Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…roughly 20-25 groups, and a 100-125 performances. We have roughly 1,000 videos online. Our general setup for a recording is: a) Steve is in charge of audio and we typically have two general mics for the group and 5-6 specific microphones for singers and musicians, b) we have three video cameras operating – one wide shot for full performance, one close up to capture details of instruments and one roving camera to provide a second angle on the perf…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…ucive environment that would enable them to showcase their individual musical talents and unique identities. If we succeed in our efforts, we believe they will rightfully take their place on center stage. To accelerate this process music policies must be put in place for these musicians not to be simply programmed as part of a loose musical troupe, relegated to and delegated with the mundane task of playing ceremonial music to visiting tourists. E…
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…a specific role in this. She is there to comfort the girl throughout the ordeal and to give her lessons about how to live her life in the world of men. We talked to one of the female dancers, Zaituni Salum, about the reality behind the dance. She was kept in her hut for about 3 years, as were most of the women dancers in her band. Essentially, from the moment she goes into the hut, the family is working to arrange a marriage and raise money for he…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…g nyatiti player Kent Mudenda before we continued with our journey to Josephine Garden in Ilesi, Kakamega County, our final destination….
Tarajazz Group
…oard, director), Hassan Mahenge (Saxaphone, assistant director), Mahsin Basalama (contra base), Christopher Weston (Cajon and high hat), Regina Juma (singer). There was supposed to be a violin player but unfortunately he couldn’t make it. Songs: Alamina Dura – The orbit of the Gods Pakistan – written by Siti Binti Saad who loved Pakistan when she visited Kasha – Kenyan Taarab love song. A man singing about his “chest being opened and empty” In typ…
Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
…alimba (hand held thumb piano), lead singer), Heri Kombo (drums) Songs: Mwaludeja – Kirundo group started with this song they had composed. Tarajazz joined in. Nyumbani – Tarajazz started and Kirundo joined in. They improvised together. It was wonderful to see the combination of traditional instruments such as the Tanzanian drums, Kaliba, shakers and sticks along side more Western instruments such as the piano, saxophone, cajon and high hat. C…
Day Three: February 18, 2020 (Stonetown, Mpendae, Maungani) Story
…la). Dancers/singers: Pili Idi (lead singer) Aisha Khamis, Zainab Khamisi, Aldeh Jonas, Nafla Khamis. Director: Omar Mohamed – he didn’t play in the band but directed it and spoke with us Songs: Chapapunga Asili Zarina – rhumba style Magic moment – trumpets and trombone. Once this band started, they played for 25 minutes. When the lead trumpet played a solo, they switched styles. We were able to distinguish between three main styles. The dancer…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…st launched Episode 2 of their online series Shades of Benga Online, to go alongside their book ‘Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mo…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…g but being unique is another. We see a lot of copycats, so when someone comes along that has a genuinely unique sound that is influenced by traditional roots we get very excited. What kind of challenges do you think Singing Wells faces? One of the biggest challenges we face is that we don’t get our artists to perform enough to build their identity. We have great recording material but we don’t get these artists out into the market very well at th…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…resource for traditional music and enables it to have some sort of commercial value, though it is not for profit. It also publishes a magazine, with great articles that supplement the music recordings they have available. For example, the latest issue, Peace, features an article, Coffee, Music, and the Performance of Peace by Jeffrey A. Summit, which explores issues surrounding the music they produce, namely the album Delicious Peace: Coffee, Musi…
Archiving Guidelines News
…for new media or data formats – as in conjunction with OAIS. Chapter 7, Small Scale Approaches to Digital Storage Systems, is of particular use because it contains straightforward information for smaller would-be archives, such as those wishing to archive East African music, concerning both the digitisation of audio or the online storage of the data. It cites two viable options for open repository software, which are basically softwares that allo…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…issued, without modifications, on CD, Tracey’s Music of Africa Series Several albums can be bought on iTunes Klaus Wachsmann 1907 – 1984 Wachsmann was a German born English ethnomusicologist, who travelled in Africa in 1937 as a missionary, serving in several offices in the Office of the Protestant Missions in Uganda. He was to do unpaid work with sacred music at Namirembe and with choral school choirs, before being promoted to more senior roles a…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…visor to the Singing Wells Bill Odidi. The project is to provide an online portal for African musicians to showcase their work, and it looks great. Hopefully we can help the project and work together in some way in the future. Showcases Visited Mike and I were present at the opening concert – curated by Cerys Matthews at the fantastic Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performance…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…features audio tracks and videos of the songs and dances that we have recorded along the way. Two final words: influences and origins. When we first set out the aims for Singing Wells, we realized that we couldn’t just be fossil collectors, finding and cataloging music that will soon die out, leaving videos and songs in the archives. We also had to work to make this music relevant and important to contemporary artists. A key part of a field visit,…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…his was difficult as information on the subject is fairly scarce and sometimes contradictory. However, the beauty of the map (as with search engines and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia), it is Open Source and so people from all around the world can add information to make the map a very useful source of information. By creating the basics, as we have, the broad tribal and musical structure of East Africa is there, now we can only add to it!…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…features audio tracks and videos of the songs and dances that we have recorded along the way. Two final words: influences and origins. When we first set out the aims for Singing Wells, we realized that we couldn’t just be fossil collectors, finding and cataloging music that will soon die out, leaving videos and songs in the archives. We also had to work to make this music relevant and important to contemporary artists. A key part of a field visit,…