Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…hili these songs don’t tell you directly what they are trying to say. They use metaphor and analogies. Here the message is: “Don’t insult the midwife because you might need her again.” The song is about not taking cassavas for granted. Kidole Chauma Sana – translates to “My Finger is Painful.” Again, this is not the direct meaning. It’s a naughty song with sexual connotations about the man’s hand being worn out. Urithi Group – Group of 10 young…
Umoja Wa Kusini Group
…village after a while and being accepted. Rushwa: about harvests, but also uses a metaphor of a broken chicken leg to say that even if love is broken, it will mend, the ‘girlfriend will come back.’ Rushwa Magic Moment 1: just vocals Magic Moment 2: percussion Malalanga: this is about being quiet because a performance is starting Magic Moment 3: Francis singing ‘Alelewani’ solo. Alelewani with full group Mikocheni Makongwe Malowe Magic Moment 4: Da…
Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-Help Group Group
… Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-help Group, formed in 2000 with 21 young men, and is led by Edward Kiogura. They play in the Authi style and are from the Ameru ethnic community, from the Irimbene Village, upper Kiungone Sublocation, Abogeta West Division. The group uses Mbere (shakers) worn by Bernard Nkonge, Ginfold Mbae, Amos Munthi and Fraras Ikunda. They also use a flute, Coro, which is performed by John Mwiti….
Stories Page
…to uncover many amazing stories with the work that we do at Singing Wells. Use the links below to delve into some of the stories behind the scenes of the field trips, our ongoing projects and some of the incredible people we have met. Music Read some of our articles and stories behind the Music of East Africa. Dive into musical genres, different instruments and the musicians keeping these traditions alive. Picture We manage to take some beautiful…
Kigane Traditional Dancers Group
… Kigane Traditional Dancers, from Kigane Kithurini and Ngatia villages, Suri Location, Bogeta Division. They are 11 men, 12 women, led by Cyrus Kirigia. Their style is Kwimbo, and the songs ares sung to celebrate the harvest mostly in August and March. They are from the Ameru ethnic community and use the Kibere (leg shakers) and Vilingi (whistle)….
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…came up with this song, he said: “The “Hiari Ya Moyo” loop gave me deep house/alternative vibes on first listen. I decided to use it as my main rhythm to complement the electronic drum and bass arrangement. The soulful keys augment the rhythm to give it a larger than life feel.” We couldn’t agree more! If you want to hear more of Mansa Chusa’s work, head to:https://instagram.com/mansachusahttps://twitter.com/mansachusahttps://facebook.com/mansach…
Filimbi Instrument
…A whistle. The word filimbi is Swahili for ‘Whistle’, ‘flute’ or ‘pipe’. – so the instrument name ‘Filimbi’ could refer to any whistle or flute type instrument. We heard this Filimbi in use by a member of the group Zaire Ndindingwara on our field trip to record the music of the Mijikenda in 2011, played alongside percussion – as a bed for the vocalist in the group….
Page
…bar, we loved the name of the Dhow Countries Musical Academy precisely because they used the wind to describe Zanzibar music. The Dhow is a sailing vessel. The Dhow countries are all the countries that sailed to Zanzibar over centuries. The music academy is the result of all the Dhow Countries blowing onto the island, leaving their instruments, their styles and blending them with what was already on the island. When we record fusions, we are simpl…
Our Sponsors Page
…3 field recording visit which included accommodation at the Airport Guesthouse and the use of their 4×4 truck and wonderful driver, Musa. www.gorillatours.com Anne Wright, The Wright Approach Type of sponsorship: Field Recording day in Kenya, Music of the Kalenjin, March 2012 Thank you to Anne for her kind and generous donation to towards our 2012 field recording visit to Kenya. Read all about it here. http://www.annewright.com/index.asp Insti…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…e percussion in this group is particularly impressive, with ongeng’o rings used both by themselves, and also together with the Nyangile, a wooden box topped with two of the rings, one of which is held with the feet, and beaten with a stick. You can find out more about the band here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop Nyatiti Group – 158BPM Another wonderful Nyatiti grou…
Support Singing Wells Page
…nd their songs and dance will be recorded by our field team. Funds will be used to provide for two field-recording engineers from Ketebul Music, a non profit organisation in Nairobi and our project partners. Your donation will also provide for gratuity payments to the individual music groups, which they can use to help them continue practicing and performing in the future. The songs and videos we record from your sponsored day will be archived and…
Privacy Policy Page
…er services on our site – such as embedded videos from YouTube, may also cause cookies to be saved to your machine. The other services we use on our site include Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Why are we telling you this? Well the European Union have introduced a new directive that makes it a requirement for websites to get consent for using cookies. Nothing has changed at singingwells.dev – except for the little cookie triangle in the bottom cor…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…ourse, there are a variety of musical styles in Zanzibar, including (every use of quotes in this post are direct quotes from the DCMA): Ngoma: “Ngoma literally translated means drum and is a term to encompass all local traditional forms of dancing, drumming and singing. There are literally hundreds of different ngoma styles throughout Tanzania” Kidumbak: “Kidumbak is a music style closely related to taarab. It is less refined and more upbeat!…
Recording Resources Page
…mazing musical technicians, videographers and ethnomusicologists. However, it has taken us time to really work out the best processes for working effectively out in the field. With that in mind, we have created some resources for other groups to use for working in the field. Please feel free to use the below resources for your field trips in whatever region you are based, and please do reach out to us. We love to meet others who are passionate abo…
Shitakha & Balozi Band Group
…Here’s the band….
Day 6: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 Story
…yle of Mzee Morris We then interviewed Daudi about Mzee Morris: “I met Mzee Morris when I was younger and saw him play. I loved his style from the first moment I heard it. I also listened to him on the Tanzania Broadcast Corporation, because his drums was used hourly to announce the news. I spent three months trying to learn the drum riff he used. I could never understand how a blind drummer could remember where all 10-12 drums were. Amazing.”…