Jjingo: From midwife to stardom with hot album
Dec 09, 2004
For Rebecca Jjingo a trained as midwife and nurse a nurse at Rubaga Hospital. But the prospect
By Joseph Batte
For Rebecca Jjingo a trained as midwife and nurse a nurse at Rubaga Hospital. But the prospect of spending her entire life thrusting injections in patient’s behinds wasn’t appealing. she chose to join the world of pop music.
After all she sang in the choir at Mengo SS. And she had a stint singing in Namirembe cathedral and Kansanga church choirs.
Kato Lubwama, her uncle, recruited her in 2000.
But even if she was relegated to making cameo appearances, she proved one of the most enticing lady vocalists in the country with a voice that croons so effortlessly.
In fact, Jjingo is in the same league with band mate Phoebe Nassolo (Kwata Wano) Mariam Ndagire and Mariam Mulinde.
However, those the days are over. Lubwama has finally let her loose on us with a red-hot album titled Pilot Wange, which has been released by Power Music House at Cooper Complex.
I have to confess that at first glance, the track listing did not excite me.
This is because the tracks are too few. they are Pilot Wange, (my Pilot) Ekirisa, (Nutrition), Obwetowaaze (Humility) Omukwano Gugeza (Love can make one fat) and Ogenda n’Omutima gwange (You are taking my heart).
Secondly, I suspected her album was another bland Pentium chip-wham-bang affair that clogs the market and sound as if they were the works of only one producer!
That was until slotted in my radio cassette. Fine the album crawls with that keyboard synth-driven sound, but it surprisingly works quite well throughout the whole record.
None of the songs warranted a fast-forward because they each of the six have ‘hit’ written all over it.
The lead single Pilot wange starts the album off as a party track. The intro-verse-chorus- verse-pause midway and climax style is designed to stick on our ears.
Warning is it has explicit lyrics but Kato Lubwama, who penned 95 percent of the material, did a good job at masking them. If you are not accustomed to Luganda lyrics, you may find yourself straining to grasp the deeper meaning. Rather than give up, I encourage you to understand the metaphors before tossing it out.
On the other hand, I don’t understand why Jjingo and Uncle Lubwama picked Pilot Wange as the title track. In my opinion, the lead off track should have been Obwetoowaze because only real life issues are discussed here.
Lyrically this song shines because it takes on iron ladies, who treat us like trash, who throw tantrums, whine like piglets and drag us to FIDA when we give them the boot. Every man should play this track for his wife. She will certainly go down on her knees and ask for forgiveness trampling on you.
The plus on is that Kayizzi employs several styles like reggae, zouk and rumba. He employs a double bass technique that helps keep the grove and while Congolese Chido’s breezes in with his lead guitar that maintain the ambiance going until the final strains fade out.
All the songs have something in common, they all have catchy chorus. Innocent Kayizi, again proves why his is catchy groove master and why he was also late Elly Wamala’s favourite producer.
The only weak points is Jjingo intonation of some words like “Dear Sikusaba bingi...†Nga wali onfebezza...†sound queer due to poor Luganda intonation.
That said my final verdict is: I will be disappointed if this album doesn’t make Jjingo a superstar.
For Rebecca Jjingo a trained as midwife and nurse a nurse at Rubaga Hospital. But the prospect of spending her entire life thrusting injections in patient’s behinds wasn’t appealing. she chose to join the world of pop music.
After all she sang in the choir at Mengo SS. And she had a stint singing in Namirembe cathedral and Kansanga church choirs.
Kato Lubwama, her uncle, recruited her in 2000.
But even if she was relegated to making cameo appearances, she proved one of the most enticing lady vocalists in the country with a voice that croons so effortlessly.
In fact, Jjingo is in the same league with band mate Phoebe Nassolo (Kwata Wano) Mariam Ndagire and Mariam Mulinde.
However, those the days are over. Lubwama has finally let her loose on us with a red-hot album titled Pilot Wange, which has been released by Power Music House at Cooper Complex.
I have to confess that at first glance, the track listing did not excite me.
This is because the tracks are too few. they are Pilot Wange, (my Pilot) Ekirisa, (Nutrition), Obwetowaaze (Humility) Omukwano Gugeza (Love can make one fat) and Ogenda n’Omutima gwange (You are taking my heart).
Secondly, I suspected her album was another bland Pentium chip-wham-bang affair that clogs the market and sound as if they were the works of only one producer!
That was until slotted in my radio cassette. Fine the album crawls with that keyboard synth-driven sound, but it surprisingly works quite well throughout the whole record.
None of the songs warranted a fast-forward because they each of the six have ‘hit’ written all over it.
The lead single Pilot wange starts the album off as a party track. The intro-verse-chorus- verse-pause midway and climax style is designed to stick on our ears.
Warning is it has explicit lyrics but Kato Lubwama, who penned 95 percent of the material, did a good job at masking them. If you are not accustomed to Luganda lyrics, you may find yourself straining to grasp the deeper meaning. Rather than give up, I encourage you to understand the metaphors before tossing it out.
On the other hand, I don’t understand why Jjingo and Uncle Lubwama picked Pilot Wange as the title track. In my opinion, the lead off track should have been Obwetoowaze because only real life issues are discussed here.
Lyrically this song shines because it takes on iron ladies, who treat us like trash, who throw tantrums, whine like piglets and drag us to FIDA when we give them the boot. Every man should play this track for his wife. She will certainly go down on her knees and ask for forgiveness trampling on you.
The plus on is that Kayizzi employs several styles like reggae, zouk and rumba. He employs a double bass technique that helps keep the grove and while Congolese Chido’s breezes in with his lead guitar that maintain the ambiance going until the final strains fade out.
All the songs have something in common, they all have catchy chorus. Innocent Kayizi, again proves why his is catchy groove master and why he was also late Elly Wamala’s favourite producer.
The only weak points is Jjingo intonation of some words like “Dear Sikusaba bingi...†Nga wali onfebezza...†sound queer due to poor Luganda intonation.
That said my final verdict is: I will be disappointed if this album doesn’t make Jjingo a superstar.