Day 4: Discovery of the Young Stars… Story
…rn): Here’s the full band. The leader is second from right. The two lead dancers are third from the right and far right sitting. https://youtu.be/YT7fEQn7u5o https://youtu.be/F_iuv9uwlRo https://youtu.be/ZLRh1szBXoI https://youtu.be/NLstJmXsKTU https://youtu.be/-fgeskbFbow Jose Kokeyo Jose is a fantastic benga player. Interestingly, as a young student in the early ’60s he went to university in Moscow. So he and Jimmy had a great time talking Russi…
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…. 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 https://youtu.be/6AjxDKLPLkg https://youtu.be/2iGUcQRLRp4 Photo gallery Here is the chief drummer… Here is the coolest Kochia Dancer you will ever meet in Ho…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…w setting things up and recording both audio and video. So here’s the view from behind the scenes: A young audience watches proceeding (performers are on far right, tent protecting recording equipment far left against back of truck, video guys in middle). And a view from the field showing Jimmy on Camera 2 filming Organda Joginda: Andy resting after setting up microphones: And Steve working as chief engineer on this session (Macbook Pro and two Mo…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…N3nkdSB5g The Dodo Group Featuring Ogoya Nengo. The group sings in the Do Do style. Ogoya has exremely strong vocals and there are four ‘shaker’ players and amazing drummer and a set of dancers. https://youtu.be/k3vA-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
…e did, but here were some of our ‘we didn’t really know that’ conclusions: From launch to peak, a million people were slaughtered in about four weeks while the UN, the Belgian and French forces stood by. They had been warned on the specifics but did nothing. This wasn’t gas chamber horror – this was one child at a time, one machete at a time horror. Blood was all over everyone’s hands. The genocide was primarily the Hutu’s against the Tutsi’s, but…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…e not excluded from the show. They learn the traditional Batwa songs and dances from the earliest age… Kamunto Moses The return of the guitar and magic bass. This is Kisoro Hill who had a couple hours to work with Winyo and Jessie on an ‘Influences’ session. You’ll remember our beat boxer in a pot (bassist): And you’ll remember our guitarist…….who was happy to be back performing with us! With his hand made guitar… And his growing fan base…. And th…
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
…, the area was filled with lovely children, here to watch some wonderful dancing and singing. As we unload the vans, the ‘Togetherness’ group are waiting to greet us on the ‘stage’….. The performance is fantastic… here the group are singing ‘Waratsinze Sikota’ in praise of God, but lamenting that the Batwa people had lived in the forest under grass huts, but now live near the streets under tin roofs…. The crew worked hard in the blazing sun – gett…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…exclusive access to the sound recording area, keeping a close eye on Andy and Willie and enjoying listening to the live performance through their headphones……
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…humbled by the strength of the Batwa, before we had even witnessed their incredible singing and dancing. A young Batwa man grabs the mic stand bag, which required two of us, and jogs up the mountain We finally struggled up the hill and saw the recording site for the first time. There’s a great irony about hills in Uganda. From a farming perspective, hill tops are often the worst land, far from towns and difficult to farm. The Batwa find themselve…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…is known negatively, of course, for the horrible 1994 genocide that was launched from its capital. Rwanda is roughly the size of the US state of Maryland, or Wales in Great Britian and has a population of 11.4 million. It’s econony was devasted by the genocide but is recovering; a major source of its recovery is the tourist industry, centred on the famed mountain gorillas. Uganda: Known as the ‘pearl of Africa’ – it too is covered with hills and l…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…ideo Engineer Nick, Trainee Engineer Winyo, Ketebul Music Artist, “Influences Sessions” From Abubilla Music Jimmy Allen, Founder of Abubilla Music & Video Engineer for Singing Wells Andy, Chief Sound Engineer, Abubilla Music Vicki, Project Manager, Singing Wells A note about the Singing Wells recording equipment: Because the ultimate goal of the Singing Wells Project is to helpother groups set up to expand the r…
Photos from the pilot phase Story
…We promised a final set of pictures and some further reflections. And we deliver. …
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…her initiatives with Ketebul Productions, the Ministry of Culture and Alliance Francaise. We picked artists from all over Kenya to create an album. This is first move to culture things. Tabu was on the committee for Spot light and he would go out to select folks for the later recordings but the recording happened at the Go Down Arts Centre. The Spot Light series brought up the whole richness of Kenyan music. Some of the groups were very large, but…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…nd massive kicking dancing called the mabumbu-mbu. Beautiful singing and dancing from the women and gracious leadership from Bahri wa Katana… Chechemeko raha Bahri Wa Katana The Gunda Player and High Kick Dancer Two Lovely Women Dancers Dancing in mabumbu-mbu style One of the percussionists during break… Two members rest before the performance… Bahri wa katana and Tabu 4 the Mzinga Our fourth group was called 4 the Mzinga, led by Alfonce Kazun…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…he music. Three things to report…. The Village Sita is about 15 kilometres from Malindi, which is on the Kenyan eastern coast, against the India Ocean. It has a long history, is mostly Muslim and has been ‘discovered’ by everyone including Chinese Emperor’s in the 1400’s. Sita is a very small village with about 200 people; we recorded in a subset of the village, where all of Bado‘s brother’s and sisters lived with their families. Bado is the fourt…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…followed Ayub Ogado who played percussion throughout. There was a lot of dancing, including a drop by from Maddo: Winyo: He’s the current new star from the Ketebul stable. He sang back up for Samba and when he came on he said he was humbled by the extraordinary talent in the room. 50 years of East African music, the hand-off of one generation to the next. Massive respect for each others talent and an amazing evening that only Tabu could pull off….