Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…sis to many scientists who came here before me.”. Fossey visited the hotel many, many times in the sixties, to do paperwork, to relax or to meet people. She defined the hotel as her “second home.” The photo shows us ‘on the road’ between Rwanda and Uganda, about to climb the second mountain range, just as the rains hit. We arrived safely, obviously, but hydro-planed a little too often, a little too close to 1,000 foot drops. We are now in the hear…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…ed from each village visit is: Audio and video recordings of at least 3 performances per tribal group (CD/DVD quality) Full interviews with tribal leader, group leader and key members of the community (on camera) Stills and video of the village and community One ‘Influences’ session. To remind, an ‘Influences’ session is when a Ketebul or Abubilla artist works directly with the local group on a song, either one he/she has been working on, or one i…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…vocalists and instruments. We did an amazing job of archiving the full performance, in video and audio way. Going forward, we should work to use our second studio to capture individual sounds. On the video side, we need a main crew focused on the performance and a secondary crew focused on Selling Wells, archiving the stories of the music and the artists. TO: The pilot was a success and proved we were right – take the studio to the talent not the…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…ngano Kayamba The groups is led by Futuma Ali Mwacheruve, dancing and singing in the Kayamba style (which is also the name of the wonderful percussion). It was our first ‘harvest dance’ (Mavuno), which celebrated the harvest and the arrival of the new baby. Lots of ‘props’ including a baby doll, hay stack and lots of bowls of water and spices. Some final shots at our last village. Enjoy…. Winyo and the kids… That’s enough for now. There’s 150 pi…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…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 that we’ve only captured on video…. …and all the kids joined in… http…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…eir opinions about politics and tribal conflicts. The radio is listened to by many across the Kalenjin tribes. Every hut will have a radio and what is said on the radio is far reaching and can be very influential. Kass FM International is broadcast from Washington DC. In 2007 he was working at Kass FM radio when the conflict broke out between the Kikuyo and the Kalenjin and Luo. One hundred and forty people were killed including many civilians. Mo…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…ion of Singing Wells. It is necessary, but not sufficient to arhive the performances of these amazing groups. 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…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…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 respect for each others talent and an amazing evening that only Tabu could pull off. Amazing voice: We recorded video and used the mobile recording studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post t…
Nick Abonyo (the ‘clapper-man’) News
…2010 in Information Technology. In 2008, he moved down to Nairobi and therefore had to travel back and forth over next couple years to finish his degree in Information Technology. While in Nairobi his first job was a three month internship with AirTel. His goal was to get a white collar job in Nairobi but nothing materialised and he went back to Mirogi to live with his aunt. Nick really loves music – his favourite was a reggae group called Lucky D…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…le 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 reconciliation among the local communities around Lake Turkana by giving them an opportunity for cross-cultural cooperation and exchange, both in the preparation and in the course of the Festival. During the three days Festival, representative…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…immy and Andy and headed to Sippers for drinks and dinner and a musical performance by Samba mapangala, Winyo, and Ayub Ogada, that he had organized to welcome our friends from Abubilla. We all joined them later, and I couldn’t believe how late it was when we finally left to go home. Jimmy made a point to check with me whether I knew when we were to depart from Nairobi according to my itinerary. Yes, Jimmy can be a funny guy. Day 2: The Road Tri…
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…ions 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 musical traditions. Winyo performed in three villages and in each one the local groups worked with him effortlessly turning the resulting songs into something very speci…