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…continue on for the next 10 years so that this music continues to inspire new artists and new audiences. Discovering “The Voice”: Jovah With this in mind, we come to our favourite Singing Wells moment: discovering the voice of Jovah. Jovah is a singer as part of the Mperwa Dancers, a group of Batwa people who were unfortunately forced to leave their forest home. We met Jovah on our field trip to Uganda in 2013 and were instantly blown away by her…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…. This was a group of wonderful dancing and costume changes. Every song a new and wonderful outfit. We recorded six performances: Omusingero: A song about playing the drums and dancing Nchuma: A song about traditional music that the elders love to play Mrondogomo: A wedding song Kidedeya: A send off song, a marriage song Kidedeya: Freestyle Magic Moment: Omusingero again https://youtu.be/AtwkoD3sDFo From recording we then drove eight hours to…
Group 2: Sophie Nzayisenga Story
…me of age people were used to seeing her. Since then she’s toured America, East Asia and Europe – last week she was in Holland with 200 artists from around the world, and was one of only 5 chosen as the best of the festival. Over the last few years the inanga has been having a resurgence among younger Rwandans, and Sophie is teaching a host of young women to play. The location where we were going to film was flooded, so she came to our hotel and t…
Joginda Boys Group
…Music of the Luo Aluny Village, East Alego, Kenya Group Leader: Organda Joginda…
Singing Wells Stories Page
…n behind the Singing Wells project and the aims we have to record music in East Africa. To visit the group page for the Nyatiti group click here: Nyatiti Group To listen to the track ‘Ywak’ on the album of the Music of the Luo, click here: The Luo of Kenya To learn about the instrument the Nyaiti, check out the instrument page here: Nyatiti Instrument page Jovah We met Jovah on the second day of our trip to record the music of the Batwa in South W…
Sangwamahoro and Royal Burundi Drums News
…dancers, who perform at various events, festivals, and concerts across the east African region. The name “Sangwamahoro,” which translates to “May peace be upon you,” serves both as a greeting and a reminder of the possibility of unity, bridging the divides between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnicities. This message of peace and reconciliation remains central to the organization’s mission, fostering solidarity and cultural pride among Burundians, regardle…
Aloka Ohangla Group Group
…Music of the Luo Aluny Village, East Alego, Kenya Group leader: Otieno Aloka…
Nyatiti Group Group
…Music of the Luo Aluny Village, East Alego, Kenya Group Leader: Okumu K’Orengo…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…ip) For Singing Wells, a field visit is when we visit a specific region of East Africa and record musical groups in villages. On average, we do one field visit a year, recording roughly 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 ha…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…lowing Amina Muta on Facebook. ATIENO OLUOCH X ADUNGU CULTURAL TROUPE This newest submission is called Wena and is by Atieno Oluoch. We loved the vocals and the way they complimented the rhythmic musical workings of the Adungu Cultural Troupe. This new version gave us summer vibes and felt incredibly uplifting! “I’m humbled by this opportunity and glad to have participated in the Singing Wells global project. When I picked the loop, I thought of c…
Day Three: February 18, 2020 (Stonetown, Mpendae, Maungani) Story
…rican rhythms such as Msewe and Kyaso (both from Zanzibar) with Singeli (a new tribal rhythm). Taarab came from early 1800’s as Egyptian music. In Zanzibar the Mother of Taarab, Siti Binti Saad, made Taarab more popular in the 1920’s to 1950’s. We spoke to Hassan Mahenge, the assistant director of this band. He is a teacher at the DCMA. He teaches the Oud and plays the saxophone. All the students at the DCMA study traditional music such as Taarab…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…ed in this part of the process. Though they said it wasn’t pleasant, they knew the importance of this part of the process and wanted to be a part of it so that they could continue their education about this instrument. It is amazing to see young people getting actively involved in the traditions and methods of creating this instrument, so that they will be able to continue these traditions for generations to come. Meet the Students In this weeks v…
Instruments Introduction Page
As we travel around East Africa, we find that we are at times, recording instruments that we have never seen or heard before. In some cases we manage to purchase instruments for our own Singing Wells instrument collection back in the UK. Where we find an instrument that we have not seen before, we make sure we record it, photograph it and research it. This page features a selection of the instruments we have found so far on our travels. The i…
Arrival to Rwanda, Background and Objectives Story
…e Field Visits of Singing Wells were put on hold for three years. But, we knew that our first visit when we could travel again would be Rwanda. We all arrived to Kigali on November 22, 2023 and before introducing the team, let’s talk about our shirts. Every visit includes 100s of shirts, which we wear and give to all our artists. Here’s the 2023 collection. The back of our T shirts tell our history, where we’ve been over the last 10 years (see bel…
Get on the Map Page
If you are making music in East Africa, then we’d love to feature you on our map. Please fill in the options below to get in touch: To Upload music to the Dropbox – go to: http://soundcloud.com/singingwells/dropbox Note: submission of the form grants The Singing Wells project permission to embed any links contained within the form on the map of East Africa. Submission of the form does not guarantee that your group or music will be featured on t…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…s himself also a musician. In Emativini village of Ebubayi location (North-East Bunyore), we visited Mzee Rueben Mahindu and his group called Omutibo Benga. 56-year old Mahindu was taught music by his grandfather. He founded Omutibo Benga in 1979 and ever since has not stopped playing. Today the group consists of 8 elderly members. They refer to the Bunyore folk music they play as sebo music. They use two acoustic guitars and combine them with oth…