Ekhunjwe Musical Group Group
…A folk group. Led by Stephen Bwire, a local music scholar who acted as our contact person and by the group’s secretary Wilhemina Oduor, this is a very organized group of twenty eight (28) members coming from the different administrative areas of Samia district. Ekhunjwe ya Abasamiawas formed in April 2008 with common focus on using music as a tool for community development. The group promotes traditional African values and acts in both education a…
Day Three: Bungoma Town to Kakamega Story
…between them over two years saved 50,000 shillings. They were too young to open an account at bank so saved their money under their pillows. Wilbert then travelled to Nairobi to find someone to record their first songs. They went to Sawa Studios and in 2009 recorded their first album, Khabere Wefwe (these were songs dedicated to their heroes). They turned these recordings into cassettes to sell at the bar for 100 shillings per tape. After a year t…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…ypes of wood); body parts (any specific additional parts and why); strings number; playing techniques (position of instrument; hands positioning and fingers involved in playing; plucking techniques); tuning and sound (central string, sound spectrum, twin strings, accompanying instruments in both traditional context and modern instrumental ensemble, technical innovations and developments); transmission methods; community occasions played in; taboos…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…he burial activities on the following day. Seeing that we had appeased the spirit of their departed, the mourners quieted down and allowed us to continue with the recording successfully, ending shortly after 9:00pm. After a night photo session – thanks to our newly acquired LED lights – members of the Super Phoenix Band jumped on to their Boda Bodas (motorbike taxis) and disappeared into the dark night, one by one. We drove back to Josephine Garde…
Page
…crobatics. One dancer knows what is in the box and is teasing the other to open it. There are mock fights, gymnastics, clown faces and general mayhem, until eventually the snake emerges. From then on, the dance is about how close the pair can get to being bitten or strangled by the snake without getting hurt. Occasionally the snake is set upon the audience but one of the dancers pulls it back by the tail just before it strikes. Breath-taking. This…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…members also do arts and crafts or a skilled trade – Julius’s dream is to open up a hair and beauty studio so they can support the bride with her beauty and music. He hopes the troupe will give them opportunities to travel away from their homes, but also to preserve the traditions of Eastern Uganda to the rest of the world. ——– You can contact Julius at juliuswolimbwa@gmail.com or PO Box 2254 Mbale, Uganda You can find the Troupe on Facebook here…
Kiplagat Edwin Kwambai aka Fifty Cows Staff Profile
…r the Singing Wells project at the time. Fifty Cows went on to be the main contact person and “fixer” for the project. In 2014, the Singing Wells again called on Fifty Cows for the first Repatriation Project by the International Library of African Music, which was supported by the Singing Wells. This repatriation project involved retracing and locating surviving musicians who had been recorded and their music archived by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tra…
Support Singing Wells Page
…companies which may be able to support us with products or services free of charge. If you can help out in this respect please contact: info@singingwells.org…
Privacy Policy Page
…the screen. The Cookies that we use are very much standard and in the true spirit of Abubilla Music and the foundation, we like to be open with you about our methods and how and why we do things. We want to make you aware of this without being too intrusive, so we feel this is the best way to do it. You’ll also notice that all sites are starting to do it. The directive says that functions that are essential to the site are exempt, so sites with sh…
What We Do Page
…post produced to provide an archive of audio tracks and videos. We are in contact with The British Library about adding the Singing Wells collection to their archive of World and Traditional Music but we also endeavour to make our recordings accessible to the widest possible audience of musicians, music lovers and ethnomusicologists. You can find all our recordings on Soundcloud and YouTube or discover music groups by location or genre via our di…
Kochia Traditional Dancers Group
…le, and this centuries-old dance is performed by mature men to beseech his spirit to possess them. Some moves of the dance represent the movements of birds, reflecting the ostrich feathers that the dancers wear. Lead by Alfred Migure, they have built a reputation for themselves as one of the most exciting groups to perform traditional Luo music, with their vibrant regalia and dance moves to match. Their brightly coloured outfits (replacing the mor…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…, mainly that man are descendants from the first creatures put on earth by spirit (the creator of men). Spirit created a man (gboro-gboro) and a woman (meme), and then domestic livestock. Meme had wild animals in her womb so that after the gazelle had broken out all animals followed from her womb. Man was the last to come out. The first human beings are said to have been twins: Arube and O’duu. Arube was a boy while O’duu was a girl. These twins,…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…corded the Zam Zam group on the ground floor, in the center court under an open roof three stories above. Made for the perfect backdrop to Zam Zam’s choir. Their leader and teacher is Ibrahim Ali Hassan. He teaches and performs in Nyumba Ya Vipaji, The House of Talent, in Rahaleo. All male group ranging from age 7 up to 40, ten all together today. They sing Islamic and secular songs for weddings and celebrations. Today was mainly an acapello perfo…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…en if only for a minute. So we will ask the group to re-do one section of the song and sometimes we’ll mic this this differently. Influences: We often conduct a field visit with an influences artists, a leading commercial artist that we hope to inspire by the music of their region. When the ‘spirit moves’ we will do a song with our influences artist and the group. Our ‘output’ for a field visit is a set of videos that we post on our website, Faceb…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…ing off the main revenue-generating activities of many artists. However, a number of urban-based performers were able to migrate their shows and concerts onto online platforms, reaching their audiences at their homes via live streaming. In doing so, they created new income-generating platforms, as some of these online acts allow audiences to support the musicians via M-pesa and Pay-Pal contributions. Another possibility was to sell tickets with th…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
…yatiti’s shape (resembles the traditional Luo hut shape), symbolism of the number (8) of strings of the nyatiti, his tuning techniques and order of string tuning, together with the story of his personal attachment to his instruments collection (owns 14 nyatitis). Upon our arrival to Kisumu City, we had another semi‐formal interview that would birth ideas for other hypothesis and arguments to follow up on. We met Meshack Okoth Okumu, who was to be…