Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…t’s car on the way (it was unclear if the car held the President). We returned to the Kampala Imperial Hotel and some of us were delighted to find a English football match on the TV (Arsenal vs. Southampton). And we were greeted by Air Conditioning which is most welcome by those of us from the North but feared and mistrusted by those of us from Nairobi. We look forward to recording tomorrow in Kampala. Apparently there is a marathon. We shall prov…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…teaching them to the music students and to music teachers who came for in-service courses. Like Musisi, Busuulwa had not found conditions good for him at the palace and after the attack on the palace and the flight of the Kabaka (King) into exile in London, Musisi no longer had a patron so they were both enthusiastic about working at Kyambogo. Sadly Bulasio Busuulwa died during that awful period of turmoil under the dictatorship of Amin and Obote…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…players and a men’s choir with alternating lead vocals. Their style is Embaire, which is the xylophone. Their instruments were: Embaire, Xylophone Endigidi, tube fiddle Enkwanzi, pan pipes The performance was simply spectacular. Our search for the best xylophone players in Uganda is declared over! What a group. Obutasoma (Education), with lead singer Muniru Ayubu Obwiire Bukyeire (The Time Has Come), with lead singer Kisubi Eliasa Magic Moment: W…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…meters back to Kampala and stayed at the Kampala Imperial Hotel, which had air conditioning which was highly valued by those of us from London, but treated with disdain by those of us from Nairobi! We had a quick shower and joined Rob Marshall of Sony for a quick drink to talk about African music and distribution. One of the big issues we face at Singing Wells is how to distribute monies for our artists efficiently. We discussed various pilots for…
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…Patterson and Vicki Denison, charity administrator and fundraiser. Our BA flight from London arrived on time at Entebbe at 22.30. We didn’t have the same delays at customs as the Ketebul team and we were at the airport guesthouse with a Nile Special (and their daily supply of one Pringles can) in hand before midnight. It felt good to be back on Ugandan soil in the familiar environment of the Airport Guesthouse. An early start the next day meant n…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…moment. We need to look for a platform to promote our stuff, whether it’s online, digital radio, TV – we need to make the music more accessible to all. Why is Singing Wells important? Singing Wells is important because we’re trying to capture our East African heritage. Many of the musicians we record from remote tribes are old and we run the risk of the traditional music in Kenya dying out, we don’t want to see that happen. Further, most recordin…
Current Leading Figures News
…(Through Art Keep Smiling ) is ‘a grassroots non-profit organisation whose services are for the benefit of the community.’ They saw the desperate need for a centre to provide space for Northern Ugandans to nurture their artistic talents, as “for over 20 years the people of Northern Uganda have been victims of a cruel civil war between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).” Odwar points out that Jan England, the UN under se…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…tish Library was able to make over 50,000 of these available for listening online. The first phase of the project only enabled online listening to higher and further academic institutions, but this was then extended and now most of the material is made available for anyone to listen to, where copyright permits. Although a fantastic resource, its interface is quite dated; read Peter Cooke’s profile to hear his suggestions for updating the system, w…
Archiving Guidelines News
…growing.”[1] The second is FEDORA. However, it is clear that to set up an online data repository, to be used as an archive, substantial technological knowledge is needed – but this guide is most definitely a great help for gaining understanding of all the issues needed be considered when setting up an online music archive. Storage of Audio Materials Guidance for the care, handling and storage of audio visual materials can be found on the Library…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…listen to the recordings, one must make an appointment with the Listening Service to listen to the recordings on site at the British Library. Michael Baird produced 21 CDs of Tracey’s work; Historical Recordings of Hugh Tracey series. These can be bought online at SWP Records and a review of most of the CDs can be found here. Michael Baird said “The sad conclusion after compiling this series is that so much music recorded by HT [Hugh Tracey] has…
Promotion of Batwa Culture/Music: UOBDU report Nov 2013 News
…ts for all the six groups. On 7th January 2013 the team identified the two service providers who were used by the organized before to design T-shirts and wrappers clothes for UOBDU dancers. On 18th January 2013 both service providers delivered their work to UOBDU and receive their payments. Each Batwa group were able to receive 12 T-shirts which had the name of the community written on back with clothes for wrapping. In addition, each group receiv…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…Cardiff Bay. For our first visit to Womex, we booked a stand at the trade fair, with the main intentions being to spread the word of the project and the work we are doing in partnership with Ketebul Music. Ketebul have attended Womex before, and we would have benefited from the presence of our partners on this trip, but we were a last minute addition to the program. I got there late on Tuesday night and got to the arena early on Wednesday morning…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…s the perfect place to stay on our first night being just minutes from the airport (the BA flight from London arrives at 22.40). We have stayed at the Guesthouse before and Jan Willem, George and the rest of the Gorilla Tours team have always been excellent hosts. On our final day of the Uganda 2012 trip we had an very special afternoon in the garden recording the wonderful Watmon Group with our ‘Influences’ artist Akello. We are very grateful to…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…ut facilities for garbage disposal or water drainage, and breathe polluted air. 2 There are Healthy Cities policies and programmes aimed at addressing these problems. At times, it seems to be assumed that eventually everyone will move to the cities. MK Rajakumar, the great family practitioner/philosopher, former WONCA President from Malaysia, points out that, in the totality of human history, cities are a very recent and potentially ‘unnatural’ ph…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…re comprehensively written and prove and interesting insight into life in Nairobi at this time. His diary writings tail off towards the end of his life. He died in Nairobi, on the 24th January 2004, aged 84. Colmore was a keen photographer and as his diaries and the archive show – he seems to have taken a photograph of almost everyone he met, including the ruling politicians of the era. The archive also contains some interesting artefacts from Ind…
The Beat of Kenya News
…s the curator of Contemporary Cultures at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, Canada. Andrea explained that she was planning an exhibition of traditional African musical instruments and during her research she had come across Singing Wells. We were able to provide Andrea with some information about the instruments and, importantly, some photos and videos of the instruments being played, which are from our field trip to Western Kenya in November 2011….