Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…rces are trying to divide the people, the song encourages everyone to stay united. Akidai Imojong: This song asked everyone to take care of old people and respect them. Asorit: This is a song about poison and refers specifically to Aids, which is the killing disease. The song tries to educate people to be cautious. Magic Moment: While playing, a young child Otwoma was dancing on the edge of the performance. He loved the music, so we brought him fo…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…ecording mission is quite satisfactory. Considering the limited time and a number of challenges encountered, I believe we managed to accomplish most of the set objectives and bring back an extensive amount of data and video/sound materials of very good quality. However, there is space for improvement. I think that team work was successful, although division of roles, more particularly on the data collection part on the project, was initially blear…
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…) the better! Muwewesi Xylophone Group Unsurprisingly for the Muwewesi Xylophone Group, the Xylophone is the star of the show. A giant xylophone lays across the floor, played by 8 musicians, alongside vocalists, pipe flute players and tube fiddle players. Based in Nakisenye, East Uganda, we visited the group in 2013, and when we arrived we found that the band had been there since morning preparing – they had dug the pit for the xylophone, with the…
James Allen Staff Profile
…usic, sharing their passion for preserving and promoting the traditional music of East Africa. Jimmy has an MBA from Harvard University and an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins. He is a dual US-British citizen and has lived in the United Kingdom, with his wife and three children, since 1995. He is chair of trustees for The Abubilla Music Foundation. During the Singing Wells field recording trips Jimmy is a volunteer video engineer a…
Uganda: music of the Batwa Gallery
…orded the music of the Batwa. The journey started in Nairobi where the team boarded a flight to Kigali, Rwanda. From there we travelled by road to Kisoro where we stayed at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel. Our hosts were from the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) who arranged for us to record the performances of six Batwa communities from the district of Kisoro – Birara, Mpwera, Kanyabukunga, Micyingo, Gatera and Kabahenda….
Our Sponsors Page
…the Batwa communities we visited through our strong relationship with the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). http://www.iie.org Soundcloud Type of sponsorship: discounted services Our entire archive is available to listen to on Soundcloud, and their players power the audio playback on our site – click here to visit our archive. Thanks to Soundcloud for their continued support in the Singing Wells project. You can sign…
Video playlists from Kenya 2018 Story
…tube.com/watch?v=K9XDnObrl2g&list=PL6jxUA468Mq-nstKtQ3QajcsDJmBBv3v_ Mumia United https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPi-qsvbch0&list=PL6jxUA468Mq8_Fi8QkIlmsr9KuVVQQPg2 Dot Com Isikuti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idHJE6QL_C4&list=PL6jxUA468Mq_ilLuHcABH8vHJri1c8QCE Super Phoenix Band with Julius Itenya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy4cBwvCpyE&list=PL6jxUA468Mq9NQ-zWTvuNk2xUKNJQr6Uh Bugnoma Roots Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESB-pxQBUYE&…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…g to Hornbostel– Sachs(2), all four would be classified as composite chordophones, more precisely under the 321.2 category of: “Yoke lutes or lyres – The strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the same plane as the sound‐table and consists of two arms and a cross‐bar.” Through a group interview, we attempted to compare them in: size (size of resonator; length of arms and per extension of strings); materials of fabrication (types of wood); bo…
The Singing Wells podcast #3 Podcast
…Here is podcast number 3. In this podcast, we look at the development of Abubilla Music – one of the partners in The Singing Wells project – from initial idea, to music label. There are interviews with members of the SMCC, and music from the SMCC, Louise Calf, Gus Warriner, Tati Kalveks, Chris Kozlowski and Ketebul artist Winyo. Click here to download the podcast….
Day 4 – Tuesday 4th July 2017 Story
…ately a rather difficult interview to conduct because of the interviewee’s reservations, as well as for reasons of bad weather that chased us away before we could complete it. However, we did manage to find out several interesting information, notably, on his beginnings as a player and on the instrument manufacturing itself. Alex Ogwe confirmed our two generation theory and said he only started playing once his father was gone. He also gave us an…
Albums Introduction Page
…h the music of the area we were recording in. Each album also contains a number of extra tracks that weren’t strictly part of the archiving recordings we were making. These recordings are of ‘Influences’ sessions – where a popular musical artist has joined us on our trip to collaborate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will also include these rec…
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…
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…ties were and still are organized on clan system. One ethnic society has a number of clans where each clan has a leader – clan leader. Each of those clans had identifying regalia and one of them are drum rhythms that symbolize the general belief of that clan. The Basoga ethnic society from the Eastern region of the country is organized according to clans. Eleven clans are royal; they are the leaders and the rest are not. One of the clans is the ba…
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…rs and the Kewamoi Women Dancers both featured. The latter – a nice addition to the lineup, as the field day coincided with World Women’s Day. Eddie Grey was part of the team for the recordings, and he joined a number of groups to join them for Influences recordings. Two of these have been included on the album – his guitar playing accompanying The Elimu Cultural Promoters and the Kewamoi Women Dancers….
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…mbe (MP), Minister, Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, The United Republic of Tanzania. Dr. Harrison G. Mwakyembe (MP) We also met with Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda. He was the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, from 2008-2015. He is now a Patron of the Cultural Yamnyausi Foundation. That evening both Ministers hosted a fund raiser for the Foundation and invited Singing Wells members as special guests. We were gr…
FAQ’s Page
…the recording. This amount varies based on a number of factors such as the number of members in the group and the number of songs we record. In the event of any music we record making money directly (through sales, sync licensing or performance royalties) we will endeavour to channel this money back to the original performers. Can I buy the music you have recorded? A selection of our music is available to download from our site. We have one album…