Day Two: January 19, 2019 From Tarime to Buturi to Bariadi Story
…d the band in freestyle. https://youtu.be/XoaHli19b2U One observation from Day One: These groups have the energy and youth of many of the groups we recorded in Uganda around Lake Victoria, which makes a lot of sense as these groups are from areas very close to Uganda. What you feel when you record these groups is that the music here remains very central to youth culture – these are young, athletic performances full of energy and passion. From Bi…
Day Four: February 19, 2020 (Maruhabi Palace) Story
We drove back towards Stone Town and stopped at the Maruhubi Palace ruins. This palace was built by the third Sultan of Zanzibar from 1980-1982 for his secondary wives. It is now in ruins but you can still see the main buildings with baths inside, a massive overhead aqueduct that supplied water to the palace and circular ponds with lily pads. It’s set in a beautiful location along the coast surrounded by mango trees. We met the first group there….
Day Two: 8 March 2022 (Ilesi) Story
…ne Garden – Ilesi Field Notes: We woke up to a misty morning on the second day of our recording. The plan for the day was to record the Obasie Palnyang band. Seeing the dark clouds hanging over the horizon we decided not to take any chances of being rained on so we arranged for Spade to pick up the musicians from Malaba and bring them to Josephine Garden in Ilesi. Like the Omutibo Stars and the Super Phoenix Band that we recorded the previous day,…
Day Four: Ikolomani to Amalemba Story
Wednesday, 21 February 2018 We drove from our hotel, in Kakamega, to Shiriese Ikolomani to record the Super Phoenix Band. The band was founded originally by Jacob Luseno, who mentored the current band leader Julius Intenya. The musical style is Mutibu. They played roughly 8-10 songs, including several goes with our influences artist. These songs included: Shapeless: A song about a women who lost her shape, lost her curves. Alusiola: A song about…
The Kalenjin of Kenya 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 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 i…
Day two: From Sirisia to Mabuyole Falls Story
Monday, February 19, 2018: Woke up early and drove to Sirisia to record the band Namatete. The band was founded by Weput Khulu Namatete in 1992. He and his friends gradually made instruments and learned to play them while taking care of their cattle. By 1992 they were good enough to call themselves a ‘serious’ band. The founder started by playing the Lituneu. His brother joined him for a while and brought the Shirili, the single stringed instrume…
Day Five: Ilesi, Khayega to Kisumu Story
Thursday, February 22, 2018 We travelled to Ilesi, Khakyega to record three groups. The first was Imachina. They call themselves after the village where they live. As with many groups over the last two days, most of their songs are for processions, like weddings, funerals, bullfights or rites of passage. So they tend to play 3-4 songs in a row to match the procession. We asked them to pick their favourite processions and then play a couple songs…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…eight children and presently lives in the Marura suburbs of Eldoret town. DAY 1: Monday, 07 March 2022 Act Two Artiste: Julius Itenya and Super Phoenix Band Genre: Maveka (Lipala) Location: Kibukosya’s Gazebo – Mukumu Field Notes: The drive to the next location (Kibukosya’s Gazebo) took less than 15 minutes but no sooner had we set up our equipment for the second session of the day than it started drizzling. Fortunately, the rain did not last lon…
Martin Fredrick Muyeshi Staff Profile
…e later joined Ketebul Studio, where he went on to work on several studio projects, among them the studio’scompilation “retracing” series that include Retracing Benga Music, Retracing Kikuyu Popular Music, Retracing Kenya’s Funk Music, Retracing Songs of Protest and the book Shades Of Benga: The story of Popular Music in Kenya, to which he contributed his photos. His work has also featured on Voice of America’s “Music Time In Africa” under the H…
Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…, we then drove a little over three hours to Mwanza, and stayed at Malaika Beach hotel, where we would stay for two days….
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….
Group 8: Abutazi Story
…nanga with rap. Their flow was such that they often went straight from one number into another, so the set list reflects this. Set list Agahinda (“Sad”) and Inanga. Agahinda is a song about depression that Makare wrote 8 months ago, using a metaphor of a burning house where the smoke can’t be kept in. This went straight into Inanga, an ode to the inanga and its sound and all it does for them. We loved this double number so much we recorded it twic…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…s 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). We recorded five performances: Ntale Atabihyala: ‘The boss, who is always wrong, wants to be always right. Just accept it’ Ba Tanzania (Malima): Praising country, encouraging farmers and hard work – this song h…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…g to Hornbostel– Sachs(2), all four would be classified as composite chordophones, more precisely under the 321.2 category of: “Yoke lutes or lyres – The strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the same plane as the sound‐table and consists of two arms and a cross‐bar.” Through a group interview, we attempted to compare them in: size (size of resonator; length of arms and per extension of strings); materials of fabrication (types of wood); bo…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
Day one of our field mission was originally reserved for travel, 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…
Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
… Tarajazz and Kirundo Fusion – we had seen these two bands earlier in the week and they came together at the DCMA. They consist of a combination of young students in their 20’s and established senior teachers of music. It was wonderful seeing them work together and improvise two songs. They produced a wonderful, dynamic fusion of Taarab, Traditional African rhythms and contemporary Western and African sounds. Performers: Tarajazz: Suleiman Makam…