Albums Introduction Page
…h the music of the area we were recording in. Each album also contains a number of extra tracks that weren’t strictly part of the archiving recordings we were making. These recordings are of ‘Influences’ sessions – where a popular musical artist has joined us on our trip to collaborate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will also include these rec…
Kaniini Kaseo Group
…ns the trunk of a banana tree; it says that the trunk can’t be climbed by boys. Mutongoi: This is a song sung to a political leader in the area. The song praises the politician and asks the people to vote for him – he’s Kyonekana na nengwe. His name means, “if seen give it to him”. Kolleji or College: This is sung in the Itheke genre. The song praises a local politician (Major Mutina Muluvi) who takes graduate students to work at Equity Bank and h…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…ut of a plastic pipe and a gourd. They called it etuo aporutu. We were all mesmerised by the Elder’s robust yet sweet voice and unique style of performance – a perfect end to a fruitful day of recording. DAY 3 – Monday 19th February 2018 The third day of our field recordings started in Kulisiru village of Sirisia location in Bungoma County. Here we visited Samuel Namatete Wepukhulu, a locally famous player of the litungu– a seven-string traditiona…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…lay between the drums we made and the loops provided. it was easy to add some melodic sounds and bass to fill out the frequencies after having the foundational part down.” We love how they really nailed why we started this project: bringing the history and culture of this music alive, whilst adapting it for modern tastes and musical styles! We hope this will inspire many more musicians to go back to their roots and create something special! To fin…
Support Singing Wells Page
…directly benefit traditional music groups in East Africa, with royalty payments going straight to the performers wherever possible. The Best of Singing Wells 2011 The Music of the Batwa of Kisoro The Music of the Kalenjin of Kenya Donate any amount We don’t mind whether you want to donate £1 or £100 (or even more). Any amount you give will help the Singing Wells project bring the music of East Africa to more and more people. We guarantee that you…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…a minute. So we will ask the group to re-do one section of the song and sometimes we’ll mic this this differently. Influences: We often conduct a field visit with an influences artists, a leading commercial artist that we hope to inspire by the music of their region. When the ‘spirit moves’ we will do a song with our influences artist and the group. Our ‘output’ for a field visit is a set of videos that we post on our website, Facebook and Youtub…
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…recording the Tugen. The vocal harmonies of the performances have been captured well, with The Elimu Cultural Promoters and the Kewamoi Women Dancers both featured. The latter – a nice addition to the lineup, as the field day coincided with World Women’s Day. Eddie Grey was part of the team for the recordings, and he joined a number of groups to join them for Influences recordings. Two of these have been included on the album – his guitar playing…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…to go to University but found that gathering the funds for tuition each time extremely difficult. He had raised the funds for another semester and then asked himself, “Do I want another semester of education, with no promise I will be able to fund another, or can I take this money and start to make a difference?” So he took the money and invested in instruments for children, starting with the Kadodi, the traditional drums of his culture. The Kado…
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 Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…s with ‘modern’ music on speakers. https://youtu.be/uRfFn7ZgUrU Group 2: Camera: Camera, who has been 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…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…context and modern instrumental ensemble, technical innovations and developments); transmission methods; community occasions played in; taboos and beliefs surrounding the instrument; etc. We also attempted to establish if there was any contact and exchange between neighbouring communities that would give birth to common tunes or influence instruments’ shapes and music styles, etc. 1. Source: Wikipedia 2. The most widely used instruments classifi…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…hat 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 Wells projects and both Ketebul and Abubilla crew…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
…t would birth ideas for other hypothesis and arguments to follow up on. We met Meshack Okoth Okumu, who was to be our fixer in the area. Son of late Okumu Orengo, a well‐known nyatiti master previously recorded for SW, Meshack took up the nyatiti after his father’s death. His discussion with Rapasa and Ketebul’s Tabu Osusa brought up several interesting points, including: ‐ Differences between the two most commonly used trees for nyatiti resonator…
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…s of the Naizungwe drums, James Isabirye, who is co-ordinating the project gives us some background information about the drums and the traditions from which they come: Where do they originally come from and who played them? Uganda has about 65 ethnic societies according to the 1995 constitution. Each ethnic society had a way it was organized socially before the advent of colonialism. Most of the societies were and still are organized on clan syst…
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). …
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…ences at their homes via live streaming. In doing so, they created new income-generating platforms, as some of these online acts allow audiences to support the musicians via M-pesa and Pay-Pal contributions. Another possibility was to sell tickets with the use of online access codes that admit ticket holders into the virtual performance. The result was that a number of live streaming studios where performers book sessions to perform and stream the…