News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…rom UOBDU Following our trip to Kisoro last year we sent a parcel to UOBDU for the Batwa communities we visited. The parcel contained printed books of photos of all the people we met and CDs and DVDs of the music performances we recorded. We also printed some leaflets about the Batwa in Uganda and their traditional music and dance which we hope will help to promote their standing in the community in Kisoro and beyond. Zaninka Penninah from UOBDU s…
Photos from the pilot phase Story
…We promised a final set of pictures and some further reflections. And we deliver. …
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…o do a fusion between Indian and Kenyan music. A common friend brought her to the studio. She liked what we were doing and she told us about Tabu Osusa. There was a function that Tabu attended and I went as well to me. I brought a demo CD and he listened to it . This was a Friday and on Monday I went to Ketebul and was hired. Told Tabu that I didn’t have experience but wanted to be a pro studio engineer. He agreed and I joined as apprentice in 200…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…derful village life. Recorded our final two groups and packed up equipment for the long trip home. The village We recorded at the village’s central meeting place. Throughout recording, clothes were being washed, iron and hung to dry, meetings were being held, grain sifted, chickens chased about… We felt very much in the middle of things. The corner of the ‘meeting place’, with the rich red earth gradually moving up the light blue walls By this tim…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…trip. Kathy’s report from Kenya – March 2012 It was bit daunting coming into the Ketebul offices in the Go Down Art Centre on the first day. I had not met any of the people there and I wasn’t sure how I’d fit in. I need not have worried. Everyone was extremely welcoming and I could tell from the first day they were a professional group, had a common mission and were all dedicated. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and to hear what their views we…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…. We drove into this very densely back ‘village’ going deeper and deeper into the urban jungle on very potted roads, packed with pedestrians, bikes and frankly, a lot of suspicious folks somewhat unwelcoming of our two big trucks. None of us could imagine setting up recording equipment here and we weren’t sure how much we’d end up with if tried… But after a lot of false turns, we met our hosts who gradually led us through the town and down into a…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…lls this war. The villages would gather approximately 1,000 men and travel to the Pokot to steal cattle and goats. They used guns and spears. They would steal up to 6,000 head of cattle on these raids. When he was younger he was more involved with the support of the older men but as he got older he also had to fight. The fighting was most intense in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. He says it was done in the name of honour or another ‘fictitious’ reas…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
…but far off the main road, wonderful quiet and cool. This is the goat pen to the right of the thatched hut where we recorded … The Music Groups Chechemeko Raha We recorded Chechemeko Raha first thing in the morning of March 30th. Led by Bahri wa katana, the group sang and danced in the Chechemeko style. Wonderful, pounding percussion, a great horn called the Gunda and massive kicking dancing called the mabumbu-mbu. Beautiful singing and dancing f…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…s. We must also work to make the songs, the heritage, the culture relevant to today’s artists. Part of that mission then is to help create an East African musical identity to rival the South and West African successes. We had a taste of what this could be on March 29th in Sati, when Winyo joined Bado and his father, Nyerere wa Konde, to do a new song. Bado participates in his dad’s group, but separately records his own music. Bado’s music is great…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…n the room. 50 years of East African music, the hand-off of one generation to the next. Massive respect for each others talent and an amazing evening that only Tabu could pull off. Amazing voice: We recorded video and used the mobile recording studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post this later. In the meantime, a couple of pictures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legen…
Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…ording trips in Kenya and Uganda and also took the mobile recording studio to the Lake Turkana Cultural Festival. We’ve recorded over 150 songs from more than 25 local music groups and uploaded 36 videos of these performances to YouTube (so far). Every performance was unique and special – we loved them all – so picking just 10 songs for a ‘Best of’ album was not easy. Here are our final choices….it’s just a small reflection of what was an extraord…
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…nces sessions: The Luo Project, Lake Victoria, Kenya: We travelled to the Nyanza region, recording the Luo tribes, capturing the Nyatiti and Orutu in full action. Please read here for more. We also worked hard to find tribal musicians who were creating music that sounded wonderfully fresh and modern. Much of this we captured in what we called ‘Magic Minutes.’ Below, you will discover the Otacho Young Stars, with their modern take on the Or…
A message from Henry Neza at UOBDU News
…ging and recognition. Through the generation of money by the Abubilla team for the performance of their cultural dance, the Batwa managed to aquire things like goats, clothes, seeds, utensils, bedding and tarpaulins to cover their leaking houses…… Eating good food among the Batwa families was also another priority for them. After the Singing Wells visit to Kisoro there was an opportunity for some of the Batwa to experience life outside their commu…
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
Phase 4 of the Singing 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 di…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…trip to this remote 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 equipmen…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…CAMERA] It’s Sunday March 27th 2011 and I am taking my sweet time getting to the studio knowing that I will find the engineers from Ketebul Music being briefed by Jimmy and Andy from Abubilla Music on the recording equipment that would be used in the field. Unfortunately it was only Steve from Ketebul Music and our director Tabu who had arrived. I was introduced to Jimmy and honestly I was expecting him to be a much older guy. I had met Andy befo…