Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…This is really important. The key is that the traditional songs are taught to the children in the villages and then that the traditional music permiates into popular music. Northern Uganda is doing a great job at the former at least. We spent the afternoon working with Mwenzele-Nyerere wa Konde Music Club, who we first met during our March 2011 Pilot. We recorded the lead singer and group leader Nyerere wa Konde, backed by some basic percussion an…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…stantly we could see he was incredibly talented, so we brought him with us to the hotel in Entebbe with his son, Odika Constantine. Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe It was a lovely afternoon on the hotel grounds and a load of German guests just back from safari became the rather surprised audience. Throughout the recording we competed with some very loud bird, a lovely school choir across the street, planes from the airport nearby and…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…enough homage to it, you will be rewarded. After the massive contributions to the spirit last night we were given two great troupes in Naguru. Naguru is a suburb of Kampala and we forced our two big vans through the crowded urban streets to a little square where we set up for recording. Exactly 24 hours ago we set up to record in Northern Uganda in the village of Obuell-Lira. This was the most idyllic rural scene we’ve experience – with picture pe…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…i. We interviewed Swalhe Mwatela Massai and his grandson, Ali Tungwa : Q to the grandfather: In contrast to Uganda, we have seen many villages in Kenya where the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. How have you managed to do this? A: To get the young people involved I decided to go to schools and teach music. I compose new material with my students and come up with something they…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…ica is like child birth. While you’re in the throws of it, you’re swearing to the lord almighty that you won’t go through this again. And then you find yourself right back at it. Well, we’re going for one big happy family because we did it again. (As this blog has been edited with the team, there has been a strong attempt by our female members to point out that our male members have no right to equate anything to child birth. But we read, people….
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…this, why don’t you play the Magic Moment of the band as a good soundtrack to their story? During the civil war these villages were under rebel control from 1989-1992. The rebels came into the village to kills the men and seize the boys to take into the bush to fight. But the Macedonia band began to play Uganda Land of Freedom and the rebels started to gather round, starved for music and a chance to relax. An argument broke out amongst the rebels…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…he road scenes of Northern Uganda … On the road The road connects villages to their local markets and therefore is covered on either side by economic activity. There are the ‘thatch’ cutters, teams of women armed with knives and machetes cutting down the tall grasses on either side of the road. The long grasses are then laid down to dry, looking like long carpets. They are then bundled up into long packets, about 6 feet long and 18 inches thick. T…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…st African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It seems Nigel liked what I told him! Operations Manager Lina Vaiksnoriene has been in touch and ATTA are now following our progress on our website and Facebook. We are del…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…s, good lights attract bugs. These are Nile bugs, mind you, so in addition to the millions of little moths you’d expect, we had bat size critters, from very big grasshoppers to fairly intimidating beetles. Our recording sessions were part Singing Wells and part BBC wildlife documentary. We reassured ourselves that at least the bugs that whacked into you were unlikely to be mosquitos. But the night gave us a new insight as well. Many of the songs w…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
Another amazing start to the day. Today it was all about music of the Alur tribe. We drove from Pakwach across the Albert Nile Bridge into the Nebbi district to the village of Widyanga. The Music Alur Kingdom Troupe We set up amongst the ‘five layered’ thatched roof huts, settled down around the cows, goats and a really music loving chicken and recorded one single band, The Alur Kingdom Troupe, with every instrument imaginable: The Flute (yep, a…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…ubilla Music. We are invariably joined by a local ‘fixer’ who will take us to the village and introduce us to the music groups who are expecting us. Once we arrive in our location, we liaise with the local musicians to find the best space to record. If possible we will record more than one of groups in each location, as it reduces the setup and breakdown time and maximizes the time for recording. We decide on two or three different ‘backdrops’ for…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…ildren settled under the same tree our sound crew was using and sang along to the songs. There was only one set of shrieks, when a 4 foot grass snake slithered through the kids, over our equipment and through performers Part of our routine now is to have Vicki on top of one of the vans to get a good 3rd angle (much of the Acholi dancing involves circling a drummer, meaning you can’t see said drummer unless from above…) The Music Groups Rubanga Kin…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drum…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
To help us gain as much insight into the role of music in the areas we visit, we want to know as much as possible about the tribal and musical structure of East Africa. Over the last few months The Abubilla Music Foundation worked with Tati Kalveks and Rosie Balfour-Lynn to do this research. It was directed using WorldMap, an interesting way of visually displaying data. Here is a shot of the map below, the highlighted regions are the areas in whi…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km drive to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda. Within minutes we were deeply immersed in the ‘classic’ East African road scene: big tall white bags of coal, with grass helmets, bricks in various stages of manufacturer (either drying or firing), pyramids of potatoes, tomatoes on patches of blankets under trees, tiny goats tethered near the road side to pick at a fresh patch of gras…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and the Travelers Rest in Kisoro), Charles and Simba (the Rottweiler who feast on Kisoro locusts during our locust attack). They ran a lovely hotel and greeted us warmly with Nile Specials! We handed off a pile of Batwa DVD’s for them to take back to…