ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…0’s. We are working with ILAM to begin to repatriate these recordings back to the villages from which they were taken. We hope to start with two pilot villages in July, where we can a) identify relatives of the original musicians, b) ensure that we can leave the recordings in a sustainable way, with villagers having access to the recordings and c) record new village music that builds off the earlier recordings. The Ketebul team is working closely…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…rnment program on culture, we need to give the artist the stage and a microphone and an audience. Let people rediscover their culture through great artists doing great things. You don’t rediscover you heritage with a government policy. James: Exactly. One other issue. Part of the problem we have is our ‘everything now’ culture. 50 years ago, if you got a job, you knew that if you worked hard and stayed with the job and got promoted you could buy a…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…oing in 2013. Here is the voice of Tabu. “A New Studio: Our first big milestone is a new studio. We refurbished our studio and brought in new equipment. We used our own savings for this to build a better studio and are very proud. Nick Lader, a sound engineer from the UK, helped improve the studio with bass traps, etc… so we could really do a better job. Nick was very hands on and did a great job. He now does a lot of work with us, mastering and m…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…ells project may be interested in the future – mobile phones and ring back tones as a method of delivery for music. Mike and I also attended the African music networking session which became the launch for a new initiative by the Cape Verde government. It has been calculated that music is their biggest export and so has set up the African Music Forum to make it easier for musicians to make a living – from visas and flights to financial support. It…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…er 2011 was to record the music of the Batwa people. Here we introduce you to the first Batwa community we met on that memorable trip – The Birara Our story: Singing Wells & The Birara Community We left Kisoro in the early morning to travel to the Birara community. The journey by road took about one and a half hours – a distance of about 35km. Just outside Kisoro we picked up an elderly lady from the Birara community who was walking the long, main…
The Batwa Community Story
…ur second field visit for Singing Wells which was in November 2011 took us to the southwest corner of Uganda. Here we met the members of six Batwa communities, all of which had a music group which we recorded for the project. Before we introduce you to the communities we met and the wonderful music and dance of the Ugandan Batwa, here is some background information about this unique group of people. The Batwa people of Uganda The Batwa, historical…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…have two mobile recording units, each capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the systems we have chosen is that they can run off the battery power of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) W…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…sic heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences. The last five years has only re-enforced our commitment. On our first goal, we only have to remember that we were probably the last folks to record Okumu K’Orengo, one of the great Nyatiti players, before he died. On our second goal, we only have to remember Francis and Jessie playing together in Kisoro. And as we plan for our next trip to Kampala this…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…e future.” PSN Europe Magazine Read the review of Singing Wells here. Mark Totokwa via YouTube “This is good stuff – a good example of a sustainable project both in context and content. A big thank you to those behind this project and most importantly to the resourceful musicians. A job well done!” (Posted on YouTube here) Atesh Sonneborn, Associate Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings “Andy, It was a real pleasure to speak with you this morn…
The Beat of Kenya News
…r 2011. The instruments now on display at the Manitoba Museum were donated to the museum in 2011 by a Canadian who had worked in Maseno, Kenya in the late 1960s. During the course of his work there, he was often invited to gatherings in the villages around the area where musicians would be part of the evening. At the end of the evening, the musicians would usually sell their instruments to foreigners in attendance. The donor purchased 5 instrument…
A story of Batwa traditions Story
…are, the leader of the Birara Batwa Dancers who we met on our first day in Kisoro, Uganda. In this photo, Francis is telling stories of the Batwa people and their culture and heritage in a song called ‘Inanga yabatwa’. 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 t…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…ds that are ready for prime time – someone just needed to give them a microphone. Here are the Otacho Young Stars…. Why aren’t they the biggest sound of Kenyan music? Has the Otacho ever sounded cooler? Is this a song in priase of Mr Manager? Or does it say something far deeper – why do we need to praise a leader simply for doing his job? What does it say that this needs praise? 8. Singing Wells is about discovering roots and recovering the great…
Health and Safety? Story
…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. He was standing right next to the car’s engine, wearing flip flops and no mask during the job (as pictured). But thank goodness for him! We were back on the road in no time. Who needs health and safety. Hannah…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…was the very first video we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to record the music of the Mijikenda tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where we met and recorded the wonderful Batwa people. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global tra…
A new type of city Story
…re 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 of the tin houses and the Uganda House of C…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…ink below, but for now we will tell you about this little boy with the headphones. It was on our second day in Kisoro when we travelled to the Mperwa Batwa community. Consisting of just a small number of families, the Mperwa have settled on a small area of borrowed land just a few kilometres from the town. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnific…