Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…heir history, of war, of famine etc but there will be common themes as all Africans have similar challenges and experiences.” Ketebul is recording traditional East African music before it is lost forever. Tabu came up with the idea of ‘going to the tribes’ rather than dragging the tribes to studios” He describes the Singing Wells approach to mobile recording: “Recording the tribes in their home villages is very different than recording them in the…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…r in the day Henry highlights many of the problems facing the Batwa people today and I realize that wearing dirty clothes is the least of their problems. Despite that, I speak to my daughter Nicola later in the evening and tell her about what I’ve seen and we talk about what we should do with our unwanted clothes from now on. The Birara perform seven songs for us and the dancing becomes infectious. By the end we are all dancing. The children have…
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…under the bar and the dancers ready to do their stuff… The Kochia Dancers Today is all about dances, so our videos will be much better than still photographs. Let us introduce you to the dancers; here in full glory are the Kochia Dancers who dance in the Ramogi style of dance (ref: for a great article on the Ramogi dance of the Luo, by Helen Odwar, click here): https://youtu.be/_qVuMFLJ9-M https://youtu.be/pwVlHnpw8Io https://youtu.be/B_M_OFRzDoU…
Music of the Kalenjin: video playlist News
…k. They are perhaps most widely known as world class athletes as many of the legendary Kenyan long distance runners are Kalenjins, including Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee and the first African to win an Olympic gold medal (Mexico City 1968 in the 1500m). Video playlist The trip was facilitated by the generous support of donors to our charity the Abubilla Music Foundation. …
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…are based in Kisumu, at the Nyanza Club, deep into Luo-land tribal music. Today we are focusing on some of the best Nyatiti and Oruti players around. And we discovered the Keith Moon of Luo drumming. Woke up at the Nyanza Club, outside Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is the view of Lake Victoria we face in the morning before we set out to the next village, Saiya: As we will do six times on this trip, we pass the equator. We can’t hel…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…look at a map and think of Lake Victoria as a clock face, the village for today’s recording is at 1PM – it is the Rang’ala Village, home of the legendary Luo singer Ogoya Nengo. We’re about 90 minutes northeast of Kisumu, our ‘base’ for two days. We are here to record the Sega Sega Band (Benga Style) and the Do Do Band (Do Do), both Luo musical styles; the Luo are Kenya’s third largest tribe, making up about 13% of the population. The Sega Sega B…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…servations: The Casket. We have travelled about 5,000 kilometres so far on African roads for Singing Wells. And we’ve observed Africans carry just about anything on their heads or their motorbikes – fruit of every type, doors, trees, chickens, etc… Our favourite, however, was to be greeted by a motor bike travelling directly towards us with a funeral casket on the ‘back seat.’ Given the safety of the roads, we praised the driver for ‘being prepare…
Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga News
Legendary East African music and friend of Abubilla Music and The Singing Wells project, Samba Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga are touring the UK later this month, in support of Samba’s new album Maisha Ni Matamu (Life Is Sweet) on Virunga Records. We first met Samba in Kenya, on a recording trip as part of The Singing Wells project. He sang as part of a ‘Welcome’ concert put together by our friends at Ketebul, along with Winyo and Ayub Ogada. We…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…ntre 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 out it was cov…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…AY 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 the Mperwa Dancers – the lead singer had a beautiful voice and we did an ‘Influences’ sessions with her. Un…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…usicians want to sound like 50 Cent or Justin Timberlake and too many East African radio stations sound like they are competing on Los Angeles air waves. So the second major goal of Singing Wells is to inspire current artists to pick up on the traditions of these tribal artists. One way we do this is to record ‘Influences’ sessions, where Winyo and other artists work with a sub-set of the tribe to create a new song. This is an altogether different…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
DAY 3: Today, we travelled from Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro, arriving at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel by late eveningWe set off early so we could settle all custom issues with our equipment (we really wanted to return with it all!). We then took Kenyan Airlines (new plane with movies!) to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, population roughly a million. We were met by our drivers Arun and John and drove through heavy rains to the Rwanda-Uganda border cr…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…ve the musical legacy of East Africa; we are trying to make it relevant to today’s artists. Our ‘Influences’ sessions seek to demonstrate the extraordinary power of this tribal music in relation to today’s music. 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 da…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…yo tribes The Nairobi Chamber Chorus considered the topmost choir in Kenya today Cultural Pavilion At the entrance to Windsor Castle there will be a Cultural Pavilion which will contain a backdrop of graphic representations of all the countries that have had a role to play in the Queen’s reign. On the Kenya stand there will be Singing Wells DVDs freely available for guests. The DVD is from our ‘Best of Singing Wells 2011‘ and features music vi…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…equipment for the long trip home. The village We recorded at the village’s central meeting place. Throughout recording, clothes were being washed, iron and hung to dry, meetings were being held, grain sifted, chickens chased about… We felt very much in the middle of things. The corner of the ‘meeting place’, with the rich red earth gradually moving up the light blue walls By this time, we were using the back of the truck as the studio as often as…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…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 and the Pokot. Today he still goes to a yearly peace negotiation run by the Tegla Lorupe Foundation. Tegla Lorupe is a marathon runner and has won the London Marathon. She uses sport to woo the warriors…