A new type of city Story
…n the distance. Despite this unconventional type of city,I loved it. There was certainly a lot going on and during the week Akello told us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…oys who were intrigued with all our recording equipment. Andy invited them to listen to a playback of one of the songs through his headphones and this particular boy overcame his shyness to have give it a try. We could see how hard life is for the Batwa, living on small pieces of borrowed land on the fringes of society but the performance of the Mperwa Dancers did not portray this – it was full of pride and happiness. Once again, we witnessed ho…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…ough a series of e-mails that travelled the world, Tabu and I were brought together by Joyce Nyairo, then of the Ford Foundation, East Africa office. After several long e-mail exchanges and a few Skype calls, we agreed to start the Singing Wells project. We both knew we wanted to do something to preserve the music but it took us a while to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the music…
Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…lage translates to ‘The Drunk Huntsman’ and Acet, a town that perhaps used to be a bad place, we were told meant ‘a shit’.. ). This means that all of our songs have a purpose, we dance and sing about occasions, it is never for just entertainment. Our first song, ‘Welo Obino’ is sung to welcome visitors, a celebration for new comers in the village. That is why we sang it for you first. We then sang ‘Dug Gang’ which is to celebrate the end of war, t…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…process worked today: Jaybee first worked with Stanley, Bishop and Johnnie to get the basic song structure down and put on a vocal ‘Chorus.’ Stanley wants the song to be a classic love song and the his vocals are really beautiful and sincere. We then asked Nyerere Wa Konde to come in and work on the verses. We asked them to find their best love song that fits the beat and recorded them. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduc…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…had a chance to interview Tabu about the Uganda trip: Q: What did you want to get out of the trip?. A: In each of our trips I’m trying to focus on the one or two things the region is know for. In the coastal regions of Kenya, I wanted to make sure we recorded their shakers, the Kayamba (hand shaken idiophones with dried seeds inside), the Lungo (broken glass moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones). In the R…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…r the last six month when the project started, UOBDU’s staff has been able to get some contribution on his salary plus office stationery as well as fuel for the community visits and facilitation for Batwa members. All these facilitations have been improving the morale of the staff and the Batwa. Challenges Although the Batwa have special talents and gifted by nature in developing songs and dances they lack technical support in order to package the…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ened: the rebels arrived to his village and asked him to show them the way to town. In a way this was a blessing, because his family was saved (often, on abduction, the rest of the child’s family would be killed, so they’d feel angry, distant and unable to return home). Once they arrived at the town they wouldn’t let Odika go and it was clear he was a prisoner. He only managed to escape once the rebels believed he was one of them, and stopped watc…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…kum, not far from Gulu up in Northern Uganda, and moved down to Kampala during the war. We love the instrument they played, the Nanga (below) so much we asked if they would join us in Entebbe to record more songs with Akello. We asked them to come with us to our next stop: our hotel in Entebbe, purely because we were desperate to have more time with the stunning musicians we met in the city. During the two hour drive to Entebbe we talked with Watm…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…et your group is so young and vibrant. How have you managed to do this? A: To get the young people involved I decided to go to schools and teach music. I compose new material with my students and come up with something they like. I watch how they dance and whether they feel the rhythms and I try to teach them what I’m doing, but I also adapt to how they feel the music. I let them take the music where they want to take it as long as it is rooted in…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…g to a clapper board and keep recording through the whole take. We learned to get all the computer and cameras on the same time signature. We learned the roles of each camera (1 is stationary, full group, 2 is politely called fingers/feet and faces and 3 is context and overcoming the weaknesses of 1 and 2’s position). We even sorted out after a while how to stop the groups from starting the song while our poor clapper board person (Nick) was still…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…e other in the war. There were lots of scary moments when rebels would try to force them to declare alligence or die. But by miracle the rebel leaders let them live and play music as neutrals. In 1992, the Uganda Army then re-took control of the area. One of their first acts was to go to each village and accuse them of collaborating, typically killing the men under the assumption that they must have fought with the rebels. For Joshua, this was a t…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…teed to find a beautiful Ugandan child smiling beneath it. The women are altogether different, carrying baskets of nuts and spices, water jugs, charcoal, thatched bundles, etc…. This, of course, gives them a ram rod straight posture, giving them a majectic air and a very practical crown. Before talking about the markets, let’s now talk about the middle of the road, where the vehicles are. There are two types of African roads. r oads in the day. An…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…k them to play the song just with their part find it all a bit strange. So too for African village groups. They don’t go into studios and ‘lay down their track’ in some great over-dubbing session. They perform with a troupe, and they feed off of and help drive the dancing and the other instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff and we wanted to capture it on its own. But the subsequent magic moment session lacked something – our…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…their website under the ‘ATTA Likes’ banner! Thank you ATTA – we will keep you posted on our travels in East Africa with news, photos and wonderful music! Victoria…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…For a full report of the Singing Wells Batwa music recordings please click here: SWP report from Kisoro, Uganda Mperwa Dancers perform for the Singing Wells project …