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 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…
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 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…
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…
Ayub Ogada Group
…me in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu town, and conducted a long yet free of form type of interview. Although a Luo himself, Ayub had never learned how to play the nyatiti in a traditional setting. He picked it up later in his career and studied from a player/teacher at the national cultural centre of Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…me in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu town, and conducted a long yet free of form type of interview. Although a Luo himself, Ayub had never learned how to play the nyatiti in a traditional setting. He picked it up later in his career and studied from a player/teacher at the national cultural centre of Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…ording session, we will also capture alternative takes; these are called: ‘Freestyle’: We work hard to give our groups the space and freedom to sing and dance as they would during a village performance, but there are constraints. Typically we want the group to be seen by our wide camera and many of the musicians have an attached microphone. While generally this isn’t a problem, there are times when the group is constrained. So, we often do another…
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…
Recording Resources Page
…gside some amazing musical technicians, videographers and ethnomusicologists. However, it has taken us time to really work out the best processes for working effectively out in the field. With that in mind, we have created some resources for other groups to use for working in the field. Please feel free to use the below resources for your field trips in whatever region you are based, and please do reach out to us. We love to meet others who are pa…
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…
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….
Support Singing Wells Page
…s keen to hear from people who are happy to offer their time to help the project and from 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…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…k almost an hour for the two to figure out Akwabi’s unorthodox, expressive free style for most of his songs before the actual recording began at 2:00pm. After a few false starts we finished the recordings of Peter Akwabi at 4:00 PM with his latest song which is a tribute to D.O. Misiani, the maestro of benga music who died in the lakeside city in May 2006. Next on stage was Olith Ratego, a musician whose unique dodo style is one of the oldest form…
Martin Fredrick Muyeshi Staff Profile
…ry, specifically the episode “Death in Ten Minutes” as a cameraman. In his free time he was freelancing as a music photojournalist/cameraman to gain more experience. He also joined Royal Media Services’ Citizen TV where he worked on the TV programmes Tabasamu, Nairobi Law andMashtakaas a Director of Photography and a Lighting technician. He later joined Ketebul Studio, where he went on to work on several studio projects, among them the studio’…
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….