AMF receive grant to fund Batwa recordings News
…rnational Education has approved a grant to support the Singing Wells trip to Uganda to record the music and dance of the Batwa people. We are delighted that our proposal was successful and that the IIE agreed with our rationale for taking the project to the Batwa to increase awareness of their unique music and dance traditions. In our proposal, we outlined our rationale as follows: “The overall aim of the Singing Wells project is to identify, rec…
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…Wells project starts next month with a field visit to the Kisoro district of Uganda to record the music and dance of the Batwa people. The Batwa, historically a nomadic, forest dwelling community of hunter-gatherers, are widely acknowledged to have been the first human residents of the 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 for…
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…gh a set of multi-media channels, including our Influences series, to give today’s musicians access to the rich cultural heritage of East Africa. The Singing Wells Project The Singing Wells Project is jointly led by two organisations: Ketebul Music and Abubilla Music, and its sister organisation, the Abubilla Music Foundation. Simply put, the Singing Wells Project seeks to record the vast musical traditions of East Africa, while also making these…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…traditional costumes, arts and crafts, dances and music to each other and to visitors. Combined with the stunning geographical characteristics and the very limited general knowledge on the Lake Turkana region, the presentation of the cultural traditions makes the Festival a unique and fascinating experience for everyone involved.’ Steve’s objective is to record the music of all 10 performing groups. All the material will be taken back to the Kete…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…e her name [CANON 5D CAMERA] Jimmy kept a close eye on her and he asked me to stop drooling all over the place because she belonged to him and only him. The second car was delivered and Maddo, chairman for Ketebul Music would be the pilot for the V.I.P car. He had to leave because he had to drop the owner of the car and left me with his car, but not without detailed instructions on how to handle it and with a stern warning: don’t visit your girl…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Willie Bembe News
…ies our grandfathers told us which got distorted over time. The safest way to store them was in the music which was passed down from generation to generation. Another five years and all this would be gone since the present generation is not really interested in learning there music. This is because it’s not packaged in a way that would interest them. DAY 4 Have caught on on how to set up the equipment and under the Andy’s guidance do the recording…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…id last century and offer them in easy to read, listen and view mediums to today’s audiences, young and old, we were trying to fulfill our dreams of preserving our music heritage for prosterity. We have so far produced two packages and are currently working on three others simultaneously. Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music cr…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…apart from Tabu. I have known Tabu since 2005, and I can count the number of times I have seen him having a meal on 1 hand! After refueling car number 02 (it must have been guzzling the fuel because of the AC), we set off for the second leg of our journey, Voi to Mombasa. Salif Keita’s ‘M’bemba’ CD and Winyo’s in production CD ‘Benga & Blues’ proved to be the favorite cruise music as we kept on switching between the two. Though I must admit I was…
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…ruly in the field, without power, with dirt/dust, with the constant threat of storms, with concerns about theft, etc… Test the Team: We would be training the Ketebul team on the new equipment and we would be seeing how we all did in the field in terms of logistics and audio and video capture. Test the Concept: Singing Wells is about the archiving of traditional East African music and ensuring that these traditions are kept alive in contemporary mu…
Meet the team from Ketebul Music News
…an Steve Kivutia: Project Manager for Singing Wells. Steve will be the day to day project manager for Singing Wells, coordinating audio-video capture and preparation of CD’s, DVD’s and Archives: Our ‘Throat to Choke’ on the project – Steve is responsible for day to day management. Jessie Bukindu: Senior Sound Engineer at Ketebul, Jessie will lead the studio work on Singing Wells, including the ‘Fusion’ projects: The ‘Sound of Keteb…
Ketebul Music website launched News
Great news to report today. Initial funds to the Singing Wells project have been used to complete our first objective and we are delighted to report on the launch of the new Ketebul Music website. When Abubilla Music and Ketebul Music first came together we decided the most pressing need was for a dynamic website which would show the work of the Ketebul artists in their full glory and we think we’ve succeeded in our goal. Take a good look around…
SWP Launch Day News
…in earnest from here. It’s particularly appropriate that we should launch today, as this week Kenya celebrates the 47th anniversary of independence, which was granted on 12th December 1963. And yesterday, I was very honoured to be a guest at a reception for Kenya National Day hosted by the High Commissioner in London, Mr Ephraim Ngare. It was a wonderful occasion, with a motivating speech from Mr Ngare about Kenya’s progress and the special relat…