Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…and he took centre stage. For us, he symbolised the essence of how life is for the Batwa today – a very hard life, but a life full of spirited song and dance… and this lady is their wonderful lead vocalist… https://youtu.be/pZzgr2PXZ3s https://youtu.be/gt4_CaZNN2c Then the guitar and bass took to the stage….if you are wondering where the bass is, the plastic bag turn out to be significant. We were bemused by this magic plastic bag, but it turns…
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
…e audio team for the day, Andy and Willie, deploy the essential sun shield for the mixing desk. They also found an additional use for the Pelicases, and Winyo’s guitar case, as mixing table and chairs! This little girl sensibly brought an umbrella for a sunshade……and happily accepted some much needed water: And here’s a very special young lady from this community – Fiona Nyiraguhirwa. Fiona has been sponsored by UOBDU through Junior School. Everyo…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…he lead in most dances… While spectators from every generation take a seat for the performance… Here are the videos: https://youtu.be/zFjbdw9j1io https://youtu.be/W_VV8xEYziM https://youtu.be/t8Ui32w_NbI https://youtu.be/QHo5Eb2Az20 https://youtu.be/wxzzC5qcweU https://youtu.be/mhzNpJLsZFA https://youtu.be/h_mVjup7_6s https://youtu.be/1zjh68iNClw Jessie leads the first Influences session and Winyo accompanies the lead singer and drummer on another…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…d remembers through music. But few peopele are there to listen and each performance runs the risks of being forever lost. With our mobile studios, we are able to take the studio to them, working in their environment to capture as best we can the music and dance of their community. It is important to note that these sessions are incredibly important to these communities. It is no exaggeration to say that most of them live to dance, live to sing. Wh…
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…faced a beautiful patchwork of terracotta and green. These are the predominate colours of this trip. The dance site itself was no less beautiful: We then set up the ‘studio’ ready to record the Birara Dancers: The key sound engineers do a final check before we begin: Steve, Andy and Jesse do a final sound check before we begin. https://youtu.be/l-1IG790EOs https://youtu.be/u38YYaTQMIY https://youtu.be/uNeC4Dw4bu0 https://youtu.be/9FZeFgg4jKI ht…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…can go. Traveller’s Rest: We stayed at the Traveller’s Rest, a hotel famed for being a meeting place for gorilla observers. They write about this on their website: “In 1955 Travellers Rest was bought by Walter Baumgartel, and quickly became a meeting place for people interested in the mountain gorilla. Amongst them was ‘gorilla-woman” Dian Fossey, who said: “Walter’s hotel was an oasis to many scientists who came here before me.”. Fossey visited t…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…c. Chief Sound Engineer: Commands the audio team and is in charge of input for all sessions and for completing all finished audio for that day. Assistant Engineer: In charge of set up/breakdown of set and assisting Chief Sound Engineer on day Trainee: Supports Assistant Engineer and takes tutorial from Chief Engineer during session. Chief Video Engineer: In charge of Stationary Camera and placement of Roving Camera 2 Roving Camera 1: In charge of…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…11‘ and features music videos from our field trips to the Coastal Region and Nyanza Province. We are grateful to our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board and Hills Balfour for arranging this for us and giving Singing Wells a presence at this wonderful cultural celebration. …
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…vocalists and instruments. We did an amazing job of archiving the full performance, in video and audio way. Going forward, we should work to use our second studio to capture individual sounds. On the video side, we need a main crew focused on the performance and a secondary crew focused on Selling Wells, archiving the stories of the music and the artists. TO: The pilot was a success and proved we were right – take the studio to the talent not the…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…s of ‘props’ including a baby doll, hay stack and lots of bowls of water and spices. Some final shots at our last village. Enjoy…. Winyo and the kids… That’s enough for now. There’s 150 pictures more for every one we show, but the internet is too slow to keep posting Jimmy…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…ugh. Although we would use general anaesthesia! It was honourable to fight for his community and he was given cows for his bravery. He sold these cows to pay for his school fees. In 1996 he went to the Seminary to become a Catholic priest. He felt this would be a way to help promote peace between the tribes. He had too much experience with conflict and wanted a way to resolve it. He was involved with many peace negotiations between the Merekwet an…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…n… Katana bin Kalama, with beautiful costume of shells… The Group prepares for their performance… Sengenya The most energetic group by far, brought the house down, with wonderful dancing. Led by Munyaka Chimega, they danced in the style of Sengenya (which bears their name). Non-stop dancing, multiple songs and they didn’t want to stop (but we ran out of video!). Fantastic energetic dancers that we’ve only captured on video…. …and all the kids jo…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…probably two dozen little kids watching. At close of day we were invited to some coconuts to celebrate the music Winyo with Coconuts Maddo, Chairman of Ketebul during our coconut break That’s it for now. This is only Day 1 of recording… we look forward to the next two days, 6 more groups, 3 more villages and of course 600 kilometres back to Nairobi. Jimmy …
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…ing studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post this later. In the meantime, a couple of pictures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legendary Nyatiti From left to right, Joyce, Alfred and Tabu. Joyce is from the Ford Foundation and supports Ketebul. Alfred helped introduce Ketebul and Abubilla This was an evening to represent everything Ketebul is about – bringing new East A…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…ories. She was also surprised how far some of the musicians had come to perform. She was talking to some of the singers and, for example, the young woman in Ben Kisinja’s group came from Kitale, about an hour’s drive away. She was happy to see that people of all ages were committed to this tribal music. She’s interested in using some of this tribal music in her documentary. She was also impressed by how well the Singing Wells group worked together…
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…e entertained by traditional troupes – who shall be reasonably remunerated for their efforts (and not depend on handouts from politicians who use them to spread their own skewed policies or lack of them in the music industry).” To achieve this mission, we are committed to six specific objectives: Record village music in the villages, ensuring that the groups are able to perform as a whole, in their local environment, supported by their families an…