Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Uganda Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Saxophonist, singer and founder of Afrigo Band, and for fifty years the single most recognisable figure in Ugandan live music.
Moses Matovu began playing in the 1960s with the Cranes Band and helped found Afrigo Band in 1975, in the middle of Idi Amin's rule, when most Ugandan musicians who could leave were leaving.
Afrigo stayed. It is the oldest continuously performing band in Uganda — half a century of the same outfit, through Amin, the bush war, the Obote years and everything since — and it has been the training ground for a large share of the country's professional musicians. The sound is Ugandan dance band music: kadongo kamu and traditional rhythms arranged for horns, guitars and keyboards, sung in Luganda.
Matovu's tenor saxophone and voice are the constant across all of it, and he has kept the band working live rather than living off recordings. He is, for most Ugandans over thirty, simply what a musician looks like.
Afrigo stayed. It is the oldest continuously performing band in Uganda — half a century of the same outfit, through Amin, the bush war, the Obote years and everything since — and it has been the training ground for a large share of the country's professional musicians. The sound is Ugandan dance band music: kadongo kamu and traditional rhythms arranged for horns, guitars and keyboards, sung in Luganda.
Matovu's tenor saxophone and voice are the constant across all of it, and he has kept the band working live rather than living off recordings. He is, for most Ugandans over thirty, simply what a musician looks like.
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