Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…ntral 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 we set up the tent. Folks are gathered around for the second group. Birds wer…
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…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…of the children The Children Our routine is now established. We drive into a village and meet the musicians and begin setting up. We are about 10 folks and the musicians are another 10-15. We then start the first song and by the end of the session we are generally surrounded by 50-100 kids… Behind the Scenes We have good routines now: We set up our little tent (right) We set up mic stands We set up mics and while folks are setting up, Pato inte…
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
…f Fame Concert’ that Tabu had arranged at Sippers. The music was fantastic and brought to life what the Singing Wells Project is all about. Let’s focus on the music. After all, it is all about the music and the concert that Tabu organised to celebrate the best in East African Music. This was the concert (actually Tabu called it a ‘meeting’ to celebrate the partnership of Ketebul and Abubilla): Kothbiro: Ayub Ogado. This is the song everyone rememb…
Global song released to support SWP News
…Abubilla Music have released a truly global remix of an original song from their first album Six Months of Saturdays – it’s called 71 Hours to Monday and combines musicians and vocalists from Sao Paulo in Brazil, Nairobi and London. All profits from the sale of the track will be donated to The Abubilla Music Foundation to support the The Singing Wells Project. Take a look and find out the story behind the song and the SWP: …
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…d with outside recording and the new equipment (hard ware and software). Pato and Winyo did a great job on video and photography and we realised how important the visual archiving will be for the project. Finally, Deche, who was in charge of logistics was absolutely brilliant and found 8 great teams, four great villages and demonstrated how well we could run the full project. A big thank you to Deche: Our man on the ground in Malindi and Diani. Th…
Testing the mobile recording equipment News
…he field in advance of the village tour in November. Tabu Osusa is putting together the itinerary and the plan is to travel to the coast, near Mombasa, to record the music of the Mijikenda – a Bantu tribe made up of 9 sub-tribes, the most well known being the Giriama and Digo. Music is prolific in these communities and features superb drumming and athletic dancing. Katana Bin Kalama is a contemporary Giriama musician and his song ‘Nilipata Mzungu’…