Kerunen and team do it better at Pearl Rhythm Festival

If you have attended local music festivals before, the Pearl Rhythm Festival that took place at the National Theatre on Saturday would have left you nodding in  approval of its different stroke.
For its second edition, instead of struggling with not-readily-available stars, the festival continued with its artiste-tutoring, guiding and later helping them record music. Most of the songs recorded by the artistes rhyme with the festival’s theme of having a Ugandan sound attached to it – that is why they call it the Pearl Rhythm Stage Coach.
A three-month music academy, the Stage Coach usually provides performers for the festival, and it works. Last year, the Stage Coach artistes were Raymond Parwot, Arpeggio band, Undercover Brothers and Charles Obina, but on Saturday, we were introduced to Ann Nassanga aka Afrie, Haka Mukiga, Lynn Aineomugisha and J Wonder.
Suzan Kerunen, one of the festival organizers, says Stage Coach was started as a fuel pump for the performing arts.
“We had started a festival looking at celebrating a Ugandan sound, but didn’t have many of such artistes to programme,” said Kerunen, a world music maestro.
Afraid of recycling artistes, the Stage Coach was born also as an opportunity to give talented people necessary guidance and mentor ship.
Kerunen says they scout and hand-pick the artistes for the Stage Coach, but will be looking at having auditions if funds allow next year. Kerunen notes that four of the first lot out of the academy are doing well in all their fields.
Arpeggio Band, which at the time of the 2014 Pearl Rhythm Festival was a group of students from Makerere University, has provided the industry with some of the funkiest instrumentalists such as JJ Bugoma, a percussionist, and Happy Kyazze, a saxophonist.
Much as the band has not played together a lot, some original members, including vocalist Kenneth Mugabi, have gone on to do great things. Mugabi performed at the unveiling of Kahiri, a project by Qwela’s front man Joe Kahirimbanyi, and has graced the two Qwela Junctions, as well as performing at Laba and Bayimba International festivals.
Raymond Parwot is into teaching music at the Bayimba Academy while Charles Obina is more of a session instrumentalist.
The Undercover Brothers, probably the most resilient ones, have been all over the place; since the festival last year, they have released a debut album, At Dawn, and have toured the East African regional festivals. Kerunen says Uganda is rich in sound that has not been represented by many of the mainstream acts.
“It’s mainly because Uganda is porous; we are so open to cultures from elsewhere.”
Much as she believes a Ugandan sound cannot be attached to a beat or a solo, Kerunen says featuring at least an Acholi or Kiganda drum on a song represents the people from that region and the country at large, something she emphasized in the Stage Coach performances.
On Saturday, the Stage Coach artistes were joined by Sabar Zibula, Michael Kitanda and Saava Karim who performed mostly his Kiganda folk songs. The legendary Sammy Kasule pleasantly surprised by turning out with Uganda’s oldest band, Afrigo, to thrill festival goers further.
Afrie, a final year dental surgery student at Makerere University, says the Stage Coach is a great opportunity and much as she has class work to attend to, she wants to perform more. A select group from the audience got a chance to walk away with an original album with music by some of the performers

Tubonga Nawe is not bad after all

Well, from Mr. DJ featuring Benon’s Swangz Avenue and the Goodlyfe Crew to Ladies Night by DJ Shiru featuring another lot of artists, all stars have always caused some kind of steer whenever they are released.
For instance at the height of their fights in 2009, Moze Radio noted that an artist that wasn’t on Mr. DJ wasn’t fit to be called a star, a comment that was definitely targeting both Bebe Cool and Chameleone.
Today, 2015, the tides have changed, Bebe Cool, Chameleone and the Goodlyfe Crew have since made up, drink from the same bar and coincidentally share political colors, and as you could imagine, after their yellow song aptly titled Tubonga Nawe was released, Bebe declared that no artist was bigger than the yellow pack.
Since it’s released a week, the public and sections of artists have taken to social media to accuse their collegues of selling the art industry and misusing the platform God gave them.
Nothing has been said about the song in question now that some electronic Medias have avoided it.
Tubonga Nawe, is not your ordinary Ugandan song – it has Juliana Kanyomozi, Radio and Weasel, King Saha, Judith Babirye, Pastor Bugembe, Iryn Namubiru and Jose Chameleone among others.
It is indeed the first Ugandan song with the best or second from the different sections of the Ugandan industry – for instance King Saha is one of the most followed rising stars and Babirye and Bugembe command the biggest following among Gospel music fans.
With such big tags, these songs are usually prepared to crush; they barely turn out good because of all the egos that get into the project at conceptualization.
But Tubonga Nawe is different – it’s danceable, enjoyable and catchy.
If we have to put all our biases and sophiscations in the closet, Tubonga Nawe is not a bad song, its acceptable and their video passes above average.
Videographer Sasha Vybz continues to prove that he can be to Ugandans what Clarence Peters is to Nigeria, he had a number of impressive ideas that included slowing scenes, the name appearances, bungee jumping and the choice of Nambole as the prime location was immaculate.
But on the audio side, Tubonga Nawe suffers substantially, it fails to say or inspire – the artists don’t make the listener want to appreciate whoever they are Kubongaring with, they don’t tell us why we have to ditch or support but rather go on assuring us that for them they support.
Making matters worse, Tubonga Nawe gets an identity crisis midway when artists lose their heads as to whether sing for the president or his yellow party.
Bebe Cool doesn’t make an impact on the song as he only throws improvised lines like ‘Yellow Yelobility’, Weasel had the best verse though Chameleone and Juliana proved one thing – legend.
Truth is, Tubonga Nawe is not out there to communicate and neither is it there to impress, the plan was simple, we do a song and mention Sevo and Yellow more times than the man himself can take it and it's a wrap.
Substantially the song is crappy though when we talk appeal; it has the vibe and color, Chameleone’s excitement, Mun*G’s stupidity.. Which many music lovers around the country are drawn to – not a bad song after all.

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Dear artists, song writers are no side dish

This was a post that came from a friend at the height of the Lyto Boss, Iryn Namubiru and Kusasira saga.....

Uganda has always suffered from disrespect for art. Unfortunately artists disrespect art the most but also the vulnerability of the music industry to financial doping by the so-called managers who are just music lovers but have no respect musician has perpetuated the habit.

Songwriters:

1. we need an association to be guided by same principles across to protect our rights especially for the young not so popular songwriters. We need to put an end double selling of songs and all sorts of scandals we get into. I tried an association in 2009(i was still a student but at MUK) but I was discouraged by my seniors in the profession with the reasoning that we were very few and would be perceived as arrogant.

2. Our clients the artists are not as rich as they live, therefore you can't expect to become rich off this job until copyright is streamlined.

Artists

1. You need to understand that you are in music business and therefore you need a song. Unless you write your music don't expect to get free songwriting services.

2. Don't tie-up songs by paying half the commission and take another year before recording and completing your payment. The sane thing a business minded songwriter will do is sell the song to someone else and wait for you to claim your half.

3. Don't buy songs, record them and keep them. In Uganda mileage/credit/opportunity that comes with having songs on air as a songwriter is more rewarding than 2 to 3 million you pay. If you cease to appreciate the song return it to the writer and agree on terms of reimbursement. 
4. When you buy a song even without a written contract there's a psychological contract which is subject to the national constitution and related acts. In this case it's the intellectual property act which protects rights for everyone who contributed to that song. Know this,  the primary owner of the song is the songwriter and what buy is the right to record it and perform it. These rights can be exclusive or not

4. Please(especially girls) do the noble thing and stay away from managers who treat music like a hobby, managers who invest in you and don't need returns  in business. They don't respect you, your music, your producer,  songwriter and anything related.

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Zahara's Country Girl album goes 'Gold' in a day

Well, while Zahara was boarding to come entertain Ugandans for last week's Blankets and Wine, she had just dropped her third album 'Country Girl' only a day back.
Well, word from Jozi says that the album on the day of her Kampala performance went gold.
Read the album review here: http://quenchsa.com/2015/09/24/album-review-zahara-makes-statement-with-country-girl/