Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…perform with a troupe, and they feed off of and help drive the dancing and the other instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff and we wanted to capture it on its own. But the subsequent magic moment session lacked something – our friend was a musician in a band, not some studio session guy ‘mailing in his over-dub.’ Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. https://youtu.be/IktMw1iNcq4 https://youtu.be/Hk5DlFHa8Lg And with that,…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…oupe 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 flute) The Ndara (the amazing Ugandan xylophone) The Rigi-Rigi (similar to the Kenyan orutu) The Agwara (trumpets) The Adungu (the harp we’ve encountered every day now) The group was formed in 1993 and is profess…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…r and the flutist would join. The magic thing was no one could hear her or the other women, they sang so softly and it was such a big crowd. But we gave her a lapel microphone and put a microphone directly on the Adungu and recorded. Afterwards, when we turned her up in the mix a magical voice and sound emerged – the ancient lady sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village, surrounded by 100’s had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice….
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…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…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…he name of their camp plus Ite Yaa, meaning gathering under the Yaa tree). Then they sang: Welo Obino (Let’s Celebrate now that vistor’s have come) Odok Gang (A celebration of peace after war and call to go home), Balo Murali (aka Aloka Loka). Magic Moment Here’s Welo Obino and Odok Gang: There were three young percussionists on Bul (Drums) and then about 8 dancers. It is always a very good sign when we get to record a group of young performers. I…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…stribution of musical styles or instruments, anyone can relate to a map of the world. Fipa Tribe identified – embedded information shown How did you make Worldmap work for Singing Wells? As Worldmap is open source we were able to use a map of the distribution of tribes in Africa created by a Harvard professor named Suzanne Blier. By using her research we could create a map of only the tribal borders of East Africa, from a layer she had created. On…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…see! One lovely view, about 90 minutes south of Gulu, Karuma Falls: And then there’s the road. Our drives to the music are always the most dangerous thing we do. The road to Gulu was a revelation, however. Generally good, paved roads, with a painted lines down the center and plenty of space for bikes, cows and children to wander on the shoulder. The big horrible trucks that have haunted us in trips past were rare and passing was generally safe….
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…also lucky enough to enjoy the sound of one of the best nyatiti players in the world, Ayub Ogada during their field visit in March, where Tabu organised a ‘Hall of fame concert’. He opened the concert with the famous “Kothbiro”, which featured in the film ‘The Constant Gardiner’. Here it is: There’s a wonderful story about Andy’s recommendation to Gary Barlow’s production team to have Ogada play in a track called ‘Sing’, recorded specially for the…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…t minute shopping for essential supplies (alcohol, sunglasses, papers) and then took the train to C57, where we boarded our flight and left pretty much on time. Jimmy sat next to Andrew who lives in Kampala and married to a Uganda woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…moment. Watch this space for videos. We recorded right through to 9PM and the ‘northern folks’ rushed to the airport. The Ketebul crew continued to work in the studio, led by Jessie who loves bringing Singing Wells musicians into the studio. Hunter and Jimmy will board our flight at about 11PM and with a 12 midnight wheels up, we will officially end the ‘field visit.’ Now the hard work begins of producing all the videos… Jimmy March 11th, Joma Ke…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…ys found this song amazing – the group is deadly serious in their thank you to the manager. But in many ways, we kept thinking it is sad that they find it so rare for someone to essentially do his job that they need to write a song. Johnnie, Bishop and Eddie all joined in to support them in the studio with Winyo and Nina working on back up vocals. They were a huge amount of fun, smiling throughout it all. Other than recording, we continued to blog…
Lugbara Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…itions only speak of Meme, whose womb God filled with the living things in the world. Customs: They are traditionally a farming people and are the predominant keepers of guinea fowl in Uganda (locally known as ‘ope’), but their cultural symbol is of a leopard. They also believe in a certain kind of mythology, mainly that man are descendants from the first creatures put on earth by spirit (the creator of men). Spirit created a man (gboro-gboro) and…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…. They have a headband made out of cowry shells that is called a ‘nariet’. The other bead work is used for all ceremonies. They also carry a big hollowed out gourd to carry milk. Finally, they have a stick with a tail on the end that denotes the leader of the group. They all carry black and white sticks which are mainly for herding the animals or used as a walking stick. When you get engaged you should always carry a stick, they warned, or you wou…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…s the Kas agat Traditional Dancers. Kathy talked to the tribal elder about them. They come from Tot, about 50km from where we were recording. They had walked here the night before and had been practicing all night and morning before we arrived at noon. Most of their songs are about peace and unity between the Marakwet and Pokot tribes. They are also about important historical events and praising ceremonies such as weddings, births, circumcisions a…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…time driving), long after darkness fell, we added up the day, in wonder at the numbers of songs we recorded: 5 groups, 33 songs, 3 Influences Sessions and 2 Magic Moments. Pokot music is all about the dance and vocal harmonies – most music with origins in nomadic tribes is about the dance/vocals not the instruments, because at best you could carry a horn during your endless movement. Sila Dancers Lomut Traditional Dancers This groups walked 120 km…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…were completely rained out today. A deluge. We had the tent. We hid under the tent. The tent blew away. Everyone scattered. As we write this we are using blow-dryers to dry very wet equipment. All our “world famous” Singing Wells T-shirts were soaked. All the music groups were soaked. All the cows were soaked. 50 Cows was soaked. A deluge. It meant we had to abandon the day, leaving a separate village and two groups stranded and wet. As we write…