Uganda music reviews

Bernard Kabanda plays kadongo kamu, a popular Ugandan musical style (although not much known in the West), and it's quite a delight. Mixing the guitar picking of Kenya with the laid-back palm-wine song style, the music is propelled by lightly percolating rhythms, either on the guitar, or added by Samuel Bakkabalindi on shaker. Between two voices, a guitar, and a seed-filled gourd, Kabanda and Bakkabalindi manage to create something wonderful. Kabanda can be both compassionate and funny in his songs, with the kind of warm voice that just lures you in, while his playing keeps you spellbound. There's nothing elaborate here (indeed, kadongo kamu translates as "just a small guitar"), but it's perfect proof that it's people who make glorious music, not technology. --Chris Nickson

Samite of Uganda resides in the United States now, so his frequently autobiographical music tends to romanticize his homeland, the titular "pearl of Africa," as well as his mother, to whom this album is dedicated. Accompanying himself with rolling, repetitious figures on a variety of kalimbas (thumb pianos), Samite sings in a dry tenor voice about his mother's cooking, her storytelling, the introduction of the English language to Uganda, bicycles, and fear (in one song, a boy learns that "it takes more than hair on the chest to be a man"). The ensemble of African and American musicians that joins him also supports a small handful of mellow instrumentals which he leads on wood flute. --Richard Gehr