Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon The donors of Abubilla Music Foundation, who support the Singing Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…a chance to interview James Isabirye about how and why we found ourselves together. This is a summary of that conversation, roughly in James’ own words. I use the term roughly for two reasons: 1) These are African roads and James was highly distracted by his own driving during our interview, dodging vans, cows and potholes. 2) I was trying to take notes in a car that seemed to be driving as fast and far left to right on the road as forward. Betwe…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
The Entenga Drums: Part 1 Story
…like the Ugandan xylophone, each with a different note, following the pentatonic scale. Within the set of 12 drums, the third drum from right, the third smallest, is the home note, the ‘1’ for any key. Initially, tuning requires endless adjustments of the ropes that tie down the drum skins. But on a minute by minute basis, the drummers are fine tuning through a combination of water on the skins and massive hits with their fists to stretch the ski…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…. It was very deep. And it made me think back to my village life. When we gathered for big celebrations, the entire village took to the road to walk for miles to a central location. We walked all night. And we sang all night. The old people walking with the children, all of us singing. And now we have a nice road that probably gets us to that site in 20 minutes by car. But what have we lost? We’ve lost the connection that comes with all generation…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…estern country music are famous for performing in their respective genres rather than expounding on meanings and origins. Rarely does one find consensus among fans, let alone among musicologists when it comes to interpreting the history, art and emotive power of a particular music. Still, the imperative of building an archive of a people’s past—including their popular histories—compelled us to search and ask, to travel far and build connections, t…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…nner waver. They were formed in 1930 and have spawned so many imitations that they had to add the word ‘original’ to their name. They are Ameru, of Tharakanithi County. The group plays on all occasions, during harvests, births, weddings, marriages. The play the Mwinjira (Drums) and Biringi (Whistle). This was a tricky set to record because they are such vibrant performers, racing all over the place. When we tried to contain them to get good vocals…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…s Murungi, an ornament on both sides of the arms which is worn by the initiator/circumciser; it signifies a man of respect and authority. Their costumes include Lesos, necklaces, face painting, spears, fly whisks, gourds, and head gear, called Nkoroi made out of cow skin, with Monkey hide. The women cover themselves with green head scarves. The group uses the Kibere (shaker), performed by Jeremiah M’Mbiwiriaft, and the Coro (the flute), played by…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…of the hill, only to see that two of the older women were hauling our generator up to the vans. It took slightly too long for any of us to go help them. Shame. We then drove four hours from the field to Nkubu (route map below), where we stayed at the Heritage Hotel. For the next two nights we became Lillianna’s (our waitress) worst nightmare. We arrived one at a time to our table, and never were coordinated enough to order a round of anything. Som…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
No journey in the morning, other than to gather in the garden after breakfast. The Recording Site We woke, had an early breakfast, packed the personal luggage and then set up a recording session in the beautiful gardens of the Gately Hotel. The Nile Beat Artists The Nile Beat Artists joined us over the morning and we were ready to record at about noon. There were founded in 1990. The group were voted group of the year in Uganda in 2004. Their lea…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…start using them again to store liquids and stop using plastic) The coordinator and lead female vocalist in the group is Irene Nabirye. The group is made up of 6-7 Bigwala players and drummers, plus dancers and singers. They performed four songs and then we did a magic moment with their instruments; these were: Muwe Bwobona Asaba: When someone asks you kindly assist them Mperekera Omwana Womurembe: When you are walking and living with someone by y…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…verely disadvantaged homes. He started to go to University but found that gathering the funds for tuition each time extremely difficult. He had raised the funds for another semester and then asked himself, “Do I want another semester of education, with no promise I will be able to fund another, or can I take this money and start to make a difference?” So he took the money and invested in instruments for children, starting with the Kadodi, the trad…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…s. Chickens hung about ready to provide backing vocals. Children began to gather as we un-loaded equipment. Most of them smile widely when our cameras turned toward them. Most came running to us to see their pictures show up on our camera screens. The musicians had built a performance hall, with a grass floor and tapestry ceiling and were busy practicing when we arrive. Given the rains, the village grounds were covered in about 3 inches of sticky…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…50 stories, one for every video of a performance, and yet we are miserable at getting these stories out to folks. But we will keep trying… Here’s a few of the 250 stories – pull up a chair: The Batwa: Providing a Soundtrack to the Costs of ‘Simple Solutions’ The Batwa are a forest people living in the dense forests along the base of the Virunga Volcanoes. They were evicted from the forest to make way for the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park near Kis…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…archive onsite and online. It states that the GMA tries to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, with material and will look at origin, idiom, transmission, and style of performance when debating whether it is relevant to their collection. It has 10 principal concerns – which can be found here – but the themes of preservation, digitisation and access seem to be three key goals that unite many individuals and organisations alike, working on East Af…