Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…The Diamond Jubilee Pageant is a performance involving dancers, musicians, military and equestrian displays from around the world to mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It starts tomorrow in the private grounds of Windsor Castle and will be attended by Her Majesty. The show consists of seven acts drawing displays from different parts of the world, reflecting the countries which The Queen has visited during her reign. Representing Kenya, the show w…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…college for Graphics Designs and met a lot of musicians there and started with music production, music software, starting with Fruity Loops. I remember the first song I was produced was a song called Msewangu, which is slang for my ‘buddy.’ During the time I was in college, I had a friend who was in a band; she knew an Indian singer who had a project with a temple. She wanted to do a fusion between Indian and Kenyan music. A common friend brought…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…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 were pretty much everywhere….. Folks are intrigued with Pro Tools 9…. …and life went on as we recorded… Zigidigi Cultural Troupe The group is led by Matano Mwach…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…zele style. Wonderful dancing, costumes and percussion… Katana bin Kalama, with beautiful costume of shells… 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 tha…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…g and dancing in the Koringongo style. They used the Marimba, a wooden xylophone. Wonderful lead vocals, very Islamic sound… 4 the Mzinga, featuring the Marimba …with lots 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 b…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…denly absolutely magic, unique, and only something Bado, from his village, with his background, with his love of his dad’s music could produce. We weren’t in LA anymore, but standing firmly in East Africa. We all agreed this was a big moment – of course, pictures don’t capture it and we will release the video/audio when we can, but here was the moment: Winyo, Bado and his dad performing together The Kids & Families This is our first village, but a…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…yed. Marina, Samba Mapangala: This is the song that Samba opened his piece with. He followed Ayub Ogado who played percussion throughout. There was a lot of dancing, including a drop by from Maddo: Winyo: He’s the current new star from the Ketebul stable. He sang back up for Samba and when he came on he said he was humbled by the extraordinary talent in the room. 50 years of East African music, the hand-off of one generation to the next. Massive r…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…view with Chela Lebo Chela was born and raised in Kitale, Kenya. She works with the Content House Education Trust to archive the history and progress of Kenyan runners. Chela has been working on the documentary project for the past four years. The programme follows two main runners – David Rudisha who won the 800m in the Beijing Olympics and Edna Kiplagat who is the world cross country champion. They are focusing mainly on their coaching and what…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…dea of recording music at the Festival to the AMF, it seemed a perfect fit with the objectives of the Singing Wells project and the trustees were happy to approve a grant to cover the costs of travelling to the Festival with the new mobile recording equipment. The main purpose for the Festival, which is hosted by the German Embassy in Nairobi and the National Museums of Kenya, is to ‘overcome tribalism in the region and to promote peace and reconc…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…r 01, and Maddo on the wheel, Winyo, Pato and I in the air conditioned car number 02, which was equipped with a GPS unit courtesy of Maddo, the chairman or as he prefers to be called “The Leader and The Guide!” The Chairman and owner of GPS 4 and half hours and 322 km later, we made a stop in Voi town for lunch. Everyone had some food apart from Tabu. I have known Tabu since 2005, and I can count the number of times I have seen him having a meal o…