My Instrument: Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe and their Embaire

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 178, June 2022.



There’s a worn-out cliché of a proverb that says ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ In the Ugandan kingdom of Busoga, it takes a village to play a xylophone. The instrument is the embaire, and the village of Nakibembe is world-renowned for its musicians’ prowess.

The embaire is huge. It is three metres long, and its 21 keys are played by six musicians, who sit three per side. Each musician plays a relatively simple repeating pattern across three or four keys, but multiplied six-fold they create an intense battery of ever-evolving interlocking sonic shapes. From this dense tangle of sound, distinct melodies, basslines and drum rhythms emerge, each musician’s abstract part combining into an entrancing whole. “It’s a bit like jazz,” explains Nassar Kinobe, the singer and bass-keys-specialist in the Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe. “Everyone is playing a different thing, but there is always a connection between them. And there are things we can’t explain, it’s like magic. When we start playing, there is momentum. Anything can change and become a perfect part of a pattern, even if it’s an accident!”

The instrument itself is a feat of carpentry. The keys of the embaire are made from the wood of the omusambya (Markhamia lutea or Nile tulip), and its beaters are made from the wood of the nzo (Teclea nobilis). The omusambya wood is carefully hewn with a special axe-chisel called the eyiga; the tuning is incredibly precise – each small chip of a giant key is an irreparable alteration – and measured entirely by ear.

When played in the villages of Busoga, the keys are laid on banana stems and placed over a 50cm-deep pit dug into the ground. This trough provides a booming resonance that enhances the instrument’s bass keys, connecting the embaire to the land of its ancestors in a very literal way. It also makes it a challenge to set up on a stage – the concept of transporting a hole is a bit of an ontological head-scratcher. But with multiple international appearances under their belt, the Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe have found a way around that challenge. Each time they travel abroad, a specially-built box is commissioned to stand in for the earthen pit. The original keys from Nakibembe are then placed upon the new resonator, creating a hybrid instrument: half-Soga, half-international.



The Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe don’t just carry the name of their village out of sentimentality; the group is interwoven with the community itself. They are more than six musicians. In fact, they’re more like a football team. They have their ‘starting line-up,’ who are usually the ones who tour abroad, but there are many other players in the troupe who can sub in whenever necessary – the village even has a youth ensemble for the trainees.

Arising in the 1970s, the giant 21-keyed version of the embaire is a fairly modern innovation on an ancient instrument, but it’s already a valuable tradition in Nakibembe. “It’s become something big, and we want to keep it going,” says Rashidi Ngobi. Affectionately referred to as ‘the old man’ by the rest of the musicians, Ngobi is the troupe’s elder, and the one who holds the embaire’s history. “If we teach people, and then they teach people, then it lives on because our ancestors did the same thing. My job is to inspire the young generation and to make sure that I leave something for them. When they have children, they should teach them the same thing and keep the legacy going.”

Behind the intricate melodies and rhythms interlaced into a complex cacophony lies a simple truth: “The embaire was created to help take away sorrow, to bring joy, and to make people forget their suffering. Its history is about people coming together and creating something for a cause,” says Ngobi. With an instrument this big, it really does take a village to play the embaire.


Photos, from top: Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe live at CTM Festival 2020, by Stefanie Kulisch; the keys of the Nakibembe embaire.

Pongo - Sakidila

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 178, June 2022.

Pongo
Sakidila
Virgin Records (40 mins)

Angolan-born, Lisbon-based singer and rapper Pongo already gained notoriety within the field of forward-thinking kuduro for her collaborations with Buraka Som Sistema stretching back to 2008. After a series of singles, EPs and high-energy live shows, her debut album is finally here.

Sadilika starts more on the laid-back side. The heavy beats of the kuduro club make way for classy R&B and chilled influences from Brazil and the Caribbean. This section is definitely the most pop-oriented, and while it’s pretty much inoffensive, Pongo really comes into her own half-way through the album when she turns up the heat.

The highlights come from this second half, starting with the track ‘Começa’ – the beats are harder, the bass is darker and the vocals delivered with a little bit more poison. Influences from hip-hop, amapiano and even soukous give each track an interesting, individual identity and the delightful rework of Pongo’s first hit with Buraka Som Sistema, ‘Wegue Wegue’, shows 14 additional years of musical maturity.

Pongo uses this debut to explore her musical range, but it’s the moments where the energy matches her frenetic live performances that show you what she’s truly capable of.

Sigurd Hole - Roraima

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 178, June 2022.

Sigurd Hole
Roraima
Elvesang (78 mins)

Sigurd Hole’s previous album was a solo double bass exploration into the environment and atmospheres of his native Norway. Now in a seven-piece among some of the biggest names in Norwegian jazz, Hole studies similar themes, albeit a little further from home.

Roraima is an instrumental telling of the creation myth of the indigenous Yanomami people of the northern Amazon, and a musical echo of the dense but calm soundscapes of the rainforest. Hole and his musicians play alongside and converse with field recordings of the Amazon and its people, while taking influence from jazz, folk, minimalism and subtle flavours from India and Armenia. It’s an intriguing concept and execution – Nordic jazz is very rooted in its landscape and the juxtaposition between Norwegian and Amazonian provides an interesting dissonance.

In creating the intricately-constructed atmospherics and mimesis, Roraima is Hole’s plea to reorient our culture and society around the environment and its needs, a return to a philosophy central to many indigenous beliefs. But with its structure directly inspired by Yanomami religion, it is disappointing to see an apparent lack of Yanomami contributors, either as participants or consultants. While Roraima is certainly admirable in its message and music, it raises the question – whose story is this to tell?

Spotlight: Africa Oyé 2022

First published at Songlines.co.uk.



Many festivals have cultivated their own community, one that exists for three or four days of reunion within a tented city before dispersing until the same time next year. It’s special, but ephemeral. Africa Oyé isn’t quite like that – it’s a treasured part of the wider, year-round community of the city of Liverpool.

Africa Oyé is a festival that provides a weekend of wonderful African and Afro-diasporic music for the people of Liverpool every June, completely free. Now in its 30th year, and returning for the first time since 2019, the 2022 edition is set to be particularly special – surrounded by a whole year of celebratory concerts and events across Merseyside.

The festival started in 1992 as a series of gigs in Liverpool’s city centre, and eventually became part of a hot-air balloon festival across the Mersey in Birkenhead. From his first Oyé in 1998, artistic director Paul Duhaney saw the potential for something more. “I quickly realised that most people were into the music than they were into the balloons. Why don’t we just do this in Liverpool, where the black community, and all communities, can access the festival and make it grow a bit more? So we did.” After a few more years, the festival settled into its permanent home in the luscious Sefton Park, where it has continued to grow.

Oyé’s line-ups are never less than stellar, and they’re selected with such precision that after 30 years of curation, there’s some music that just has an indelible Oyé vibe – music that sounds like fresh grass, sun and barbecues. Duhaney’s job must be a difficult one, but he lays it out in simple terms: “I think the decision is based on ‘is this band going to make people dance and enjoy themselves and be happy?’ If they fit that criteria and they have good quality as well, then that’s the final call.” This year will see African legends such as Oumou Sangaré and Kanda Bongo Man as well as a rare fully-live set from British-Ghanaian Afrobeats star Fuse ODG and a host of tasty new discoveries from across the continent and further afield. Eek-a-Mouse takes the festival’s traditional Saturday night reggae headliner slot, which always closes the festival's first night with a bang.

But while the music is the big draw, what makes Oyé special is the community vibe – and for Duhaney, they feed into each other. “The music on-stage plays a big part in the ambience you get in the audience, because it’s all about happiness, positivity, joy, peace, love, inclusivity. Everybody that goes to that festival feels like they should be there, and that’s an important factor.” In Sefton Park, it truly is an all-encompassing crowd – huge family gatherings, local teenagers, veteran world music fans, people just looking for a fun, no-stress weekend. There are no fences around the festival site, so anyone in the park at the (usually sunny) weekend can hear the sounds and wander in to join the party, partake in some delicious Caribbean food, and become one of the family.

It’s that welcoming, community-driven nature at the core of the Oyé experience that has earned its place in Scouse hearts (and a spot on the official Liverpool-themed Monopoly board). In a city known for its warmth, camaraderie and humour, Africa Oyé really shows the best of Liverpool alongside the best African music and culture.

Photo: Africa Oyé 2019, by Mark McNulty.

Cabralista Collectives: Dispatch from Porto, Portugal

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 177, May 2022.



Two artists performing in the same city, on the same night, in different venues, making very different music but with the same totemic figure in their hearts.

Bandé-Gamboa and Scúru Fitchádu were both in Porto in October, invited in front of the assembled world music industry as part of WOMEX 21. Bandé-Gamboa is a project fusing Cape Verdean funaná and Bissau-Guinean gumbé in a modern take on the classic dance-band format; Scúru Fitchádu also uses funaná, but takes it into the loud, aggressive and hyperactive world of punk, metal and electronica. Both hold a common core – the work of Amílcar Cabral.

Cabral was one of the great African revolutionaries, an anti-colonial thinker and a noted poet. In organising against the colonial power of Portugal, his dream was to unite Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde into one nation of differing but complementary halves. He was assassinated in 1973, but the independence movement he spearheaded continued in earnest. Within three years, both countries had won their freedom from Portugal – albeit as two separate, independent nations. Cabral remains a crucial figure and cultural touchstone within those countries and across the continent.

Scúru Fitchádu is the solo project of Marcus Veiga. Born in Lisbon to Cape Verdean and Angolan parents, Veiga grew up hearing the wisdom of Cabral. “The entire narrative involving Cabral was recurrent whenever there was talk of the colonial war and independence,” he says. “As a teenager, I didn't pay much attention, but when I started to wake up to conscious hip-hop and punk, I started to research revolutionary movements. It was from there that everything became clearer: Amílcar Cabral was a major figure in the struggle for the independence of the African people. He played an important role in ending the colonial power.” It was those awakenings that allowed Veiga to explore his own roots, musically and politically. Funaná is party music – based around fast-paced accordion and iron scraper – but it’s also a symbol of resistance. It reflects the blues of everyday people and was banned under colonial rule. With Veiga’s unique mix of powerful, punky, political party music, it was unquestionable that Cabralista philosophies would be at the centre: “The whole combative attitude directly draws on the liberation movements of Amílcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon and the Black Panther Party. I was born and live in the country that colonised, humiliated, kidnapped, raped and murdered my ancestors. I always try to establish a parallel between African guerrilla decolonisation movements and the present day, by writing verses or using samples that elaborate ideas of physical and mental colonial liberation. Here lies my manifesto. It opened doors for the way I make my art, and gave me ethical principles for how I live my life. Similar to so many others who have Cabral as a reference, we find guidelines for good conduct in his work as a strategist, writer and poet.”



Cabral’s post-colonial vision also inspired the founding of Bandé-Gamboa. The project started as an album by two all-star bands: one from Guinea-Bissau on Side A, one from Cape Verde on Side B – a reflection of Cabral’s ambition of the two countries united. The album was released in 2020, and the project has since evolved further, joining the two bands into one for live performances. Bandé-Gamboa was the brainchild of Portuguese producer Francisco ‘Fininho’ Sousa, who explains how the figure of Cabral is central to his work: “Cabral did not intend to dilute Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau into one identity; he celebrated the diversity and difference between the countries. We do the same. This project aims to respect the culture, but refuses to look at culture as static. It always evolves. That’s where Cabral comes in. He said that revolution was a cultural act. We place the future of the music in the hands of the most talented musicians, exactly where it should be.”

Fundamental to both Veiga’s and Sousa’s musical messages is the erasure of African struggles within the histories and education of Europeans. Scúru Fitchádu and Bandé-Gamboa are taking over where schools in Portugal are failing, by bringing Cabral and his teachings to wider attention, and with it broader topics of African liberation and anti-colonialism. “The narrative that was given to me in schoolbooks showed the Portuguese Empire as a sophisticated and benevolent coloniser of the wild, limited, disposable Africans,” says Veiga. “That story is still told in schoolbooks and Portuguese civil society today.” And Sousa notes that that vitriol extends to Cabral himself: “The difference between what I had been told his ideas were – shallow revolutionary rants – and what they turned out to be – beautifully written, innovative, deep humanist ideas – is a measure of the cultural bubble us Europeans live in. We are born in an epistemic prison. In many ways, he liberated me.”

Bandé-Gamboa and Scúru Fitchádu make very different music, but bring their audiences into the same anti-colonial collective. On a Saturday night in October, Porto – once one of the most important cities of the Portuguese Empire – was rocking to the message of the hero Amílcar Cabral.


Photos: Scúru Fitchádu live at WOMEX 21, by Yannis Psathas; Bandé-Gamboa, by Patricia Pascal.

DJ Kainga - OO MP3

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 176, April 2022.

DJ Kainga
OO MP3
1000HZ Records (40 mins)

Polish label 1000HZ have spent the last few years quietly putting out records of incredibly interesting music from Malawi, and this second album in their Digital Indigenous series continues that trend.

DJ Kainga makes what he calls ‘Lomwe beat,’ electro music as it has evolved from the streets of Zomba, with the sonic imprint of the city and its Lomwe people. This is all synth, all the time: apart from the occasional song, it’s all made on what sounds like your standard, slightly tinny Casio in a manner that makes it feel like a cousin to Tanzanian mchiriku or South African Shangaan electro. Simple, cheerful melodies and layered over Lomwe rhythms (adapted into keyboard presets) and reggaeish chord stabs. It’s all so relentlessly optimistic, I dare you not to have a big smile on your face within a minute of the first track.

It makes a change to hear music clearly made for the local market and all the aesthetic choices that come with that – even when it does mean autotune-saturated chipmunkesque vocals on the two songs. This is a set of cheery club music with a unique sound and very little pretention. How refreshing!

A Personal Jazz Mystery Solved

First published on the British Library Sound and Vision blog.



I’m a jazz nut. My mental soundtrack is often filled with anonymous changes and walking bass solos. But there is one particular song that has been buzzing around my head for years and years – about a decade, in fact. That song is the version of ‘Popity Pop’, recorded by vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, on their album High Flying from 1961. Specifically, Jon Hendricks’ break-down at about 2 min. 16 sec.:



That break-down is so unexpected, so sweet and so touching; it’s an inspired moment and a great contrast to the frenetic energy of the rest of the song. I couldn’t help but become intrigued by it. It was obviously a quotation from another piece of music… but which one? I had no idea. I asked around, and no-one else seemed to have an idea either. Google was no help. I was certain that the answer must be out there. Where was it?

To read the full blog post and to find out the unexpected place I found my answer, head over to the British Library Sound and Vision blog.