Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…e reassembled and headed off for a spectacular trip from an altitude of 2,800m down to 1,114m at one of the floors of the Great Rift Valley. The roads were more winding and steeper than on our trip to Rwanda last November but there was no rain and there were guard rails on the roadside which made it all feel safer. The Journey Jimmy was in the Jeep with the GPS and kept the table below and felt strongly it should be published! Please note how we h…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…ourney Most the Olympic gold medallists among Kenyan athletes live within 100 kms of Iten and it has become the legendary source of great long distance runners. Over 1,000 Kenyan runners train here and the roads are filled with athletes training for London 2012. In addition, over 300 foreigners train here, mostly from Europe. We went to the main training centre and interviewed a project manager about why so many people travel all this way to train…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…ead. We got what we asked for and were rewarded with a 4 km drive straight up one of the hills through homestead after homestead until we arrived at the top of hill with 360 views. The little homestead had a lovely round house with thatched roof, a rectangular hour and a couple hen houses. Cows kept us to the pathways. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful location – looking down on the farms all around us, baked by the sun, but cooled sligh…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…He was born in Mata Hospital and sent to Maseno Highschool, graduating in 2000. During school he loved Alpha Blondy, a reggae artist from the Ivory Coast, but also loved Hip Hop. He took a gap year and the joined a university to take computer classes in 2002-3. He tried to join the Air Force but his mother wouldn’t let him sign up so he joined Creative Edge a graphics design firm, and then Smoke and Mirrors a multi-media company in 2003-2004. In 2…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…ally two sticks on the ground played by two sticks. Tabu first met Ben in 2007, when working on Spotlight on Kenya Music Vol.4. He sang a song called ‘Kiseete’ on the album. (Interestingly, our second group today, Chebonet, played Kiseete, which is clearly a communal song of this community). Ben recorded 8 tracks with us, including a fantastic Influences track with Eddie Grey, a musician who joined Ketebul Music in 2011. https://youtu.be/ot3xNHqm7…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…rough Nakuru and Eldoret on the way. Last night, we agreed a late fee of 1,000 bob a minute for anyone arriving at the studio after 9 am. Money talks and the whole crew were there by 09.00. Everyone. That‘s the good news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little thunder storms and the normal fun with roadworks a…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…The plan tomorrow is to travel up the Great Rift Valley to Kitale, about 400 km northwest of Nairobi. In Kitale we’ll record the Sabaot. The next day we will drive to Kapenguira to record the Pokot. After that we go to Eldoret then onto Iten and Kapsowar to record the Marakwet and Keiyo. The last day to go to L Baringo to record the Tugen. Tabu is not sure what to expect of the tribal music in the villages we are visiting but he is always surpris…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…for the night. We say a quick hello and arrange to meet for breakfast at 7.00am. Tomorrow we are off to Uganda. MONDAY Tabu, Ketebul Music’s founder, arrives at the Fairview to meet us. He’s made the last minute arrangements for my flight to Kigali today, so I’m very grateful to him. We’ve never met before, only spoken on the phone and emailed, but he’s so welcoming I feel I know him already. The complete Singing Wells team congregates at Nairobi…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…atial data at http://www.diva-gis.org/. To get your spatial data you click on Free Spatial Data in the top-right corner. On the Free Spatial Data page click on country level data. On the Download Data by Country page, select the country you need and make sure the Subject is Administrative areas. There is other data available for free download from this page, such as elevation and population density, but for our purposes we’re only interested in ad…
Return of the Batwa @ Ketebul Music Studios Story
…ld probably make it back to Nairobi at the same time we did. We called him on Monday the 28th of November, hoping he could make it to Nairobi by the 2nd of December. It is a sign of Henry’s amazing devotion to the Batwa cause that he said yes to such a request. First, their travel story. He was able to contact all the singers on the 29th of November and he arranged all travel papers by the 30th. They then left the morning of the 30th and travelled…
How To (Arc)Map News
…e it. To that end, Singing Wells will be blogging about how to use ArcMap 10 and what exactly we’re doing with it, so anyone with access to it can understand and follow along (and that includes members of the Singing Wells team itself). Watch this space for future posts, and if you’re interested in ArcMap, you can find out more here. You can also check out their non-profit organisations’ scheme, which allows registered charities access to software…
Day 4: Discovery of the Young Stars… Story
…ing three very different groups: the Otacho Young Stars, The Kanindi Jazz Band and Jose Kokeyo himself. The Music Groups The Otacho Young Stars The first group were four young men, playing in the Orutu style. First, let’s introduce them: from left to right, they were playing the Sanduku (Luo: Nyangile, which literally means ‘box’) Orutu, the metal ring (Kengele in Swahili and Ongeng’ in Luo) and a very happy backing vocalist (who also played the N…
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…from Kisumu to Homa Bay; we’re on Lake Victoria now at Homa Bay (still 1PM on your Lake Victoria dial) but a little more south and a little more west, on the south shore of the Winam Gulf. After a long drive, we set up at the hotel in a beautiful field against the lake – we’re surrounded by camels and pelicans, which is frankly a bit off putting. The pelicans are big enough to fly us away, but luckily we don’t smell like fish. We smell like a lot…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…moments or jump in deep squats around the drums, and c) twice he did major spins, hitting drum, spinning and hitting again on time. The reason you hear it ‘fizzle’ at the last second is because he eventually collapsed. As you listen to drumming, let’s introduce the Orutu. It’s a one string instrument, played with bow, with notes determined by finger pressure against the central stick, ‘fretting’ notes. Here’s what one looks like close up: Here’s t…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…vA-sSgurw https://youtu.be/VOhmHrO8E7s https://youtu.be/jQsCd_U717c https://youtu.be/FOj8jQDOqhI https://youtu.be/qfB0NCW5v-0…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…en, however, but arrived about 7:10. We exited and then walked across the 100 metre ‘no man’s land’ to the Rwandan side, leaving the cars to come through separately. We check in with police and then go to Rwanda passport control to enter. This is now 7:20 or so and a big crowd is forming but luckily, as we were so early arriving,we got through okay. By about 7:40 we were done, but the cars were not yet allowed to pass, as the Uganda exit border ha…