Amone Watmon Matthew Story
…ng, in close rhythm with another player and a third playing simple percussion on a calabash. We made a decision very quickly to invite the musicians back to our hotel to record further. We made the journey back to the Airport Guesthouse in Entebbe, with the musicians continuing their performance in the vehicles. In the garden of the Airport Guesthouse, we recorded a further 6 performances, the group collaborating with Akello, our artist in residen…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…may have previously sold only 15,000 copies today can sell hundreds of thousands of copies.’ Putumayo is living proof of this, as they have sold over 20 million CDs since it began, showing world music can be commercially viable – people want to hear it! Putumayo also has a smart business model. They have created a strong, unique brand identity; Nicola Heindl’s vibrant, folky art beautifully adorns their CDs covers, they know their customer base;…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…archiving African Music, particularly in their country of origin. He gave frustrating examples of tapes being stored in terrible conditions, archives being so disorganised that, even with funding, it would take 20 years to archive properly and equipment being broken because it was not used according to instructions. However, there were examples that gave hope for the archiving of East African music, in Africa; ‘I visited the Ethiopian archives whi…
Singing Wells YouTube reaches 200,000+ views! News
… We’ve reached an exciting milestone here at Singing Wells and are so happy to see that our channel has reached over 200,000 views! Thank you to everyone who watches and enjoys are videos – all of our artists would love to see that their music has reached so many people. Here is our most recent upload for you… The incredible Original Chuka Drummers!…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…Kenyan girls. The song is haunting but made more so by Tracey’s introduction on the LP record (not included on the CD): “The mysterious singer and dancer Chemirocha has been turned into a local god Pan — a faun — half man, half antelope. He is urged by the girls to do the leaping dance, familiar to all Kipsigis, so energetically that he will jump clear out of his clothes… Who could resist such an offer?” Tracey concludes. The charm of the spoken…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…ned. I know that Hugh Tracy blamed Christianity. The churches came to the land and convinced the people that the old ways were evil. Traditional instruments with drums were part of the pagan culture and needed to be erased. Traditional songs about spirits, about witch doctors needed to be ended and replaced with Christian music. James: I think that explains some of it. But the church no longer does that and yet we still reject the old ways. I thin…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…sustain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences.” And it is always great to hear of stories where others are attempting to do the same, especially in countries so close to our heart, such as Uganda. An article on the website of the Ugandan daily newspaper, New Vision, warns about the need to preserve ‘Bigwala’, the royal music of the Busoga region. B…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…‘ conference, the production team from BBC Radio’s Jazz on 3 led a discussion on social media and how it can be used and has been used to increase interaction with the program. One interesting idea was when they held a Google hangout between guest Moby and a few of his friends and live streamed the result on YouTube – something I am keen to try in the future. The Evolving Markets discussion looked at both the African and Indian markets and how t…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…ndah and it was there that we recorded our first ‘Influences’ session – a fusion of Batwa music from the Birara singers and contemporary music from Winyo, including ‘Imparake Yagahinga’, a song in celebration of the National Park which used to be the forest home of the Batwa. The Birara Singers stayed in Kisoro for the next two days and the female vocalists recorded more songs with Winyo. Francis also recorded two traditional Batwa songs: “Inanga…
Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…er’ sung in English -about the arrival of a new manager to a sugar plantation. The irony being that they are thanking him, just for doing his job properly. This was one of the songs the group re-recorded at Ketebul studios – re-named Mr Manager and available on YouTube here: You can find links to the field reports below – along with a link to the group page for the Otacho Young Stars. We’ll be posting clips and recordings of the group on the Faceb…
NME News
…It’s always nice to find your videos featured elsewhere, so when we found quite a few of our Singing Wells videos featured on NME we thought it was pretty cool. Although the content is generated by YouTube, it is always great to have a little bit more publicity for our cause! …
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…sustain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences. The last five years has only re-enforced our commitment. On our first goal, we only have to remember that we were probably the last folks to record Okumu K’Orengo, one of the great Nyatiti players, before he died. On our second goal, we only have to remember Francis and Jessie playing together in Kisor…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…m.” Angela Impey, Convenor of MA Music in Development, SOAS University of London “As a charity dedicated to the documentation and dissemination of the music of marginal groups in Africa, Singing Wells plays an important role in bringing attention to both the music and the broader issues that resonate through it, thus giving voice to people who are otherwise little known or heard.” Mufu Ndosi-Luvai, Publisher, Crave [music] Magazine: “I’m glad I ca…
The New Singing Wells website News
…t easier for you to find and explore our recordings of East African Traditional Music. Here are some of the added features of the new site: Stories Most of what we do is story-telling, in the music that we record, the pictures we take, the people that we meet and the journeys that we make – so we have split our stories into easy to read and find sections. Find them via the menu bar. Podcasts Our podcasts are now displayed with the full track lineu…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…e videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at the Entebbe Airport Guesthouse, where due to the generosity and patience of the manager Jan Willem and the other guests, we set up a recording studio in the garden. You can join us on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/singingwells and on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/singingwells – if you do tweet any links, please use the hashtags – #gotm and #singin…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…at Sherborne, and went on to work in the aviation industry, based out of London Airport – then in Croydon. During the second world war he was stationed with the Kings African Rifles (KAR), as a lieutenant and aide de camp to Sir William Platt, the commander in Chief of the East African Forces. He also worked as a flying boat traffic officer. He was thought to be the first person in Kenya to own a tape recorder, which he bought from a fellow servi…