Who’s looking at you? Story
…This little fan joined us along Lake Victoria to record some of the best Nyatiti players in Kenya in November 2011….
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…with the team and trying to absorb some of their street cred, was to chat to the main man: Mr Tabu Osusa. Sitting across from me in his office in his bright yellow patterned t-shirt and flat cap he looked laid back as he sipped his cool beverage. His easy smile broke every time I said something that amused him. Here’s our interview: Who are the most exciting modern artists you’re currently working with, and why? Some of the most exciting artists…
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…ng Nelly – Osare I’ll admit, a few weeks ago I knew very little about the history of Benga. But the more I’ve found out, the more meaningful this song is. Ochieng was one of the founders of Benga, a Kenyan music genre adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We were privileged to have the chance to record him and preserve his music in March 2014. Sadly, Ochieng died soon after. Had we not recorded and documented these songs, they might have be…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…ew of the 250 stories – pull up a chair: The Batwa: Providing a Soundtrack to the Costs of ‘Simple Solutions’ The Batwa are a forest people living in the dense forests along the base of the Virunga Volcanoes. They were evicted from the forest to make way for the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park near Kisoro Uganda, which was established to protect the Mountain Gorillas that habitate in the park (travelling back and forth across the Uganda-Rwanda bord…
Current Leading Figures News
…re, honest expression of my country’s values, feelings, thoughts, musics, history, aspirations……not copied from any where, not just learned but inherited.” He sees music, traditional music with history, as a way to educate the Ugandan people about who they are; he is adamant that he is “not about to come from a society that does not exist, that does not know who it is, that has no values, no human beings that believe in who they are, without futur…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…t Hugh Tracey – whose efforts to record African music can be found in the History blog – in 1954. What is particularly significant about this African Music archive is that it is actually in Africa; on its website, it boasts the accolade of ‘The Largest Archive of African Music in sub Saharan Africa’. When it was originally founded by Tracey, it was located in the Gauteng province of South Africa but, when Tracey died in 1977, private funding had d…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…ge’ and began to teach an annual African Arts course. Over 20 years, Oyer visited 22 countries as she was lucky enough to receive funding from various projects: Kenya National Archives, Kenya Conservatoire of Music, a teaching assignment Kenyatta University and she worked with Mennonite Central Committee and Peace Corp. She was able to use her role as teacher and lecturer to spread the importance and beauty of traditional African music to young sc…
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. …
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…threatened. I know that Hugh Tracy blamed Christianity. The churches came to the land and convinced the people that the old ways were evil. Traditional instruments with drums were part of the pagan culture and needed to be erased. Traditional songs about spirits, about witch doctors needed to be ended and replaced with Christian music. James: I think that explains some of it. But the church no longer does that and yet we still reject the old ways…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…help the project and work together in some way in the future. Showcases Visited Mike and I were present at the opening concert – curated by Cerys Matthews at the fantastic Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performances from Matthews herself, The Welsh Ballet and The Treorchy Male voice choir. I heard a bit of a day showcase from the Emily Portman trio on the daycase stage at the…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ves in very humble conditions with his family. He said he was glad we had visited him and was looking forward to our return in November.” After our recording session with ‘Mata’ we will head to Nabirere and the Bigwala Group, which is led by a frail but jovial old man called Lugolole. He is the only surviving member of the original Bigwara Group which featured the ‘Olwendo’, a trumpet made from a hollowed gourd. Lugolole still plays but nowadays w…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…erything you need for a fully functioning, professional recording studio into the back of a small utility vehicle. Here’s a quick summary of what’s in all those bags…… We 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 wh…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…WONCA President from Malaysia, points out that, in the totality of human history, cities are a very recent and potentially ‘unnatural’ phenomenon. He suggests that this helps to explain why so many urban people feel more at ease, somehow ‘at home’, in the rural areas. It does raise the notion that there should be programmes which actively seek to reverse the rural–urban drift. Let’s bring this to life for you. As you listen to the Macedonia band,…
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 New Singing Wells website News
…ion of The Singing Wells website. We hope this will make it easier for you to find and explore our recordings of East African Traditional Music. Here are some of the added features of the new site: Stories Most of what we do is story-telling, in the music that we record, the pictures we take, the people that we meet and the journeys that we make – so we have split our stories into easy to read and find sections. Find them via the menu bar. Podcast…
Kampala traffic jam Story
… We go to great lengths to plan the itinerary for our field recording trips so that we make the best use of the limited time we have. Steve K from Ketebul Music is our Africa Project Manager and he does an amazing job in the weeks prior to the trip, contacting music groups, booking local accommodation and arranging vehicles and drivers to transport us to some very remote destinations. But even Steve’s meticulous planning could not help us avoid t…