Harry2 Lwanga

Harry2 Lwanga is a humble soft-spoken bass guitarist for the Black and Blue Jazz band, which performs every Tuesday at Kelly’s Pub in Nakasero. He has been playing bass guitars for 10 years but also plays drums and rhythm guitar. He has been exposed to many instruments but has fancied the bass guitar since childhood.

Before he joined Black and Blue, he was part of a band called Blue Moon, which was actually the first jazz band in Uganda. The other members of the band were ‘bazungu’. When they left the Uganda, he and Frank Mbalire formed another Jazz group called ‘Misty Jazz’ but presently, he is playing with Black and Blue.

His mentors in this genre of music, which is relatively new to Uganda, are Sting and Samite. He adds that every thing that surrounds him inspires him to write music. Being a poet, all he has to do is add melodies and instruments to his written thoughts and that does the trick.

Like it is for Ugandan Hip-hop and R&B music, Harry says that it is hard to get his Jazz music played on radio and the added disadvantage is that it would even be more difficult or next to impossible to have it played in clubs because the crowds there are not jazz-oriented. Most ordinary people consider it music for the literate and don’t have patience to listen to it.

Another hardship is battling with the big names for sales of records and yet the current excuse for a copyright law does little or nothing to help promote local and upcoming artists. Nevertheless, Jazz in Uganda is picking up and Harry is very optimistic that things shall get better.

Harry has a new seven-track album titled ‘Breaking Silence’. He says it is the first jazz album to be recorded in Uganda and they did it at a friend’s home studio. Harry hasn’t done much commercial promotion but has only distributed his music CDs to a couple of friends. He wrote all the music and lyrics on the album.

He is also actively trying to find a Ugandan identity for his Afro-Jazz music so that it can relate directly to the society in order to attract attention. He writes his songs in 5 to 10 minutes and it took he and his friends and colleagues close to a week to finish and master the album.

He dedicates the new album to Benny & Sheila; Linda, Tasha, Binta, Solo, Ntuulo, Tamara, Lyton and Grace. James Onen and Harry2 produced ‘Breaking Silence’. Guitars by John Bash, James Onen and Harry2 and Sax by Saidi Kasule.

He is planning to make another album real soon and this time round is trying to fuse Afro Jazz with Hip-hop. That will be a combination that will be worth listening to.