Singing Wells Project News Update News
…OCTOBER 2011 NEWS: Here is the latest news and itinerary for Phase 4 – the Batwa and Luo music recording trip in November. Click on the image to download the PDF: …
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…he forest areas which stretch across much of what is now Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. In recent history however, the Batwa have become a displaced and largely forgotten ethnic group and their traditional culture and way of life is threatened with extinction. The Batwa community first became fragmented as other ethnic groups populated their homelands, cutting back the forest to provide land for crops and livestock. However, it was in 1991, wi…
Abubilla Music release fourth album News
…ng Canasta Club will play tracks to a (hopefully) admiring audience – more news about that to follow. Click on the cover for a sneak preview – the track ‘Breathe’ performed by the Singing Wells Project’s very own Andy Patterson……. Importantly, the album also includes the global remix of an original Abubilla track ’71 Hours to Monday’ which has been released to promote the Singing Wells project and help raise funds for the 201…
AMF News Up-Date News
…There’s some exciting developments happening with all our projects and partners. Take a look at our news update here: …
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…e Chonyi, Rabai, Duruma, Kauma, Kambe, Ribe, Jibana and the more known Giriama and Digo whom we focused on at this stage. Their music is relatively well known at the national level and is highly dependent on percussion with vocal solos and harmonies and is pretty rhythmic. Very sexy. There are various styles including sengenya, chechemeko (actually a dance style) and mwanzele which has been exported to Nairobi and souped up as ‘nzele’. The Mijiken…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…area of North West Kenya, 800 km from Nairobi and home to the Turkana and Samburu tribes and the original ‘singing wells’. When Steve Kivutia (Ketebul Music) presented the idea of recording music at the Festival to the AMF, it seemed a perfect fit with the objectives of the Singing Wells project and the trustees were happy to approve a grant to cover the costs of travelling to the Festival with the new mobile recording equipment. The main purpose…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Willie Bembe News
…s own and I say “Good One”. In The Car To Malindi Jimmy the boss checks in and Andy has to orientate me on protocols ASAP. I get the hang of it and I like it. Andy falls asleep a little later. My goodness…..he snores at +3db…”does he have a girlfriend?” I wonder. We get to talk a lot in the car and I realize that Jimmy is not such a stuck up guy after all….he’s alright. Journey is long and on getting there everyone is tired and a round of tuskers…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…nres of music. Tabu and I were at the airport to receive James Jimmy Allen and Andy Patterson from Abubilla. I’d met Andy towards the end of 2010 on his first visit to Africa and we’d gotten on fine. I was looking forward to meeting Jimmy. Tall, burly American now domiciled in the UK. One look at him and I saw a professional we could do business with. I immediately loved his good nature too. We ferried them to their hotel and let them recover from…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…ndence between Abubilla Music and Ketebul Music. Day 1: The Briefing Jimmy and Andy from Abubilla Music, came to Ketebul Studios for a pre travel briefing and to go through the new equipment and software with Ketebul Music engineers on the afternoon of March 27th. They had flown into Nairobi from London the previous evening. I must confess we started off on the wrong footing: all Ketebul engineers were late for the briefing..! Tabu was especially…
£25K donation from Abubilla Music Foundation News
…of each mobile recording unit. The equipment list for each mobile set up is comprehensive and has been carefully costed. This is the budget we are working to. We are very grateful to our sponsor and to the trustees of The Abubilla Music Foundation for granting the money to the Singing Wells project which has allowed us to achieve this significant milestone….
Ketebul Music website launched News
…glory and we think we’ve succeeded in our goal. Take a good look around the site to see how Ketebul Music is working to combine the traditional sounds of East African tribal music with the best of contemporary artists. And through Bandcamp, listen to or download the inspirational music of Kenya from artists such as Ontiri Bikundo and Makadem, or the 4 piece women’s group Bismillahi Gargar, whose aim is to remind people of their traditional culture…
SWP Launch Day News
…Nairobi through music. So a big thank you to the High Commission, particularly to Wanja Michuki, Principal Counsellor for Trade and Economic Affairs who was delightful to meet and very supportive of our project. And thanks also to Hills Balfour and the Kenya Tourist Board for taking me as their guest. Looking forward to updating you with more news as the Singing Wells project gets underway. Victoria Denison….