Day Five: Ilesi, Khayega to Kisumu Story
…. The songs include: Hoya: This is encouraging the groom to forward and be welcome. Mbabo: This is about everyone coming together for the wedding. Khuchende Pole: This song is telling everyone to walk slowly to and from the wedding so all the people can gather and honour the bride and groom. The Shishebo process – this is about rites of passage, and specifically male circumcision. The songs include: Bikubanda: This is a song that mocks other tribe…
Our Sponsors Page
…ick here to read our field report from that day. We were also delighted to welcome Brad Gibbs from Mara to our recording session in Entebbe on our last day in Uganda – click here. Click here to find out more about Mara and the projects supported by The Mara Foundation in East Africa. Bain Capital Type of Sponsorship: Sponsor of Music Groups, Uganda 2013 Thank you to Bain Capital for their generous donation to Singing Wells in 2013 which was used…
Imachina Group
…. The songs include: Hoya: This is encouraging the groom to forward and be welcome. Mbabo: This is about everyone coming together for the wedding. Khuchende Pole: This song is telling everyone to walk slowly to and from the wedding so all the people can gather and honour the bride and groom. The Shishebo process – this is about rites of passage, and specifically male circumcision. The songs include: Bikubanda: This is a song that mocks other tribe…
Singing Wells Stories Page
…ey from their original home in Israel, following the path of the Nile into Sudan, down to Munt Elgon and then to their present home. This group, as with so many others throughout Africa, tell the story of their forefathers through music and dance – the dancers imitating the Nile as it snakes through Africa. To find out more about the day of recording the Marakwet, view the field report. To listen to the music of the Kalenjin, check out the Kalenji…
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…Recording the Mperwa Dancers Recording the Batwa The Batwa of Kisoro Album Promotion of Batwa Culture – UOBDU Report Play Video #2 – Finding the Lost Voices of East Africa Play Video Letting Voices Be Heard Our mission at Singing Wells has always been to preserve the rich musical heritage of East Africa, whilst also promoting the importance of introducing this music to a wider audience so that this heritage doesn’t get lost. So many of our favouri…
Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…n album. Other than the guitar he also plays the drums and the chivoti. We welcome Fadhilee to Singing Wells and hope you enjoy his contributions! From Obekai, we drove to Kodedema, to record Obasie Palnyang. The group was founded in 1958 by Obasie’s grandfather, Okomo. Obasie plays several instruments, including the Accordian, the Adeudeu and the single string instrument, the Eggereger (similar to the Orutu, but a deeper body). The drums are call…
We assemble in Kisumu Story
…fore. We are very happy to be joined by ethnomusicologist, Kahithe, and we welcome her to the Singing Wells family. A bit of background: Kahithe is a Ethnomusicologist and dance researcher but is also a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She is a skilled researcher with extensive experience in ethnographic research and fieldwork management. She has 8 years of experience in ethnomusicological research in East Africa, with a special focus on d…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…ng our best to record accurately the songs, performers and instruments. We welcome all corrections as we recognize that there will be mistakes. With that out of the way, let’s begin. We arrived in Dar es Salaam Tanzania at 0815AM (yes, our departure from Nairobi was early!). The full Singing Wells crew is sleepless. The Abubilla Music Foundation Crew (Jimmy, Hunter, Sophie and Elliot) arrived in Nairobi from London the night before. The Ketebul te…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…Street in 1971, with Daudia renaming it Melodica. He was passionate in his promotion of local artistes. One of his sons, Abdul Karim, now runs the outlet with no less great passion. It is a shrine for many Kenyans who have either been away from the country for long or reside outside the capital. They visit it to collect old hits every time they are in Nairobi. Melodica has also received numerous musicians eager to experiment with Kenyan styles and…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…held the President). We returned to the Kampala Imperial Hotel and some of us were delighted to find a English football match on the TV (Arsenal vs. Southampton). And we were greeted by Air Conditioning which is most welcome by those of us from the North but feared and mistrusted by those of us from Nairobi. We look forward to recording tomorrow in Kampala. Apparently there is a marathon. We shall provide the soundtrack….
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…up two tents for us to cover the audio and video engineers. This was most welcome, but our recordings were enhanced once or twice by a gust of wind taking our tents off to strange lands. Nick’s band notes flew as well, and were chased by the village children. One particularly important set of notes was found about half a mile away. But tent and notes recovered and the sessions went on… They were dressed in beautiful costumes with hats made of mon…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…eet in the morning. Some of us enjoyed a wonderful spicy cheese burger. And Uganda French Fries and Nile Specials are always a welcome end of the evening….
Tracey Instrument Collection News
…ann speculates that the instrument came to Uganda with the Luo people from Sudan in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and, after passing through the Basoga people, reached the Bagandan Kings. Originally the strings of this lute would have been made of twisted skin, but these have been replaced by nylon. Below you can see how the nylon has been twisted on a similar endongo to replicate the sound produced by the twisted animal skin. Endongo Mb…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…s goes way back. I remember by Grandmother used to always greet me saying ‘Welcome back from school.’ It was very important that I went to school and she could say loudly in the village that her grandson was home from school. She used to ask me how my English lessons were. I would have to say, ‘Hello. Thank you. Please’ and she didn’t understand a word but she would be so proud and tell the village that I was learning English. That was so importan…
Obuell-Lira and the Macedonia Band Story
…roup started to argue that the band could serve a purpose and help provide welcome distractions for the rebels. Eventually, after a few tense hours of debate, the village was spared. The rebels were about to take the young boys as soldiers, but by that time Joshua had gathered the whole village into the band, dancing or banging some percussion instrument. He convinced the rebels that the band included everyone in the village so the whole community…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…traditions and way of life of the ancestors. This is Bashitsi Bahire, the welcome song which the group performed for us. This was our first experience of the traditional music of the Batwa people and we were all overwhelmed by the quality of the performance, so before leaving the Birara we invited Francis Sembagare and the three female vocalists, Jolly, Paskazia and Vastina, to join us in Kisoro so that we could record more of their songs with…