The Beat of Kenya News
…peg and the University of Manitoba, where her research focused on immigration and ethno-religious history. Andrea is responsible for research, collections, and exhibit development related to newcomers to Manitoba from the post-World War II period to the present. In particular, her interests are focused on the relationship that forms between immigrants and their receiving society, and how newcomers adapt and negotiate their way, as individuals and…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…nd of Freedom, some of them playing the Likembe. The government forces in frustration spared the extended band and went to the next village. Again, the elder led the village men in a rendition of Uganda Land of Freedom. They went to village after village and everyone could play the song and everyone was a member of the band. The band leader had learned after the slaughter of the village next door two years before and has spent the months in betwee…
A story of Batwa traditions Story
…During the song, the leader gathers the community together and tells stories of the old Batwa traditions before they had to move from their forest homes – the hunt in the forest and the celebrations and meal following the hunt. In this way the children learn about what it is to be Batwa and so will never forget the traditions and way of life of the ancestors….
Health and Safety? Story
…y roads full of potholes on our way down to Kampala. It was going to be a long drive and we were desperate to get in before dark (previous experience of Africa Night Driving had taught the team to avoid it at all costs), but after the accident we had to drive back to Soroti to get it fixed. It was there we were able to find an engineer purely through word of mouth, and had a guy weld our wheel back together on the street while we waited in the car…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…0,000 – our next target) but it does mean more and more people are finding us and enjoying what we are all about – bringing the more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi District. It was the very first video we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to re…
A new type of city Story
…night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconventional type of city,I loved it. There was certainly a lot going on and during the week Akello told us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above…
Victoria’s reflections on field trip to Northern Uganda News
…your life Your history’s a melody, you keep it alive Sing us your memories, there’s volumes to tell And we’ll capture your story, we are Singing Wells On my last day in Uganda, just before I had to leave the rest of the team and travel back to London alone, Akello recorded one of her songs with the Watmon Cultural Troupe, in the gardens of the Airport Guesthouse. It’s one of my favourites and brings back happy memories of an amazing experience. Ha…
The Influences Series from Singing Wells News
…nsider it relevant today. So, we have developed the Influences series – a fusion of traditional and contemporary styles. Each time the Singing Wells team embarks on a field recording visit we are joined by a talented musician who works with us on ‘Influences’ songs. They work with us in the field and also in the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi to produce this new material. We believe our Influences series will refresh the origins of East African…
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…f Nairobi, and driven to Malindi – a town on the Kenyan coast. The evening rush hour traffic in Mombasa meant we had a night drive up the coast road to Malindi. The next day however, we were treated to the sight of the coast road by daylight. The lush greenery and bustling activity of traders along the roadside not apparent the night before. We turned off the main road, and picked up our fixer Ndeche. We journeyed further from the main road past a…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…s to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. Jimmy Allen, Founder Abubilla Music and Trustee of the Abubilla Music Foundation…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…next steps in terms of updating all our trip reports We have a final session on our learnings, positive and negative. On the last topic, here are our reflections on our management of things (elsewhere we will talk about the music, as we did with Tabu yesterday), where we drew 5 main lessons on this trip: Agree the ‘must do’ instruments/song styles at the beginning of trip planning and then make sure we have a group (and a back up group for each)….
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…op and Johnnie to get the basic song structure down and put on a vocal ‘Chorus.’ Stanley wants the song to be a classic love song and the his vocals are really beautiful and sincere. We then asked Nyerere Wa Konde to come in and work on the verses. We asked them to find their best love song that fits the beat and recorded them. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduce a whole new melody over Stanley’s song and deliver it as B…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…sts we discover during our field recording visits. The result is a unique fusion of contemporary and traditional themes. Here we introduce the artists who have created Influences songs for Singing Wells…… Winyo Shiphton Onyango adopted his artistic name ‘Winyo’, which is a Luo word (a tribe from the Lake Victoria region of Western Kenya) for “a bird”. The reason for this becomes apparent once you hear him sing. His voice has been likened to that o…
Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
…erformer who sings in most popular languages like Acholi, Luganda, Swahili and English..After years of working with a few of Uganda’s leading contemporary and world music greats such as Kaweesa, Susan Kerunen, Myko Ouma, Tshila and Kinobe Herbert..she is indeed a rare talent with a rich textured organic voice. Akello begins a new journey of performing her own music compositions that she chooses to call “Hybrid” a simple cross between urban and loc…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…place during the launch of water project by Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust where the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda was the Chief Guest of Honour. In addition, this group has managed to set aside Saturdays of every week to meet and make practices on their cultural music and dance in order to meet its target “staging music shows” as the future plans of the group. GATERA Group Gatera men and women group takes the highest position in…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…u must dig in the field before you can eat. The lyric in swahili in the chorus: “tula kula kua jembe” means ” through our work in the field we can eat”. It is based on the traditional ideology that hard work should always come first. After hearing this set we asked them to do a Magic Moment and then join Akello for Influences to sing ‘Awinyo’, which sounded magical. Our second group was Watmon Cultural Troupe, which was a large dance act of men an…