Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…s the celebration of the chief. It features the spectacular Ndara, the Bul and Agwara and involves a lot of rolling around. We loved it so much we recorded a ‘magic moment’ – there was even more rolling around then usual and the 150 kids around us had a great time. We then took the time to solo each instrument given the quality of the musicians. The started with the Rigi Rigi, where Owach Tartizio sang Obimo. We then featured the Adungu, with Okum…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…doing so learned a great deal about their history and their lifestyle in Uganda today. The following week, we invited ten of the Batwa performers to the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi to record more songs, and in particular, collaborate with contemporary music artists to generate new material for ‘Influences’ – a series of new songs influenced and inspired by traditional themes. Our aim is to provide a lasting benefit for the Batwa community in…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…are where we film and record a musician performing solo on his or her instrument and are notable by the interesting nature of the instrument or the virtuosity of the performance. We then move to our second ‘set’ or angle on the site. Locations are chosen aesthetically, based on what is available. Other considerations include any useful shelter (it can rain suddenly and heavily) along with the direction of the sun and any sources of noise. Once we…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…yer is joined by a percussionist who will also pound the tub for the kick drum and then use a little metal brush as a tom. There are then lots of men with big sticks with metal on them which sound like a snare. All the men sing back up and become a beautiful chorus. 20 folks playing Likembe give you the soft rhythms of Calypso, but as Tabu pointed out, it is more accurate to say Calypso sounds like the soft rhythms of a good Likembe band. Here’s a…
UOBDU report on Singing Wells visit to the Batwa, Kisoro Uganda News
…ecord the music of the Batwa. Since then we have been pleased to hear news updates from our friends and hosts at UOBDU about the Batwa communities we visited. This week UOBDU Coordinator Zaninka Penninah sent a detailed report to us with feedback about all the music groups who performed for the Singing Wells project. The good news is that being involved in the project seems to have given the groups a new and added pride for their music and has ins…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…ring and exiting this rather large ‘Set’ and performing the chorus. Akello and Andy then led the 350 singers through ‘We Are All One’ as a backing chorus. Very fun! As we were closing down we were greeted by the Chairman of Acet who was very gracious in welcoming us. He walked away with lots of photos and a Singing Wells 2012 shirt! He also got one of our Polaroid pictures. This is a new innovation for us – every group gets to listen to their song…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ation of where ankle bells are generally used in East Africa: broadly in Uganda and in specific parts of Kenya. Interestingly, the distribution of broad musical styles are distinctively different. While one would assume that Kenyan music is dominated by percussion, it is clear from the maps (above and below) that actually string and wind instruments are most prominent, and, largely, string and wind instruments are played together: Distribution of…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…g about. The two groups were united around 10 with our two drivers William and Emanuel and set off for Kampala. As promised Kampala traffic was a nightmare. The William Team (Jimmy/Pato and Hannah) tried to take a short cut, but the road was closed and we ended up winding through some very poor areas around Kampala with a truck not designed for essentially footpaths. All the time, the high rises of Kampala were in view but it felt like an altogeth…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…here 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 hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags wer…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…the Luo peoples, an ethnic group now situated in Western Kenya, Eastern Uganda and Northern Tanzania. They were originally from the Nile River Valley and migrated down the River Nile to the Lake Victoria region after the Nubian peoples. In Egypt (particularly around the valley) you can find many instruments that date back over 5000 years, many, like the nyatiti, are also found in Egyptian hieroglyphs (right). The Luo people are related to the Ach…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…agic 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, Jom…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…t). Pakwach and Nebbi: Next we visit the Alur and Lugbara tribes in Nyaravuru and Pakwach. Click here to learn more about these tribes through our Alur Profile and Lugbara Profile on the Singing Wells website. Here we will record the Adungu and Agwara but also the Ndara, one of the traditional giant Ugandan xylophones, however this type are unique as they’re mounted over a large pit dug out in the ground: 1. Alur Kingdom Troupe – these are our fir…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…d to bring them back to the Nairobi studio. That led to 10 Batwa musicians and 5 Batwa babies travelling from Kisoro to Kampala to Nairobi and recording some great songs over the course of four days. We now want to repeat this for every field visit and decided to invite the Otacho Young Stars, the great find of our field visit to record the Luo, and Ben Kisinja, the great Kalenjin musician we recorded earlier this week. Saturday was all about the…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…s, necklaces, armlets, and anklets.’ (p. 360). The Lango symbol is Amuka (Rhino). Amuka is independent, strong, and peaceful unless disturbed. References Curley, Richard T. (1973). Elders, Shades, and Women: Ceremonial Change in Longo, Uganda. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Otiso, Kefa M. (2006). Culture and Customs of Uganda. Ohio: Greenwood Press. (Lango at everculture – 2012) Lango – http://www.everyculture.com/Af…
Lugbara Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…gions of Uganda (we will record them during our fieldtrip in the towns of Arua and Pakwach) Population: Around 900,000 History: They were known in the 19th century as ‘The Naked People’, due to the lacking importance of clothes in their culture. In the early days, the Lugbara were a mainly chiefdom-based community. They did not have kingdoms and kings presiding over them as like other ethnic groups in Uganda. They mainly had chiefs who were their…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…rying to attract. Like kids everywhere, they tend to reject their parents’ and grandparents’ music, hoping to discover new music they can uniquely own. If we spent too much of our time showing only the videos of the few groups we think can be fed into more mainstream music, we are abandoning our mission to record all the styles of East Africa, so others can rediscover them. This topic became a major topic of discussion over our remaining three day…