dead.

Such instruments have soul.  They are the “Soul of Africa” in my opinion.

If these instruments were to talk, they would repeat all the stories that they have accompanied over the years as musicians were entertaining in the villages.  Many of the stories would happy stories about newborn babies, and others would be sad stories about the death of a loved one.

I am very excited to have this Africa Music Blog so that I can share stories with you.  I look forward to telling you about the music that I write, the experiences that have shaped my songs, and my hopes for the future of African music.

photo credit: Sheryl Sinkow

When I am not playing the kalimba or flutes, I am playing the litungu.  The litungu is a seven string Kenyan harp, typical of the kind of instrument you will find in all the stringed East African Music.

I love this instrument because it’s very gentle.  If you just listen, you might think you are listening to a guitar.  In this link you can download for free, an MP3 version of a song I call “Waterfall.”

Waterfall

It was recorded live in a concert I did with David Cullen in Elizabethtown PA.  Let me know what you think.

I look forward to sharing other songs with you in the future.

Mirembe (peace),

Samite”

Wow, all I can say is this is very moving.  You will truly appreciate the spirit of Samite’s talent and beautiful music in this free African music download. > Right Click Here to Download – Select Save Link As

Rich Hill, editor
AfricanMusicBlog.com

(Please leave your comments below.)

A close look at traditional African music reveals a spectrum of influences; from the Arabic seeds of the north and its contribution to Egypt and Carthage, there are dominant strains that evoke sounds of the Middle East.  Specific locales to be included in this realm are Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

It’s not exactly what one thinks about with Africa, however the Continent is vast and includes many ancient cultures.  Not to be forgotten are the Sudan and Ethiopia, all clustered in this unique area of northern Africa.

Southern, West and Central Africa are solidly sub-Saharan and lure influences from North America and Western Europe.   This is the music most often associated with “Africa”.  There is an emphasis on rhythm and dance.  Various work songs evoke the early history of music in antebellum America.  There are different songs to accompany marriage, childbirth and hunting.  Some songs repel evil spirits, some honor good spirits and much of it is political.

Sub-Saharan music incorporates four regions:  The eastern section of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Mozambique,  the South including Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Angola; Central, Chad, Congo, Zambia and music of the Pygmies, and the west which houses Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Togo and Nigeria.

African music uses various techniques not associated with this continent, like yodeling and melisma.  A broad spectrum of instruments are used.  Drums, rattles and bells create memorable melody and rhythm.

There are several kinds of xylophone and lamellophone, trumpets and flutes, but the most distinctive is the drum and it comes in many shapes and sizes.

English is the common language of Africa however specific local dialects lend themselves to the music.  A native singer adds an authentic component to a song whereas other songs are automatic for a western ear.    That’s because cross-pollination of music across the globe has brought a new dimension to traditional African music.

We invite you to listen to Samite as he pleasures your senses with the sounds and culture of Uganda and Kenya where he learned his style and crafted his unique skill.  There is an order form on his main website for you to pre-order his latest CD.  We are all excited about its release.