At the beginning of the year, with a few diehard fans, Kenneth Mugabi recorded his latest album, Tales of Mugabi, live at the National Theatre. It was a live recording, probably the first of its kind. He recorded about 16 songs with a live audience, who asked him to repeat a few songs after a performance. He says he decided to do a live recording because Ugandans have always been captivated by live bands and live music. He says regardless of where one goes in Uganda, there is a live band performance there.
Next week, on Friday, Mugabi will host a concert, Tales of Mugabi at the Kampala Serena Hotel’s Victoria Conference Hall. It is not a new thing for him to do concerts dedicated to his albums. “I did a concert for Kibun’omu called Strings of My Soul, at the National Theatre, The Ugandan at Design Hub and People of the Land at Kampala Serena in 2023,” he says. For this album, Mugabi and his team went big on rehearsals before they eventually recorded. The raw version of the album was available on his website at the beginning of September.
He says through the raw album, the audience will appreciate what it takes to put music together. In fact, when you listen to the version available on the website, the recording and cut calls by the director of the day, are all left in. “I wrote most of the songs on this album when I was at university,” he says.The songs on the album, he says are very personal, some he has stayed with for a while, yet others have been left off different albums he has released over the years. Carolina, for instance, has been common on his show playlists even before Kibun’Omu was released, while Njagala Ondabe, he says he wrote it for his now deceased father, at the time he wanted him to accept the path he took, – a musical one.
