Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…noses at us. Our set, below, with recording equipment set up under the bar and the dancers ready to do their stuff… The Kochia Dancers Today is all about dances, so our videos will be much better than still photographs. Let us introduce you to the dancers; here in full glory are the Kochia Dancers who dance in the Ramogi style of dance (ref: for a great article on the Ramogi dance of the Luo, by Helen Odwar, click here): https://youtu.be/_qVuMFLJ9…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…ti, the core Luo instrument – as played by the best players it is a bass, drum and rhythm guitar combined. And we saw some of the best players. We want to remind you first of what a Nyatiti looks like and also of it’s beautifully haunting sound, played by the most famous Nyatiti players of all time, Ayub Ogado; here he is with Kothbiro: The Music Groups We saw three groups: two Nyatiti groups sandwiching an Orutu group playing in O…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…e/-uRDY4G3_mo https://youtu.be/Z8N3nkdSB5g The Dodo Group Featuring Ogoya Nengo. The group sings in the Do Do style. Ogoya has exremely strong vocals and there are four ‘shaker’ players and amazing drummer and a set of dancers. https://youtu.be/k3vA-sSgurw https://youtu.be/VOhmHrO8E7s https://youtu.be/jQsCd_U717c https://youtu.be/FOj8jQDOqhI https://youtu.be/qfB0NCW5v-0…
Christine Kamau – “The Jazzist” News
…ave checked out you project…it’s great that you are dedicated to keeping indigenous music alive..#very best wishes and I hope we can keep in touch. Christine BBC Africa Beats: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17831507 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thejazzist Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/christinekamau …
The Batwa Trail News
…ormers, while the rest goes toward the community fund to cover school fees and books, and assist in the purchase of new land for the Batwa. The tour encourages the practice of traditional skills such as sourcing medicinal plants, making bamboo cups and using bows and arrows – skills which are being lost as the Batwa integrate with the surrounding communities. The income provides an alternative to illegal poaching in the park’. Click here for the B…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…mberly. We reflected on all the people we met on the long drives through Rwanda and wondered how they now face their neighbours – you are fairly certain every person knows a either victim or an executioner well. To prove the point, we asked our Ugandan driver what he thought of the memorial. He said he now understood how his dad died – he was a Ugandan working in Kigali the day the slaughter happened. He is most likely buried in the mass grave alo…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…nds to be exhausted then falls to the floor. Handlers come over to get him and he shrugs them off only to dance some more. And this is repeated many times over. Well, we’re convinced this routine was invented in Kisoro by the Kamuntu Moses Group. They only performed two songs for us but each lasted 20 minutes and involved frenetic dancing follows by a set of ‘James Brown style’ falls to the floor from the principal dancers, only to be revived agai…
Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga News
…nd friend of Abubilla Music and The Singing Wells project, Samba Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga are touring the UK later this month, in support of Samba’s new album Maisha Ni Matamu (Life Is Sweet) on Virunga Records. We first met Samba in Kenya, on a recording trip as part of The Singing Wells project. He sang as part of a ‘Welcome’ concert put together by our friends at Ketebul, along with Winyo and Ayub Ogada. We’ll bring more news on his new…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…d song. But then, they switched gears and set up a smaller group of ‘bass’ and guitar and absolutely blew us away… They started as wonderful large group moving through a set of songs, including ‘Imparake Yagahinga’, the National Park song, which is a staple of the Batwa singing groups… This man was a wonderful dancer and he took centre stage. For us, he symbolised the essence of how life is for the Batwa today – a very hard life, but a life full o…
Gary Barlow, Ayub Ogada and our very own global song News
…e connection… Back in March 2011, we were invited to Sippers, a restaurant and live music venue in Nairobi, to celebrate the launch of the Singing Wells project and the collaboration between Ketebul Music and Abubilla Music. Tabu Osusa, Ketebul’s founder, had organised an evening of music and Ayub was one of the performers. He played his signature instrument, the traditional nyatiti and sang his most celebrated track, Kothbiro which featured on th…
Gary Barlow, Ayub Ogada & the Diamond Jubilee song News
…he film The Constant Gardner. We were delighted to hear that Gary followed Andy’s advice and met Ayub on his trip to Kenya this week. Here he is speaking about it to Chris Evans on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show (22nd March). Click here to listen: Gary Barlow speaking from Kenya on Radio 2 Kothbiro If you’ve never heard the song Kothbiro here it is – we think you’ll love it as we’re sure Gary Barlow does. Magical Kenya If you’re going to Kenya on ho…
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
…he energy of each vigorous tribal dance. While the audio team for the day, Andy and Willie, deploy the essential sun shield for the mixing desk. They also found an additional use for the Pelicases, and Winyo’s guitar case, as mixing table and chairs! This little girl sensibly brought an umbrella for a sunshade……and happily accepted some much needed water: And here’s a very special young lady from this community – Fiona Nyiraguhirwa. Fiona has been…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…u.be/W_VV8xEYziM https://youtu.be/t8Ui32w_NbI https://youtu.be/QHo5Eb2Az20 https://youtu.be/wxzzC5qcweU https://youtu.be/mhzNpJLsZFA https://youtu.be/h_mVjup7_6s https://youtu.be/1zjh68iNClw Jessie leads the first Influences session and Winyo accompanies the lead singer and drummer on another…… …and then serenades one of the women outside her hut! The children like to get involved in what we are doing. These young boys enjoy exclusive access to th…
Congratulations Singing Wells! News
…f a British Library World Collections Programme initiative. It was a great pleasure and it is wonderful to see these fruits of their expertise and enthusiasm. Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator World and Traditional Music, British Library website: http://www.bl.uk online gallery: http://sounds.bl.uk main catalogue: http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-bin/webcat…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…rtant to these communities. It is no exaggeration to say that most of them live to dance, live to sing. When we come to record them, we come to honour them, to listen to them as they tell their stories. But that is not enough. We said when we started this project that we weren’t fossil collectors. Our goal wasn’t to shove the music on to hard drives and store them in some museum. Our goal was to also bring that music to the next generation of arti…
Kenya’s Great Rift Valley & the Kalenjin tribes News
… Photos and music from the Singing Wells trip to Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to record the music of the Kalenjin tribes. To read more about the field recording trip click here. …