Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…at least three major steps. There’s the formation of the brick, typically done near the road, mixing clay and slapping big blobs into molds. Then there is the drying, where oodles of bricks are laid out along the road. And then there’s the firing, where brick are stacked up to about fifeteen feet and then ‘sealed’ into a clay oven that is constructed around them and cooked. We see these ovens in all states of repair from being built, to the firing…
Singing Wells – The Story So Far News
…the project to date, starting with our launch in 2011 when we travelled to Kenya’s Coastal Region to record the music of the Mijikenda. Full of stunning photos and excerpts from our field reports, the 110 page book is a detailed representation of our mission to celebrate and share the unique cultural music heritage of East Africa. Support the Singing Wells project and buy a copy! You can buy a copy of the Singing Wells book at the Blurb Bookstor…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It seems Nigel liked what I told him! Operations Manager Lina Vaiksnoriene has been in touch and ATTA are now following our progress on our website and Facebook. We are delighted that Singing Wells i…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…travel. They had about 15 bul (drums) and 2 drummers and a smallish ndara (xylophone). Their lead male singer was about 6 foot five and commanded the whole group and the growing audience with a loud voice, great dance and fun drumming. They sang Myeli, Wuon Nyaci, Cwara Rac, Ngeta Romo, Atyekedec Gen, and Apako Orang’a. Each of their songs followed a rough pattern: the lead singer sang out the main theme of the song and the drumming started. The d…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…rument imaginable: The Flute (yep, a flute) The Ndara (the amazing Ugandan xylophone) The Rigi-Rigi (similar to the Kenyan orutu) The Agwara (trumpets) The Adungu (the harp we’ve encountered every day now) The group was formed in 1993 and is professional, touring Kampala and other parts of Uganda, sponsored by NGO’s and typically campaigning for things like HIV Awareness, Cultural preservation, etc… Except for the fact they wear clothes under thei…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…sang so softly and it was such a big crowd. But we gave her a lapel microphone and put a microphone directly on the Adungu and recorded. Afterwards, when we turned her up in the mix a magical voice and sound emerged – the ancient lady sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village, surrounded by 100’s had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice. Incredible. She sang: Two Man Dong Lakee Cok Mon Alwak Munu Keya Here’s Two Man Dong: https://yo…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…d the video for Donce Lobe: Finally, Andy started our video on ‘We Are All One’ which will be our 2013 Fund Raising song. By this time, as mentioned earlier, we had about 350 or so people around us, so we filmed Andy entering and exiting this rather large ‘Set’ and performing the chorus. Akello and Andy then led the 350 singers through ‘We Are All One’ as a backing chorus. Very fun! As we were closing down we were greeted by the Chairman of Acet w…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…he distribution of broad musical styles are distinctively different. While one would assume that Kenyan music is dominated by percussion, it is clear from the maps (above and below) that actually string and wind instruments are most prominent, and, largely, string and wind instruments are played together: Distribution of all string instruments Distribution of all wind instruments What was most difficult about this field of resear…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…c, ‘Nyatiti’, Available: http://anyango.com/e/nyatiti/ ‘Kaypacha’, Musical Instruments, Crafts, Aboriginal and Ethnic, Available: http://www.kaypacha.com.ar/en/instruments/nyatiti Wachsmann, K. Trowell, M. (1953). Tribal Crafts of Uganda. 1st. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ‘Traditional Instruments’ of the Uganda People’ (2012), Face Music, Available: http://www.face-music.ch/ ‘EgpytSearch Forums’, Wysinger, M. (2008), REAL Ancient Egyptian…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…ew who lives in Kampala and married to a Uganda woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airpor…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…night wheels up, we will officially end the ‘field visit.’ Now the hard work begins of producing all the videos… Jimmy March 11th, Joma Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi Kenya…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…, that the Langi are also related to Dodoth, Lotuko, Topsa, and Turkana of Kenya. Together with the Iteso, Kumam and Karimojong, they comprise the Atekerin family in Uganda. Customs: The Lango have a cultural distaste for witchcraft, and a strong work ethic. They live in small groups, and recognise no tribal chief, except those chosen to defend the common interest in the time of war. Hutchinson in “The Living Races of Mankind” adds, ‘The Lango are…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…Culture Promotors ‘Chamgi’: a greeting song which ends with handshakes ‘Chebet‘ : about a beautiful girl from Tugen. It’s done in four parts, the first part when her mother presents her, the second part where she sings, the third part when her grandmother presents her and the fourth part when her mother sings her praises. ‘Rirenech’ : a prayer from mass. This is started by the song Kim about God being great and strong. He has created mighty things…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…s world class athletes. The Journey Most the Olympic gold medallists among Kenyan athletes live within 100 kms of Iten and it has become the legendary source of great long distance runners. Over 1,000 Kenyan runners train here and the roads are filled with athletes training for London 2012. In addition, over 300 foreigners train here, mostly from Europe. We went to the main training centre and interviewed a project manager about why so many people…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…rom their town in Lamut. They were a younger group, tall and thin, divided between male and female dancers. They performed explosive short dances, each with a clear story dramatically acted out. They were dressed in striking blue costumes. We recorded 10 songs with them: Kaseta, Kitok Pokot, Chepo Ktpsot, Chelimo, Kech, Chepng’aror, Kalokeya, Suma Agenge and then returned to do an Influences session on Kech and a Magic Moment. The Magic Moment foc…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…1 is static group shot. Camera 2 focuses on instruments. Camera 3 is context. This worked extremely well but created a separate issue – lots of cameras all shooting the same take created the classic problem of linking camera to audio. We thought about this and decied ‘what would be great is if we could write the name of the song on a sheet and then make a sound that linked all cameras to audio.’ Someone pointed out that what we needed was a clapp…