WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-An International Music Lesson
Member Center:
Hanover, New Hampshire - March 2, 2009
Music from the group Kinobe and Soul Beat Africa fills the gym at Hanover High School. The musicians mix sounds from traditional Ugandan instruments with the modern ones of today's rock groups. This is the first time the band has toured in the United States and has been making stops throughout the East Coast.
"The intention is to bring a lot of instruments and culture from our homeland to here," Kinobe explained. "But also the most important thing is to show them how we can fuse that with sounds of the guitar, or the bass, that they are used to, to know that the music can speak one language no matter where it comes from."
It's a language the kids pick up right away. After all, what's a concert without a little dancing? The students-- and even a few teachers-- are not bashful about their approval for the band.
"A lot of new instruments. It made dancing a little bit more interesting, because it's not your normal drums, it's not your normal guitar," said Jeff Colt, a senior. "So it was really interesting to hear what they had to bring in terms of music."
This might be the students' first time hearing Ugandan music but they are already familiar with the African country. The kids have been collecting books in an effort to raise money for "Invisible Children," a nonprofit that builds schools in Uganda.
Emily Bensen is on the Student-to-Student club that organized the book project.
"I feel like it gets the students really involved because they now know who we are as a group and they now know something about Uganda and when we talk to them about Invisible Children, and if they are giving money for a bake sale or donating their own books, they now have a face of who they are giving it to," Bensen said.
A face and a sound uniting students with the rest of the world.
Adam Sullivan - WCAX News
