Kigane Traditional Dancers Group
… Kigane Traditional Dancers, from Kigane Kithurini and Ngatia villages, Suri Location, Bogeta Division. They are 11 men, 12 women, led by Cyrus Kirigia. Their style is Kwimbo, and the songs ares sung to celebrate the harvest mostly in August and March. They are from the Ameru ethnic community and use the Kibere (leg shakers) and Vilingi (whistle)….
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…ncellation, technical or other difficulties that may occur should be taken into account when creating a schedule. The timeframe issue could also be ameliorated by a pre‐recording field mission – a recce. In that sense, all participants would be informed on the date they are to be filmed much more in advance, and the recce could preselect them according to their knowledge and accessibility. I believe recces have been a part of previous Singing Well…
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…e track ‘Kamitol’) and secondly the Takar group – their Korutan and Chepo Mining making it through past technical difficulties on set. The very visual performances of the and the Sagat group (their image is on the cover) and the Embolet are both represented on the album. The final field day of the trip was spent recording the Tugen. The vocal harmonies of the performances have been captured well, with The Elimu Cultural Promoters and the Kewamoi W…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…nal relations for a year. However, by then he felt he was already too deep into music – rehearsing, gigging, teaching private guitar lessons, song writing, etc. His parents disapproved him dropping out, but he persisted and felt that he was reaching more people through his music. In 2008, he auditioned for the Spotlight on Kenyan Music project and met Ketebul for the first time. By that point, he had not identified with any musical style. He start…
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…
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….
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…informal or traditional setting and playing in a foreign setting (notably in Europe). He said: “When I’m home, I’m free, I don’t care about my tuning…When I’m playing in Europe, now the violin wants to come in, the guitar wants to come in, so now I need tuning.” In any case, both his tunings and his finger plucking techniques are very much different from the traditional nyatiti players. He says he created his own style of music and learned to “ad…
Ayub Ogada Group
A musician we choose to bump into frequently is that of Ayub Ogada, probably the most internationally acclaimed Kenyan musician, whose use of the nyatiti in different musical genres is both original and pertinent for our Masters of the Nyatiti story. We spent the day at his home 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 nya…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…nt traditional instruments to modern instruments, all of the four other string instruments involved fall under the category of lyres per definition of “a plucked string instrument with no fingerboard, having strings running parallel to the soundboard tied on a yoke at the upper end of the instrument” (1). According to Hornbostel– Sachs(2), all four would be classified as composite chordophones, more precisely under the 321.2 category of: “Yoke lut…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…en performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE. We recorded five performances: Changamoto: This is about life’s challenges Mawazo Gakwira: About deep worries Nkewane nsanja: girlfriend got pregnant and came to…
Jackie Akinyi Group
…n she used to sing in a traditional music choir and continued even after joining Secondary School. In 1998, she started singing with Jambo Star Band of Mwanza Town, and while with them, she composed her song known as “Wawili Wawili” in the year 2000. After this song did very well on the Kenyan market, she decided to move to Kenya. It was during the years 2004 and 2005 that she met Tabu Osusa (a music producer), who invited her to Ketebul Studios,…
FAQ’s Page
What is the Singing Wells project? Singing Wells is a project jointly operated by Ketebul Music, a non profit music studio in Kenya and the The Abubilla Music Foundation, a UK registered charity. Our goal is to preserve the music traditions of East Africa and make this music relevant to the next generation of musicians and fans. Who works for the Singing Wells project? Our team is made up of audio and video engineers from both Ketebul Music and…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
…, for the road from Nairobi to Kisumu City. However, as our schedule was going to be tight, and some of the preliminary work had not been completed, we opted for a semi‐formal preparative interview with John Otieno ‘Rapasa’, a young nyatiti player based in Nairobi, yet from Alego area (Siaya County), who was a part of our team as a fixer and translator. The main objective of this semi‐interview was to define, at least, approximatively, the differe…
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…any players (like with the entenga drums)? The clans organized themselves into bigger administrative units that culminated into the eleven chiefdoms that later united to form Busoga [kingdom]. When the central government abolished kingdoms in 1967, the bigger administrative structures were weakened. Clans remained because they represent people’s birth, life and death. The larger more political structures [ie. the eleven chiefdoms] were demonized…
Page
…ceeded our expectations for the project. What started as a tiny experiment into recording a few groups performing in their villages has grown into something far beyond what we imagined. What we have captured in our videos and audio recordings 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…
Mchele Mchele Sanaa Group Group
…This group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). …