Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…The drum sound of the slab, with the hole underneath is actually unique in the world of percussion. They are not limited to 22, because there is no royal role. Anything between 21 and 23 is fine. If they could extend it, they would. The limit is the deeper you go, you can no longer tune the slab. It stops going deeper. The nature of the wood limits the distinct notes to between 21-23. You also saw them dance. They play all the dances they would do…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…where we’ve found an extra-special artist on our journeys and recorded their work. To celebrate our 500,000th YouTube hit, we’ve put together a selection of our most popular videos. We hope you enjoy, and please keep visiting our channel and sharing the traditional music of East Africa with the world. Recording Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club perform in Gede, Kilifi, Kenya on our Singing Wells Pilot trip in 2011. A brief collage of the story of the r…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…brate other cultures and share our own. I think there is a place for us in the world market and we haven’t tapped into it yet. For a long time Kenyan’s have just been music consumers. In exchange for our buying other’s music, we want them to see them buying ours. Who inspires you, and who are your influences? Anyone who is doing something original inspires me. I don’t like copycats. I like music from Jazz to Hip Hop as long as it sounds original….
Current Leading Figures News
…experience music outside of their own culture; “it is the only way to test the other western cultures and learn from them. Also it helps Ugandans to improve on their culture and adding more creativity in music.” The Elgon Hero Brass Band produces music outside of the spheres of traditional African music, but according to both James and Tabu, this is not to its detriment: James Isabirye said the following, “Young people need opportunities to experi…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…r 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 African Music. 3. British Library: World & Traditional Music Under their World & Traditional Music collection online, they have sub-divided their content into continents, making the African material easily accessible in one pl…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…ecording and archiving process of his music, which he gathered from across the world; beginning in the Middle East in 1966 and spreading through North and East African from 1969 till 1975. He later went on to record across the Pacific Ocean for ten years, from 1978. He is stated to have recorded hundreds of tribes and is commended for forming close relationships with them, which allowed him to gain permission to record their music. Mary K. Oyer,…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…s his favourite Hugh Tracey story. Here’s the story as told in Muzik: “And then the big bomber: the song I consider Tracey’s single most outstanding recording, “Chemirocha,” a paean to Jimmy Rogers (yes, the country singer) by some Kenyan girls. The song is haunting but made more so by Tracey’s introduction on the LP record (not included on the CD): “The mysterious singer and dancer Chemirocha has been turned into a local god Pan — a faun — half m…
Report from Womex 2013 News
The Singing Wells project attended the World Music Expo this year in Cardiff. The festival lasted from Wednesday 23rd to the 27th of October. The trade fair and conferences were held at the Motorpoint arena, with the evening showcases and events held at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. For our first visit to Womex, we booked a stand at the trade fair, with the main intentions being to spread the word of the project and the work we are doing…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…left, Tabu gave a short speech to the Troupe, encouraging them to stay on the path they were on. We asked Julius to find some of the older generation Bagisu musicians for us to record when we return in November. One thought that came to mind as we were leaving was how we could further support the Elgon Ngoma Troupe. We wondered if we could provide them with cleaning and repair kits for their instruments, or maybe even collect used brass instrumen…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…s tends to encourage migration from rural areas to the cities. However, in the world’s cities, more than one billion people live without facilities for garbage disposal or water drainage, and breathe polluted air. 2 There are Healthy Cities policies and programmes aimed at addressing these problems. At times, it seems to be assumed that eventually everyone will move to the cities. MK Rajakumar, the great family practitioner/philosopher, former WON…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…Uganda!) We can also combine the two recording units into one to increase the number of inputs, while still working off battery power. The laptops use Avid ProTools recording software – an industry standard for recording and music production. The microphones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selected so it can easil…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…I salute you guys, you indeed communicated not to them only but to rest of the world as well. Thank you so much for reaching out and may God bless you for that, it speaks out the humility in your hearts and your music not only as business but as a calling. I salute once again. Regards to all the team members.” Peter Hoesing, PhD, Music History & Ethnomusicology, Clafin University “I just heard about your project through the Society for Ethnomusico…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…the ceremony of the handover of instruments at Independence. Colmore bequeathed the contents of his archive to his friend, Oxford academic Professor Richard Greenfield. Sadly, Professor Greenfield died before the contents reached the UK – and as such, the archive transferred to the Bodelian Library as part of the Professor’s estate. We are indebted to Lucy McCann and the staff at Rhodes House in Oxford for their help in studying the as yet un-cata…
The Beat of Kenya News
…or purchased 5 instruments in this way: two drums, one from the Luo tribe, the other from the Luhya tribe), one nyatiti (Luo), one orutu (Luo), and a fifth instrument called the litungu (Luo). Click here to go to Andrea’s blog : The Beat of Kenya Andrea Dyck, Curator of Contemporary Cultures, The Manitoba Museum Andrea Dyck received her Master’s Degree in History from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, where her research fo…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…o this that was brought home to us when we recorded Okumu K’Orengo, one of the world’s greatest Nyatit players. His last song for us was a funeral march. His village thanked us because they noted that this great player, a legend across East Africa, had never been properly recorded. He died two weeks later. Here was the last song we recorded… 4. Singing Wells is about bringing the tribal music of East Africa to the latest generation of singer-songw…