Gary Barlow, Ayub Ogada and our very own global song News
…different musical styles, instruments and vocalists – you could call it a truly global song. And talking of truly global songs, here’s one of our very own… The track is called 71 Hours to Monday, an original song from Abubilla Music which tells the story of a girl who hates her job and counts down the hours from Friday evening until the dreaded Monday comes round again. The global remix of the song features musicians from Sao Paulo to London to Na…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
DAY 5 continued: Sunburned, exhausted, and ready to call it a day. Just in time to be shocked by the world’s best bassist.. We opened the ‘Hotel Studio’ for the Kisoro Hill Community who started with wonderful dance and song. But then, they switched gears and set up a smaller group of ‘bass’ and guitar and absolutely blew us away… They started as wonderful large group moving through a set of songs, including ‘Imparake Yagahinga’, the National Par…
Gary Barlow, Ayub Ogada & the Diamond Jubilee song News
…Ayub Ogada who we met in 2011 just as Singing Wells was launched (you can read our blog post here). Ayub, a musician from the Luo tribe, plays a traditional instrument called the Nyatiti and performed the beautiful and haunting song Kothbiro for the soundtrack of the film The Constant Gardner. We were delighted to hear that Gary followed Andy’s advice and met Ayub on his trip to Kenya this week. Here he is speaking about it to Chris Evans on the…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…ful voice and we did an ‘Influences’ sessions with her. Until the music is ready, with think this village is best described through pictures: We arrived, greeted by lots of men and boys going back and forth to market, including this chap (later we’ll write on a blog on all the things folks carried on their head and bikes). And there’s always the wonderful backdrop of the Virunga Mountains. And the inevitable narrow path leading up to the village…….
Congratulations Singing Wells! News
…mportant. I met Tabu Osusa and Bill Odidi while doing some training on audiovisual archiving in Kenya as part of a British Library World Collections Programme initiative. It was a great pleasure and it is wonderful to see these fruits of their expertise and enthusiasm. Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator World and Traditional Music, British Library website: http://www.bl.uk online gallery: http://sounds.bl.uk main catalogue: http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-…
Kenya’s Great Rift Valley & the Kalenjin tribes News
… Photos and music from the Singing Wells trip to Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to record the music of the Kalenjin tribes. To read more about the field recording trip click here. …
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…isions. Kisoro: Located in the Mufumbiro Mountains which are part of the Virunga Mountain range. This range holds all the mountain gorillas and has the national parks Parc Des Volcans and Parc Des Virunga. This becomes important because so many of the Batwa songs are about the ‘Parcs.’ Kisoro is quite a small town, population 12,000. On a map we are about as far west and south in Uganda as you can go. Traveller’s Rest: We stayed at the Traveller’s…
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
…om the Masai, Samburu, Luo, Kamba and Kikuyo 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…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…egion caused their eviction from their traditional forest homes. You can read all about our trip to Uganda and hear the music of the Batwa here: Field Reports An email from UOBDU Following our trip to Kisoro last year we sent a parcel to UOBDU for the Batwa communities we visited. The parcel contained printed books of photos of all the people we met and CDs and DVDs of the music performances we recorded. We also printed some leaflets about the B…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…certain sounds so that we can really capture individual 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 prov…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…he groups as well as the people in the Singing Wells group. A few things struck me about the groups I interviewed. First they were for the most part not professional groups. They usually came from one village and the songs they sang came from everyday village life. Music is used as a form of communication and entertainment. The songs are used in various ceremonies such as weddings, births, funerals, harvesting and circumcision. They are also used…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…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 away from fighting. She encourages using their strength and endurance in sport and not in violence. He stayed at the Seminary for four years but eventually decided this was not the way to bring peace. Even though he is a Christian he did…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…We must also work to make the songs, the heritage, the culture relevant to today’s artists. Part of that mission then is to help create an East African musical identity to rival the South and West African successes. We had a taste of what this could be on March 29th in Sati, when Winyo joined Bado and his father, Nyerere wa Konde, to do a new song. Bado participates in his dad’s group, but separately records his own music. Bado’s music is great, p…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…ocumentary project for the past four years. The programme follows two main runners – David Rudisha who won the 800m in the Beijing Olympics and Edna Kiplagat who is the world cross country champion. They are focusing mainly on their coaching and what it takes to get to the Olympics. Both athletes will be running at London 2012. Most Kenyan runners come from the Rift Valley, in particular the town of Itan where there is a strong culture of running….
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…to the Nyanza region, recording the Luo tribes, capturing the Nyatiti and Orutu in full action. Please read here for more. We also worked hard to find tribal musicians who were creating music that sounded wonderfully fresh and modern. Much of this we captured in what we called ‘Magic Minutes.’ Below, you will discover the Otacho Young Stars, with their modern take on the Orutu. But then watch the magic of the Nyatiti and Luo drums in two ‘magic mi…