Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…ural and peri-urban based musicians to migrate their shows and concerts to online platforms in order to reach wider audiences and create new revenue streams. As we headed back to Nairobi on Friday, 11th March 2022, we had lively discussions on ways and means of empowering these marginalized creatives and on how to assist them to access global markets. They need a conducive environment that would enable them to showcase their individual musical tal…
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…
Group 7: The Impano Group Story
Sun 26 November, PM, Nyamirabo In the afternoon we drove to the Nyamirabo area of Kigali to record The Impano Group, (pronounced Imano group, silent P), which means “Gift” or “Talent”, a young five-part group that do modern takes on traditional songs and mix the inanga with the guitar. They have one guitar player, one inanga player and three vocalists. Yvanny is the songwriter, when they do originals. Yvanny, Livingston and Karinijabo met when th…
Group 4: Urugangaze Ballet Story
…and miles. We also experienced a wonderful variety of weather conditions: sun, rain, and an intense fog (limiting visibility to 5 meters). Here’s a bit of the rain! We survived and arrived at the Ethnographic Museum, where we recorded two groups. The first was the Urugangaze Ballet, a group of 55 performers in total (we saw 21 today). They are all made up of locals of different ages, the furthest being from Nyanza. The group was started in 1991 b…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…ay the 14th of February and flew to Zanzibar on Kenya Airways on the first flight on Saturday, making our way to the Ngawala Hotel. Temperature 33 degrees centigrade. Partially cloudy. Saturday was about set up, so we’ll use this ‘Day Zero’ post to fill you in on the purpose of the trip. First, Zanzibar is an island off Tanzania, with a long colorful history. Before it was ‘controlled’ by the Portuguese in 1503, it was a base for traders be…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…t caused us some delays when the laptop overheated due to the hot tropical sun, resulting in drops in frame rates. We solved this problem simply by avoiding direct sunlight and staying in the shade. Due to the short period assigned for the completion of this project, we did not have time to conduct a recce and for that reason we came to realize rather late that some of the venues chosen for the recordings had no main power outlets. Fortunately and…
Uganda: music of the Batwa Gallery
…record the performances of six Batwa communities from the district of Kisoro – Birara, Mpwera, Kanyabukunga, Micyingo, Gatera and Kabahenda….
Group 1: Inganzo Ngari Group Story
…dances, the dancers wore bell shakers on their legs called amayugi. As the sun was starting to set, we were regaled by the Ikinimba (meaning “Jumping”), a dance about the people who live in the mountainous Northern region of Rwanda, who want to jump to get to the peak of the mountain. They performed with tuck jumps, unlike the Masai in Kenya who perform a dance with straight-legged jumps. They were backed by drums and vocals. Finally – still with…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…Vuai Juma Vuai. Ibrihim Ali Hassan has two brothers and two sons (youngest is 10) in this group. Songs: Mzuri Sana Nabia – About the Prophet Mohamed Yaa Nabia Salamu Alaika – Greeting for the Prophet Mohamed sung in Arabic. Hongera Bwana Harusi – Congratulations to the bride and groom Ilifurahika – The whole world is rejoicing after the battle of the prophets Ndoa Ni Sunna Adhimu – Perfect Marriage…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…ngs with Dada Njoo being his biggest hit. After retiring from the Teachers Service Commission, Akwabi joined Kenyatta University’s Performing and Creative Arts Centre where he directed music activities for another 12 years before finally retiring to his village in Ebuhongo were he currently resides. During this recording he was accompanied by his younger brother Silvanus Anyangu (vocals), Ben Mukabwa (bass) and Fiston Lusambo (guitar). They were a…
Group 6: Sudi Mavenge Story
Sun 26th November AM – Highland Suites Hotel, Kigali In the morning we recorded a brilliant guitar player, Sudi Mavenge, at the Highland Suites hotel. We were supposed to record him yesterday, along with his son Shukran Ngaborutonesha and his other guitarist Eric Nova, but there was a huge rainstorm and the location in Muhange ended up being too close to the road, and the cars and puddles made too much noise. So we decided to move the recording t…
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…ief 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 baise muwaya. Their regalia is naizungwe drums. Is there any particular reason they no longer have any players (like with the entenga drums)? The clans organized themselves into bigger administrative units that culminated into the eleven chiefd…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…became ery famous and started getting invitations to perform all over the country. His group added dancers, a keyboard and a drum-set, as they started making their livelihoods out of music alone. DAY 4 – Tuesday 20th February 2018 As we waited for the recording team to set up at the Santa Maria Resort, we started the morning of February 20thwith an interview with Fadhilee Itulya – our Influences artist. Born in 1988 in Kakamega town in Western Ke…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…hly 20-25 groups, and a 100-125 performances. We have roughly 1,000 videos online. Our general setup for a recording is: a) Steve is in charge of audio and we typically have two general mics for the group and 5-6 specific microphones for singers and musicians, b) we have three video cameras operating – one wide shot for full performance, one close up to capture details of instruments and one roving camera to provide a second angle on the performan…
Tabu Osusa Staff Profile
…running some of the top recording and performing bands and artists in the country, including the much acclaimed Orchestra Virunga and The Nairobi City Ensemble, and more recently Iddi Achieng,’ Makadem, Suzanna Owiyo, Olith Ratego, Ogoya Nengo, Gargar and Winyo to mention but a few. Together with the director of Alliance Française in Nairobi, Tabu Osusa co-chairs the steering committee of the “Spotlight on Kenyan Music“ project which seeks to dis…
Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…lage know this is a man of bad character. Achaung Kakolong: This is a song sung during droughts. Everyone in the village is running out of vegetables, and in the song the performers ask the villages to look for vegetables along the river banks. They need find wild vegetables wherever they can. We asked him about the type of vegetables they can find and they include “Erenge” (dark greens) and “Amudokolo” (vines). During the drought, all the women d…