Buganda Royal Music Revival - Green Vinyl

Description

Since its founding at the end of the 14th century, the kingdom of Buganda has been celebrated through music and has maintained a rich tradition in its royal court. Musicians from all over the kingdom took turns at the palace to make drums, xylophones, flutes, lyres, and others resonate to praise and honor the existence of royalty. In recent years, however, the tradition has been harder to maintain, especially since 1966, when a violent attack on the palace abruptly abolished the monarchy, during which royal musicians fled or were killed. And while the kingdom was restored in 1993 as a cultural institution, many of the remaining musicians have since chosen to set aside their skills to deal with the issues of their daily lives, with the practice of royal tradition losing popularity, particularly among young listeners and players. But all is not lost. Scattered throughout the kingdom, a motivated team of older veterans and attentive young players keeps the tradition alive. Offering a cross-sectional view of the past and present, Buganda Royal Music Revival brings together recordings made between the late 1940s and 1966 illustrating the skills of the older generation, and presents them alongside recent recordings featuring musicians who continue this musical tradition, some even performing before the current king, Muwenda Mutebi II. These recent recordings were made during the filming of the 2019 documentary Buganda Royal Music Revival, which visually presents what this album conveys through sound: a dive into a centuries-old tradition. The music presented here is diverse and dynamic, showcasing a variety of styles and highlighting instruments that illustrate the depth and sophistication that have emerged from the experience of the royal court of Buganda. The album opens with "Mujaguzo," often translated as "the Drums of Royalty," the mujaguzo is a crucial ensemble for the cultural tradition, made up of drums collected by the kingdom throughout its long history and numbering around 100 drums (historical records suggest there were over 300 at one time). They represent the vitality of royalty transposed into sound. From there, we are introduced deeper into a range of instruments and textures, such as the buzzing of the Buganda lyre (endongo) by contemporary royal player Albert Bisaso Ssempeke, the xylophone akadinda resonating with its 21 large wooden keys, the agitated praises of Temutewo Mukasa sung with his harp (ennanga), the handmade gourd trumpet (amakondere), the "bell-drum" entenga and its set of 12 tuned drums like the xylophone amadinda, or the closely interwoven melodies of the flute ensemble (abalere). This engaging selection of music is a unique and too rare exploration of the sounds that celebrate the shared history of generations of musicians. Green vinyl.