Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…thwest toward Masaka. We turned north at Kammengo onto the Mbarra Road to Kindinda – the trip was about 110 kilometers. From Kindinda, we turned right at a trading center and went another 10 kilometers into the fields, to a small village called Kidinda. The Recording Site: The village had one cement single story home, one stable (with a small and very loud cow tucked in the back) and one angry bull tethered to the middle of the grounds. Chickens h…
We’re discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms News
…rney so far has taken us to the capital of Uganda – Kampala, over to Jinja in the east and back in search of musicians who haven’t played in the royal palaces since they were children. We’ve been posting regular updates about our journey which you can read on our Field Reports section. Including: Some background and the beginning of our journey to discover the lost royal drums of the Buganda Kingdom Context on the Entenga royal drums we’ve been se…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
We’re delighted to announce that this morning Singing Well’s YouTube channel surpassed half a million views. Since 2011, we’ve been sharing our work discovering, recording, archiving and celebrating the traditional music of East Africa on this channel and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support. Our YouTube channe l features videos from our trips across Kenya and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…and so earlier this week had the pleasure of visiting the Ketebul offices in the downtown industrial area and meeting the super-cool team. Tucked away in an unassuming street, Ketebul is situated in the Go Down Arts Centre, a graffited music enclave of made up of some seriously hip outlets. The main purpose of my trip, besides hanging out with the team and trying to absorb some of their street cred, was to chat to the main man: Mr Tabu Osusa. Sit…
The repatriation of Kenya’s music heritage News
…currently being returned to the communities in which these songs were made in the 1950s by English ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey. The repatriation of these recordings began in August, during a two-week pilot project in Kenya’s Rift Valley led by Prof Diane Thram, Director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in South Africa and the team from Ketebul Music, supported and funded by The Abubilla Music Foundation as part of the Singin…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…I just couldn’t help telling stories. And I told her the one sad fact of Singing Wells – we have at least 250 stories, one for every video of a performance, and yet we are miserable at getting these stories out to folks. But we will keep trying… Here’s a few 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 Viru…
Current Leading Figures News
…heritage of music and dance. Pottery and woodwork are traditional crafts, using locally sourced natural materials. In times of trouble it is important to reaffirm one’s culture and celebrate life.” Hence, providing a creative space was a priority for Odwar, as even though Northern Uganda has been riddled with war for decades, he sees the how effective using “traditional methods of creating peace and reconciliation” are, citing the use of arts in…
Amone Watmon Matthew Story
…trip to Uganda. Our story with Amone Watmon Matthew We had spent 4 days in the north of Uganda, travelling back through Soroti and into Kampala, where, arranged by Jimmy of the Adungu Cultural Troupe, we arrived in the Naguru area of Kampala. Jimmy led us to another location for the recording, away from the road – a space in front of a house where Matthew Watmon lived. We were introduced and in the time before the group had even managed to begi…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology that include training in performance of African music. Diane Thram became Director in 2005 and, under her leadership, an online listening library has been created, in line with the cutting edge of content access, to allow anyone to listen to Hugh Tracey’s recordings, with work currently being done to also make the Dave Dargie and Andrew Tracey Collections available for online access. There…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…archiving African Music, particularly in their country of origin. He gave frustrating examples of tapes being stored in terrible conditions, archives being so disorganised that, even with funding, it would take 20 years to archive properly and equipment being broken because it was not used according to instructions. However, there were examples that gave hope for the archiving of East African music, in Africa; ‘I visited the Ethiopian archives whi…
Singing Wells YouTube reaches 200,000+ views! News
… We’ve reached an exciting milestone here at Singing Wells and are so happy to see that our channel has reached over 200,000 views! Thank you to everyone who watches and enjoys are videos – all of our artists would love to see that their music has reached so many people. Here is our most recent upload for you… The incredible Original Chuka Drummers!…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…s of the Kalenjin, and was inspired by a Jimmie Rodgers record left behind in their village by missionaries. We recorded the Kalenjin in 2012. Jimmie Rodgers, was, of course, a famous American country music singer in the 20’s and 30’s. This teaches us several things: All music is inspired by all music: everyday in Singing Wells, we have to remind ourselves that as we record traditional music, we are listening to music that reflects dozens of influ…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…’ve taught for 20 years now and my concern is that our entire system is training us to be like a white person from England or America, not to be Ugandan. The English and Americans don’t want to know me because I am like them – they know I am not. They want to know me because I am Ugandan, because I am different. And yet that is not what we teach. Tabu: Exactly. Rather than embrace our identify we aspire to be something else. In Kenya, all the youn…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…share the traditional music of East Africa for two important reasons – to sustain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences.” And it is always great to hear of stories where others are attempting to do the same, especially in countries so close to our heart, such as Uganda. An article on the website of the Ugandan daily newspaper, New Vision, warns abo…
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
…n who has been mentioned in several circles so far as being one of the remaining custodians of Basoga music history. Nathan ‘Mata’ is a composer and songwriter who plays the ‘Endongo’ (thumb piano). Mata, (Lusoga for ‘milk’) as he is popularly known, has lost his sight and lives 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 ‘Mat…