Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…and we were told we’d need to take our equipment ‘up the hill’ another 1,500 metres to the top. It was at least 500 metre rise in elevation. We told you about ‘our gear’ but forgot to mention that it is NOT light. There were 10 of us and 7 heavy bags, plus the generator. We tried to take the equipment up but were quickly done in my altitude and the slippery red mud of the region. Several young Batwa boys came down, grabbed our equipment and ran u…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…a songs are about the ‘Parcs.’ Kisoro is quite a small town, population 12,000. On a map we are about as far west and south in Uganda as you can go. Traveller’s Rest: We stayed at the Traveller’s Rest, a hotel famed for being a meeting place for gorilla observers. They write about this on their website: “In 1955 Travellers Rest was bought by Walter Baumgartel, and quickly became a meeting place for people interested in the mountain gorilla. Amongs…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…team in the studios for a day . Day 1: 11.11.19, Flight to Nairobi: Jimmy and Andy, Founder and Sound Engineer of Abubilla Music respectively, set out to Nairobi on Saturday for Nairobi. All good with flights, visas, bags and customs and we were greated by Tabu Osusa. Checked into Fairview, had the obligatory fries in a chip basket and crashed. Day 2: 11.11.20 Day in Ketebul Studio: Jimmy and Andy meet the SWP team at Ketebul Studios to coordinat…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…which will contain a backdrop of graphic representations of all the countries that have had a role to play in the Queen’s reign. On the Kenya stand there will be Singing Wells DVDs freely available for guests. The DVD is from our ‘Best of Singing Wells 2011‘ and features music videos from our field trips to the Coastal Region and Nyanza Province. We are grateful to our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board and Hills Balfour for arranging this for us…
Photos from the pilot phase Story
…We promised a final set of pictures and some further reflections. And we deliver. …
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…nted to be a pro studio engineer. He agreed and I joined as apprentice in 2005 and I was 23. The cultural side started in 2007. We started the spot light on Kenya music and other initiatives with Ketebul Productions, the Ministry of Culture and Alliance Francaise. We picked artists from all over Kenya to create an album. This is first move to culture things. Tabu was on the committee for Spot light and he would go out to select folks for the later…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…n 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 pictures more for every one we show, but the internet is too slow to keep posting…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…st the Pokot. He calls this war. The villages would gather approximately 1,000 men and travel to the Pokot to steal cattle and goats. They used guns and spears. They would steal up to 6,000 head of cattle on these raids. When he was younger he was more involved with the support of the older men but as he got older he also had to fight. The fighting was most intense in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. He says it was done in the name of honour or anothe…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…ikes that seemed to wait until we pressed record)… and very beautiful. As 100’s gathered to watch us, we realised all our fears were misplaced … another wonderful village of East Africa, simply loving their music. Supaki Kalazi Our first group was Supaki Kalazi led by Katana bin Kalama playing in the Mwenzele style. Wonderful dancing, costumes and percussion… Katana bin Kalama, with beautiful costume of shells… The Group prepares for their perform…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…utine is now established. We drive into a village and meet the musicians and begin setting up. We are about 10 folks and the musicians are another 10-15. We then start the first song and by the end of the session we are generally surrounded by 50-100 kids… Behind the Scenes We have good routines now: We set up our little tent (right) We set up mic stands We set up mics and while folks are setting up, Pato interviews the group leaders That’s it. We…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…and has been ‘discovered’ by everyone including Chinese Emperor’s in the 1400’s. Sita is a very small village with about 200 people; we recorded in a subset of the village, where all of Bado‘s brother’s and sisters lived with their families. Bado is the fourth son of Nyerere Wa Konde, who runs the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club and is the village elder. To reach the village, you go 15 clicks and then another 2 on a dirt road. There are about 7 houses…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…tures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legendary Nyatiti From left to right, Joyce, Alfred and Tabu. Joyce is from the Ford Foundation and supports Ketebul. Alfred helped introduce Ketebul and Abubilla This was an evening to represent everything Ketebul is about – bringing new East African artists to the world, but rooting them in the generations of music that came before. This…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…years. The programme follows two main runners – David Rudisha who won the 800m in the Beijing Olympics and Edna Kiplagat who is the world cross country champion. They are focusing mainly on their coaching and what it takes to get to the Olympics. Both athletes will be running at London 2012. Most Kenyan runners come from the Rift Valley, in particular the town of Itan where there is a strong culture of running. The high altitude enables runners to…
Global song released to support SWP News
…Abubilla Music have released a truly global remix of an original song from their first album Six Months of Saturdays – it’s called 71 Hours to Monday and combines musicians and vocalists from Sao Paulo in Brazil, Nairobi and London. All profits from the sale of the track will be donated to The Abubilla Music Foundation to support the The Singing Wells Project. Take a look and find out the story behind the song and the SWP: …
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…etter to ‘go to the music’ then try to bring all these talented musicians 900 kms to Nairobi. In addition, we confirmed that Ketebul absolutely has the right set of sound and video engineers to lead these sessions in the future – they have all now been fully trained and have already begun to record sessions on their own. They will be leading the November sessions. If you are interested in the Ketebul’s team’s views of the sessions click on any of…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…s lurked in the background with brotherly advice. March 26, 2011, about 22.00 hours, JKIA Nairobi. Ketebul had partnered with Abubilla on the Singing Wells Project, just about the best thing, in my view, that has happened to the dwindling fortunes of Kenyan traditional genres of music. Tabu and I were at the airport to receive James Jimmy Allen and Andy Patterson from Abubilla. I’d met Andy towards the end of 2010 on his first visit to Africa and…