Following our recording of the Batwa in Kisoro, Uganda the team travelled back to Kenya to embark on the second phase of the trip. We are recording the music of the Luo in the Nyanza province in the west of the country near Lake Victoria. We want the focus of these blogs to be about…
DAY 6: An amazing day at the ‘Hotel Studio’, recording for the first time the Gatera Community (Alice’s community) and the Kabahenda Community. And the return of Francis and the Birara vocalists, and the Magic Bass Guitar… The day began with the return of Francis Sembargare from the lovely ‘Community on a Hill’. We started…
DAY 5 continued: Sunburned, exhausted, and ready to call it a day. Just in time to be shocked by the world’s best bassist.. We opened the ‘Hotel Studio’ for the Kisoro Hill Community who started with wonderful dance and song. But then, they switched gears and set up a smaller group of ‘bass’ and guitar…
DAY 5 continued: A wonderful afternoon – lots of children, sunshine and a very important empty field.Our time on the hill was followed with an afternoon in an empty field. It was a delightfully empty field. The purpose of the field is as a UN evacuation and refugee centre if there are troubles in Rwanda…
DAY 5: Welcome to the most beautiful setting for a music recording session. Today we visit the Mperwa Community. The second day of recording – beautiful sunshine in morning and there’s a patten emerging. Morning sunshine, afternoon rain, then the power goes out. Then the locusts attack. But let’s focus on the morning. This morning we recorded…
DAY 4: We continued our recording of the Birara Dancers when we invited four of the performers (Francis and the three lead female vocalists) back to the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro. Jennifer who manages the hotel is brilliant. She allowed us to set up a recording studio, under the verandah of her hotel, just outside the bar. We…
