Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…’s as if they’ve been professionally trained.” The tribes are generally pastoralists so traditionally they move around quite a bit and will not have heavy, big instruments. They will only have instruments they can easily carry although it’s amazing the amount sound they can produce. ” We asked Tabu about the role of harmony in African music: ” Ethical harmonies are different from traditionally trained harmonies. When the missionaries came to East…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
Bill Odidi travelled to London in August as part of Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya @ 50’ music documentary. He teamed up with Andy Patterson while he was here and together they conducted a number of interviews with Kenyan musicians who are now based in the UK. They also had the chance to visit Kenya House in Stratford as a guest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyaf…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…l. Now we can start using the real functions of ArcMap to display information on the map so you have a visual representation of your data. First of all, a recap of what we’re going to do: Prepare our data: ArcMap can be tricksy if your data isn’t properly organised and formatted so it’s worth sorting that out first. Import the data into ArcMap. Join the data to the country outline shapefile. Export the joined data and shapefile as a new shapefile….
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…before. It’s midnight in Nairobi when I arrive at the Fairview Hotel – in torrential rain. Jimmy and Andy have been working in the Ketebul Studio all day and are ready to retire for the night. We say a quick hello and arrange to meet for breakfast at 7.00am. Tomorrow we are off to Uganda. MONDAY Tabu, Ketebul Music’s founder, arrives at the Fairview to meet us. He’s made the last minute arrangements for my flight to Kigali today, so I’m very grat…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…line There is a free online source for spatial data at http://www.diva-gis.org/. To get your spatial data you click on Free Spatial Data in the top-right corner. On the Free Spatial Data page click on country level data. On the Download Data by Country page, select the country you need and make sure the Subject is Administrative areas. There is other data available for free download from this page, such as elevation and population density, but for…
Return of the Batwa @ Ketebul Music Studios Story
…o the Batwa cause that he said yes to such a request. First, their travel story. He was able to contact all the singers on the 29th of November and he arranged all travel papers by the 30th. They then left the morning of the 30th and travelled by private van from Kisoro to Kampala, arriving in Kampala the same evening. They spent the night in Kampala and left the morning of the 1st of December and arrived in Nairobi in the afternoon of the second….
Day 4: Discovery of the Young Stars… Story
…of the roots of Bob Dylan… https://youtu.be/iRQlHbyzoKM https://youtu.be/9Qx_vs2Uw-U https://youtu.be/bmFyePat-VY https://youtu.be/HRXyT1czwG8 https://youtu.be/4jnrLn92SxA And with the Jose recording, we officially finished our November field trip, which took us to Rwanda, Uganda and Lake Victoria. Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi where we will be greeted by the Batwa singers and musicians we invited back to record in the studio. They have been tr…
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
With Lake Victoria as the backdrop to the studio we recording the visually spectacular Kochia Dancers. We drove from Kisumu to Homa Bay; we’re on Lake Victoria now at Homa Bay (still 1PM on your Lake Victoria dial) but a little more south and a little more west, on the south shore of the Winam Gulf. After a long drive, we set up at the hotel in a beautiful field against the lake – we’re surrounded by camels and pelicans, which is frankly a bit of…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…ming. Woke up at the Nyanza Club, outside Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is the view of Lake Victoria we face in the morning before we set out to the next village, Saiya: As we will do six times on this trip, we pass the equator. We can’t help ourselves: Left to Right: Steve, Winyo (with Bone Guitar), Andy and Tabu. After this shameless tourist stop we head out towards Siaya. We’re still roughly 1 PM on the Lake Victoria clock, 90 mi…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…o Osumba Rateng and Ogoya Nengo… If you look at a map and think of Lake Victoria as a clock face, the village for today’s recording is at 1PM – it is the Rang’ala Village, home of the legendary Luo singer Ogoya Nengo. We’re about 90 minutes northeast of Kisumu, our ‘base’ for two days. We are here to record the Sega Sega Band (Benga Style) and the Do Do Band (Do Do), both Luo musical styles; the Luo are Kenya’s third largest tribe, making up about…
The Batwa Trail News
…atwa Trail but we heard about how it is helping the Batwa people tell the story of their cultural heritage and, in doing so, provide an income for this impoverished community. About the Batwa Trail ‘The dense forests at the foot of the Virunga Volcanoes were home to the Batwa people: hunter-gatherers and fierce warriors who depended on the forest for shelter, food and medicine thanks to ancient knowledge passed down for generations. When Mgahinga…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…of the Luo in the Nyanza province in the west of the country near Lake Victoria. We want the focus of these blogs to be about the music. So we’ll keep travel updates to the minimum. In this blog we combine all the fun of travelling from Kisoro back to Nairobi and from Nairobi to Kisumu. Kisoro to Nairobi: Passport Control, Genocide Memorial and Planes We left the Traveller’s Rest at 6.30 AM (we told the boys 5:30AM to ensure promptness – and they…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…or our trip to Kisoro. We have lots of music, lots of video and lots more stories to tell. But we want to keep disciplined and report daily, so forgive us if we can’t give you everything at once. Over the coming weeks, these blogs will be filled with the music and videos and far more background on the project and the Batwa. For now leave for Nairobi again and then, on Sunday, travel to Western Kenya for the next series of villages and more music….
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
…hich include a Batwa song called ‘Abagyeni Beza’ which is in praise of visitors to the community, telling them that they are beautiful. A lovely song for us to hear! https://youtu.be/MIxv2AOZ7XU https://youtu.be/iYuE_b8lzF8 https://youtu.be/bApTXsrdZ3A https://youtu.be/nh9LxM8OrfE https://youtu.be/CPJ5H7XvdT0 https://youtu.be/qQK5NiF7aSk ‘Abagyeni Beza’ https://youtu.be/7i3F5hPSPg8 The afternoon session wraps up at about 5pm. We say our farewe…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…lemen joins the performance and takes the lead in most dances… While spectators from every generation take a seat for the performance… Here are the videos: https://youtu.be/zFjbdw9j1io https://youtu.be/W_VV8xEYziM https://youtu.be/t8Ui32w_NbI https://youtu.be/QHo5Eb2Az20 https://youtu.be/wxzzC5qcweU https://youtu.be/mhzNpJLsZFA https://youtu.be/h_mVjup7_6s https://youtu.be/1zjh68iNClw Jessie leads the first Influences session and Winyo accompanies…
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…Uganda (UOBDU), where we met Henry Neza, the Capacity Development Co-ordinator, and Alice Nyamihanda, Tourism Officer and the first University graduate amongst the Batwa communities. They are to be our hosts and translators for the two days – we were lucky to be joined by Precious as well, Alice’s five month old daughter. Patrick photographs Alice and Precious with Winyo and Steve. And the SWP team pose at UOBDU proudly wearing our Singing Wells t…