Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…s sounds of the Nytati to form something more bluesy; it morphs later into Rumba, which combines Benga and also Congolese music which is in turn heavily influenced by Cuban music. The big guy in Luo Benga was Daniel Owino Misiani who developed the style in the 60’s. A big reason to return to Luo-lands is to trace back to the origins of Benga, understanding in more detail the core instruments. Here, we almost start at the end, recording Osumba Rate…
Christine Kamau – “The Jazzist” News
…ave checked out you project…it’s great that you are dedicated to keeping indigenous music alive..#very best wishes and I hope we can keep in touch. Christine BBC Africa Beats: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17831507 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thejazzist Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/christinekamau …
The Batwa Trail News
…from Belgium. I’m glad to see that news of the Singing Wells project is spreading far and wide! Ivy has made a great video about the Batwa Trail in Kisoro, Uganda. When the Singing Wells team visited Kisoro last year to record the music of the Batwa (click here to go to our field reports), we didn’t have enough time to do the Batwa Trail but we heard about how it is helping the Batwa people tell the story of their cultural heritage and, in doing…
Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga News
…nth, in support of Samba’s new album Maisha Ni Matamu (Life Is Sweet) on Virunga Records. We first met Samba in Kenya, on a recording trip as part of The Singing Wells project. He sang as part of a ‘Welcome’ concert put together by our friends at Ketebul, along with Winyo and Ayub Ogada. We’ll bring more news on his new album as we have it, but until then you can view his tour dates on the Abubilla Music events calendar – just click here For a pro…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…, 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 Park song, which is a staple o…
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…
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…
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-…
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…….
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…
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…
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…
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…