Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…g the way, we picked up an 80 year old member of the tribe who was walking from town back to her village. Yes, she walks the 46 kilometer round trip 3-4 times a week, often carrying goods to market or returning with food for the village. This was our first introduction to ‘Batwa Fitness.’ Along the way to the village we passed beautiful lakes nestled amongs the green hills – here’s one that we effectively drove completely around to get to the vill…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
DAY 3: Today, we travelled from Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro, arriving at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel by late eveningWe set off early so we could settle all custom issues with our equipment (we really wanted to return with it all!). We then took Kenyan Airlines (new plane with movies!) to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, population roughly a million. We were met by our drivers Arun and John and drove through heavy rains to the Rwanda-Uganda border cr…
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…
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
…s this worth it guys? [This is a pretty relevant question 470 kilometres into a 800 kilometre journey back from the coast to Nairobi] TO: We have no choice. We have to do something and I don’t see anyone else doing what we’re doing. We’ve got to get three things right going forward: we have to get the audio right. People need to hear the music like we’re hearing it in the field. We’ve got to get world class at this. Second, we’ve got to get the vi…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…sive 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 Kazungu, si…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…s. We must also work to make the songs, the heritage, the culture relevant to today’s artists. Part of that mission then is to help create an East African musical identity to rival the South and West African successes. We had a taste of what this could be on March 29th in Sati, when Winyo joined Bado and his father, Nyerere wa Konde, to do a new song. Bado participates in his dad’s group, but separately records his own music. Bado’s music is great…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legendary Nyatiti From left to right, Joyce, Alfred and Tabu. Joyce is from the Ford Foundation and supports Ketebul. Alfred helped introduce Ketebul and Abubilla This was an evening to represent everything Ketebul is about – bringing new East African artists to the world, but rooting them in the generations of music that came before. This seems a perfect send-off to record village music. We…
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
…20 people applauding their every move..When we finally managed to get them to stop, they insisted on doing one last number for us to join them in dance. I was dragged into the dance and forced to expose my two left feet. Tabu and Winyo gave a good account of themselves with the shoulder shaking dance (which I must point out though is very similar to the dance style of the Lake Victoria region where both Tabu and Winyo hail from). Jimmy gave it his…
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…music for us to hear. In each case they were trying to imitate US artists from 50 Cent to Justin Timberlake. In no case did they build off their own musical traditions even though each of them was proud of their parents’/grandparents’ performances. They just didn’t link these traditions to their own music. Second, we showed the power of bringing a contemporary artists into the villages and working on ‘fusion’, the blending of new music with music…