Page
…ordings is extraordinary artistry and musicianship, reflecting years of training and practice in the ‘village classroom.’. Each of these musicians has learnt from the traditions and stories that have gone before them., often starting their own training as toddlers dancing and singing along to the village music. Whether young or old, keeping to the rules or creating new fusions, what is a common thread tying all of these experiences together is the…
James Allen Staff Profile
…o-heads the firm’s Global Strategy practice. He has 20 years of experience in international business and has worked in Africa extensively during that time. Jimmy launched Abubilla Music in 2008, a small label dedicated to developing young recording artists. The following year he began developing the idea for the Singing Wells project with Ketebul Music, sharing their passion for preserving and promoting the traditional music of East Africa. Jimmy…
Patrick Ondiek Staff Profile
…d he grew up listening to Joseph Kamuru and Ochieng’ Nelly but it was on joining Ketebul Music and following the ‘Spotlight Series’ when he began to really love tribal music. So when the Singing Wells project offered him a new opportunity to discover the music roots of East Africa, Pato jumped at the chance. Why? “First, I love the exposure to different cultures – even my own. I have never heard a lot of the tribal music, even around my own villag…
Stories Page
…We are lucky to uncover many amazing stories with the work that we do at Singing Wells. Use the links below to delve into some of the stories behind the scenes of the field trips, our ongoing projects and some of the incredible people we have met. Music Read some of our articles and stories behind the Music of East Africa. Dive into musical genres, different instruments and the musicians keeping these traditions alive. Picture We manage to take s…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…ral Group – 154BPM Nyatiti group – 158bpm Kidinda Cultural Group – 158bpm singingwells · SW Samples – Adungu Cultural Troupe 111BPM Adungu Cultural Troupe – 111BPM The Adungu Cultural troupe are based in Kampala, Uganda and the main focus of their music is (you guessed it) the Adungu. You can find out more about the band here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop Aloka Oh…
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
…r second Field Visit to Tanzania. (Please go here for the first trip) 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 grou…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…a term to encompass all local traditional forms of dancing, drumming and singing. There are literally hundreds of different ngoma styles throughout Tanzania” Kidumbak: “Kidumbak is a music style closely related to taarab. It is less refined and more upbeat! Musically it falls between Taarab and Ngoma..[and is] typically played..with two small clay drums, a violin played in a frantic fiddler style, a sanduku (or the bass) and the cherewa, a k…
Instruments Introduction Page
…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 instruments are tagged by their ethnicity, their recording location and the type (simply broken down into Stringed…
Here for the Music? Page
…. For some of our stories, videos and the chance to listen to some of our Singing Wells Albums, head to the links below. Stories Read some of our most memorable stories from the field, featuring stunning photography taken by our team. Learn more about the communities we meet, the instruments that are being played and the background stories behind some of the photohraphy on our website. Albums Head here to see the collection of Albums we have creat…
Tabu Osusa Staff Profile
…ng Series. Supported by the Ford Foundation Office of Eastern Africa, the Retracing Series is a research based documentary project whose main objective is to research, archive and document the musical culture of Kenya. Tabu is the East Africa Project Co-ordinator for Singing Wells. His extensive knowledge of the East African music industry is integral to the strategic planning of the field visits and identifying inspirational, cultural music group…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…” and “Agneta Mama”. We also recorded an Influencessession with Fadhilee joining them on the third guitar. Finally, the last session of SW Western Kenya fieldtrip was recording Johnstone Mukabi, the son of legendary George Mukabi, founder of omutibomusic genre and one of the most prominent figures of Luhya music history. Travelling from Eldoret town, Johnstone arrived to the set late and upon arrival immediately sat behind his guitar for recording…
Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…ere: Omuian’gi: A song about ‘in-laws’, where the in-laws are always complaining about the cooking of the daughter in law. They are never satisfied. Imadede: The name of a man with horrible manners. He gossips. He poisons neighbours if he is jealous of their success. In the song, the performers ‘call him out’, letting the whole village know this is a man of bad character. Achaung Kakolong: This is a song sung during droughts. Everyone in the villa…
Albums Introduction Page
One of the main aims of The Singing Wells project is to record and share the music we record in East Africa and one of the ways in which we can share this music is through our albums series. For each project we undertake, we curate an album of the resulting recordings. In most cases, this will include at least one recording from each group recorded. Where it works artistically, we’ll arrange the tracks on the album in chronological order of the r…
Here for Research? Page
…epth information and photography of the different musical instruments used in East Africa. This database is constantly evolving as we discover and record more instruments. The instruments are tagged by their ethnicity, their recording location and the type (simply broken down into stringed, percussion or wind at present) Groups Detailed information about each group we meet on our Field trips. Head here to browse through groups by Location or Genre…
Ketebul Music Group
…r, but succinct, popular version of the academic report and is contained in an attractively designed booklet. To reinforce it is an audio CD featuring re-releases of previous recordings along with a video documentary carrying intensive interviews, analyses, stage performances and archive footage. The global remix of the Abubilla Music song ‘Missing’ was partly recorded at the Ketebul Music studios and can be seen in the video above. …