New faces steal show in 2001 music scene

By Kezio Musoke SINCE the beginning of the new millennium, several musicians have sprung up, entertained us to real music and then died out, while others have taken us to the dance floor and kept us there, later becoming some kind of tabloid fodder. As the year ends, there is no doubt that many music lovers would ask what happened to LIMIT X this year. Others would wonder where the hell Steve Jean or Kenneth Kayongo of Swahili Nation fame are. Others would still ask: “What about European-based Luther Martin Kintu or Charlie King Todwong? The answer would definitely come along the lines of: “This was an incredibly different year with extremely different, new kind of talent and new kind of music.” It is no surprise that however much we open the old pages, only the new-comers are worth celebrating this year, definitely with an exception of The Percussion discussion and Afrigo Band. At the beginning of this year, many were wondering what kind of voluptuous reptile of human nature called Chameleon was robbing the Ugandan music charts with a simple Swahili song Mama Mia. Chameleon and his counterpart Moses Ssali a.k.a Bebe Cool emerged this year with an attempt to give an African urban culture in their musical vocals by blending the homeland influence with western music–– with varying success of course. Bebe Cool’s Fitina album, together with Tantalantata was a major success. It was propelled by an interpolation of the Kiganda folk rhyme Kamunye Tantalantata. The biggest joke about his music is that it was shunned by Ugandan radio music selectors, but later topped the East African Top 25 on Nairobi’s 98.4 Capital FM for a straight five weeks. Bebe Cool had all reason to smile this year. Others are wondering why after a long time, this year, Rachel Magoola, a stunningly brilliant gifted writer and dancer, formerly of internationally acclaimed Afrigo Band, chose to leave Club Obligato and make her own home. Why? Others believe that now with a solo career, Magoola is now more established with a high moral tone and solid African taste. Better than when she was under the successful guise of Afrigo Band. Musicians like the youthful Klear Kut and the popular Luo-singing music sensation Tempra Omona also stood out outstandingly from the rest, producing their own original compositions. New talents this year worked pretty hard to ensure that the long dominating Congolese music hit hard times in Uganda all year long. Congolese music simply died out and no Congolese musician had prior interest of performing in Uganda this year. It is only in these silent dying days of the year 2001 that one foreign musician, Saida Kaloli, of Haya origin in Tanzania, has thrilled revellers with a new hit, probably called Wankyekekya or some thing of that sort. Forget Congolese music this year. Kaloli’s music, including songs like Bakuba Baizile and Alimutusile, offers an explanation to why easy listening has such a continuing appeal. While a number of promoters seemed to be less interested in Congolese music this year, and more in other musicians, we can still look back and say, 2001 was a year of real music. The celebration of new musicians like Red Banton, Ronnie Kavuma, Chance Nalubega and Fred Maiso, among others, could be because of the good reasons as well as the bad ones. The bad reasons include the level of artificial exhibitionism produced Ugandan music today. One can simply say, “The year was simply a sham.” And with the absence of patent laws to govern the copyright of original music, Ugandan musicians this year resorted to smartly plagiarising foreign music, something that many have seen as a major blow to upcoming composers. Talking about thieving musicians, Ragga Dee and Ronnie Matovu have emerged outstanding as the biggest shame this year. Ragga Dee, now based in London, released the song Njagala Dance last year that sold over 1,000 copies. This year, producers discovered that the instrumentation of his Njagala Dance was a carbon copy of Wenga Musica’s Sololabien through the sebene (the lengthy instrumentation) and even the animation. Just months after this year, Ragga Dee was back at it again with a more serious copycat, Cissy. The introduction of Cissy is shamelessly lifted from Awilo Longomba’s Sequestration, taken off his latest Cache Cache album. Ronnie Matovu, Ragga Dee’s habit-like complement also hit big with his sensational voice on the FM stations with a zouk song Mujune. Matovu, a new kid on the block, made news in more ways than one. The catchy chorus of his Mujune was stolen from Mujune Tubyine (Come Let Us Dance), which is a composition by Rwandese musician, Jean Paul Samputu. What a shame! Music thieves aside, this year we can as well also celebrate the level at which European and overseas-based musician took their Ugandan fans for a ride. Some made empty promises while for others, their music was simply fracas. Halima and her son, Hemdee were the first to completely die out. What has happened to their newly released eight-track album, Kyama Kyange? Was it really released? Well, Halima should have been here to see how her album was struggling. Before they even performed in Mbale their music is still struggling on the charts. Even a good percentage of her few fans aren’t aware she recorded a new release. It is simply not impressive. The emergence of various Ugandan musicians living and recording music abroad cannot just go without any notice. Some, like Paris based Ugandan musician Geoffrey Oryema, the leading classical African musician are worth the allusion. Oryema and Belgium based Martin Jiucely Mubiru have kept Uganda’s musical flag flying at full mast in the European circle. This year, Oryema attracted hundreds of fans to his latest album Spirits, which has until of recent been top of the worlds’ tribal beats in Europe. There is also no doubt that without the emergence of night clubs and local FM musical promotional programmes where locally produced music is frequently played, some musicians and their music would not have made it this big this year. This year, newspapers, magazines and radio stations recorded the highest number of newly formed music groups. Some like Isaiah Mbuga and Keith Ministries, a dance troupe, have been really impressive gospel musicians. A big number are not quite worth mentioning because, on top of stealing others music, even the stolen-redone versions, fail to hit big. One would call them, ‘more than fake artistes.’ Though the music period has been awash periodically with brilliant flames, just like yesterdays young stars becoming today’s big music stories, there is no doubt that even with today’s glory they might become tomorrow’s fame. Hopefully, Ugandan musicians have put up one hell of a show this year. We can rest confidently that in the new year we shall spend a lot of time looking back at times, scrutinising how they made it happen.