Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…ng. The musician simply ‘beat boxed’ into the pot. And we soon figured out how to mic it (note the green cable). Also, take a look at the shaker in his right hand – a tomato soup can that works as well as any we’ve seen. So, hats off to our wonderful guitarist and his fully home made guitar, with wire strings and frets. And a special thumbs up to the magic bass – a clay pot and a ‘beat boxer’ providing one of the coolest bass lines we’ve ever hear…
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
…ng and we felt it was a great location to record Kanyabukunga Twifatanye (‘Togetherness Group”) from the village of Kanyabukunga. They are led by Gadensia Kampire. The SWP crew poses next to the road sign with the empty field behind. Soon, however, 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 f…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
….be/h_mVjup7_6s https://youtu.be/1zjh68iNClw Jessie leads the first Influences session and Winyo accompanies the lead singer and drummer on another…… …and then serenades one of the women outside her hut! The children like to get involved in what we are doing. These young boys enjoy 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 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…rtists work with a sub-set of the tribe to create a new song. This is an altogether different way of recording and something very new and often scary to the tribal artists. They have to wear headphones to hear other instruments we recorded earlier. They have to sing into a mic. Often they are asked not to clap. Often they are asked not to dance while they sing. We do it to focus on sound quality, but we are fully aware that we are putting these fa…
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…s the green hills – here’s one that we effectively drove completely around to get to the village. This is one of the many views of Lake Chou – 15 of our 23 kilometre drive which took us around the whole lake. Our second introduction to ‘Batwa Fitness’ was on arrival at the village. The road stopped and we were told we’d need to take our equipment ‘up the hill’ another 1,500 metres to the top. It was at least 500 metre rise in elevation. We told yo…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…elax or to meet people. She defined the hotel as her “second home.” The photo shows us ‘on the road’ between Rwanda and Uganda, about to climb the second mountain range, just as the rains hit. We arrived safely, obviously, but hydro-planed a little too often, a little too close to 1,000 foot drops. We are now in the heart of gorilla country, surrounded by trekkers who have come to see the beautiful silver back males. But we are here to record the…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…serve 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…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…: Yes it is relevant and it is working. We’re a good team and like working together (sometimes even without Tuskers). Ketebul knows the music, has a feel for the artists, has full access to people that know the best communities to work with. We have none of that. But we bring different musical backgrounds and that helps. TO: Yes it works. And we’ve got a lot to do to prepare for the next phase! Good team. Diverse team. But a shared passion for mus…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…illage. Enjoy…. Winyo and the kids… That’s enough for now. There’s 150 pictures more for every one we show, but the internet is too slow to keep posting Jimmy…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…The Group prepares for their performance… Sengenya The most energetic group by far, brought the house down, with wonderful dancing. Led by Munyaka Chimega, they danced in the style of Sengenya (which bears their name). Non-stop dancing, multiple songs and they didn’t want to stop (but we ran out of video!). Fantastic energetic dancers that we’ve only captured on video…. …and all the kids joined in… https://youtu.be/m0eG1EcIpNM The kids By now…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…o when we can, but here was the moment: Winyo, Bado and his dad performing together The Kids & Families This is our first village, but already we are astounded by the hospitality and the fun everyone is having. A taste: This hut is to the left of the hut used with group 2. By end of day there were probably two dozen little kids watching. At close of day we were invited to some coconuts to celebrate the music Winyo with Coconuts Maddo, Chairman of…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…n 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. Amazing voice: We recorded video and used the mobile recording studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post this later. In the meantime, a couple of pictures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legen…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…traditional costumes, arts and crafts, dances and music to each other and to visitors. Combined with the stunning geographical characteristics and the very limited general knowledge on the Lake Turkana region, the presentation of the cultural traditions makes the Festival a unique and fascinating experience for everyone involved.’ Steve’s objective is to record the music of all 10 performing groups. All the material will be taken back to the Kete…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…of us. My guess is finally the hunger had kicked in, and he couldn’t wait to get to Malindi and some food. We made it to Malindi around 9.30pm. No one knew the exact location of Paradise Hotel and The Leader and The Guide’s GPS couldn’t help us either. Luckily for us, while we were refueling car number 02 at Watamu, a friend of Pato’s who lives in Malindi just happened to come by the station for fuel too. He took us to Paradise Hotel (which turne…