Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…of the dance group, Longinos Omong’oluk who started the group in the early 1990s. He died in 1998 at 87 years old. We first talked to Ibriam about the instruments and costumes used by the group; these included: Atenus: The bass drum Igelu: Shakers Akwara: Sticks Isiman: Jingles worn around the ankles Etwoo: A gourd that you blow into for a ‘bass’ beat. The dancers wore “Emukule”, skins of cows and more rarely, Cheetahs. One of the dancers wore a…
Group 4: Urugangaze Ballet Story
…Today’s was smooth, expressive and with the performers (all men) giving it 100% with face as well as body movements. Intore (“Warrior Dance”) – another traditional dance that we saw with the Inganzo Ngari group, this warrior dance had plenty of fun solos as the warriors showed off their skills to one another, chatting in between so it had the feel of a scene, not just a dance. As with the other Intore we saw, there was a group accompanying the da…
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…ties were and still are organized on clan system. One ethnic society has a number of clans where each clan has a leader – clan leader. Each of those clans had identifying regalia and one of them are drum rhythms that symbolize the general belief of that clan. The Basoga ethnic society from the Eastern region of the country is organized according to clans. Eleven clans are royal; they are the leaders and the rest are not. One of the clans is the ba…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
…yatiti’s shape (resembles the traditional Luo hut shape), symbolism of the number (8) of strings of the nyatiti, his tuning techniques and order of string tuning, together with the story of his personal attachment to his instruments collection (owns 14 nyatitis). Upon our arrival to Kisumu City, we had another semi‐formal interview that would birth ideas for other hypothesis and arguments to follow up on. We met Meshack Okoth Okumu, who was to be…
Albums Introduction Page
…h the music of the area we were recording in. Each album also contains a number of extra tracks that weren’t strictly part of the archiving recordings we were making. These recordings are of ‘Influences’ sessions – where a popular musical artist has joined us on our trip to collaborate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will also include these rec…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…h to common tunes or influence instruments’ shapes and music styles, etc. 1. Source: Wikipedia 2. The most widely used instruments classification system first devised in 1914 by musicologists Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs; English version published much later in 1961; most current updated version: “Revision of the Hornbostel‐Sachs Classification of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium” dates from 2011, published by Musical Ins…
Makunga Group
…here she reaches puberty and now must be hidden from village for 40 days (song acts out how girl learns to reject the advances of men, represented by two men playing shakers) Muziki: A song to gain support of the people for the music and dance Muziki: Freestyle Muhongwa: another song from the circumcision ceremony, named after the instrument used (the wooden trough)…
The Singing Wells podcast #3 Podcast
…Here is podcast number 3. In this podcast, we look at the development of Abubilla Music – one of the partners in The Singing Wells project – from initial idea, to music label. There are interviews with members of the SMCC, and music from the SMCC, Louise Calf, Gus Warriner, Tati Kalveks, Chris Kozlowski and Ketebul artist Winyo. Click here to download the podcast….
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…rs and the Kewamoi Women Dancers both featured. The latter – a nice addition to the lineup, as the field day coincided with World Women’s Day. Eddie Grey was part of the team for the recordings, and he joined a number of groups to join them for Influences recordings. Two of these have been included on the album – his guitar playing accompanying The Elimu Cultural Promoters and the Kewamoi Women Dancers….
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…Western Region of Kenya in the period from 17thto 25thFebruary 2018. DAY 1 – Saturday 17th February 2018 The first day of recording for “Rhythms of Western Kenya” took place in Busia County, in the Samia sub-county. This sub-county was named after the Samia sub-group of the Luhya ethnic community who make the majority of its’ population. In Nanguba village of Agen’ga location, we met EKHUNJWE YA ABASAMIA folk group. Led by Stephen Bwire, a loca…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…e had to deal with is the time limitation. The entire programme was shot in 11 days, which included master classes and a studio session in Nairobi. Considering the ambitious amount of information we wished to gather from each interviewee (as per the original concept) and the accompanying demonstration, it would be advisable for the recording schedule to focus on one individual ‐ one instrument maker per day only. Also, possibilities of postponed s…
Victoria Denison Staff Profile
…in September 2010 to help establish the Singing Wells project. In order to support the project, Victoria set up The Abubilla Music Foundation, a company limited by guarantee, and then managed the application for charitable status with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. (Charitable status was achieved in June 2011). As well as acting as administrator to the Trustees, Victoria is the UK Project Manager for Singing Wells. Working closely w…
Kidedeya Group
…song, a marriage song Kidedeya: Freestyle Magic Moment: Omusingero again…
Mr Bado Group
…ell as by Maulid Juma’s Taarab, and Bhalo’s Chakacha. He started singing in 1994 while studying in Mombasa, and is now an accomplished music producer in his own right, and he runs his own studio in Watamu called Bado Records, where he records his own music as well as support and help aspiring artists from Watamu. His songs, ‘Shemeji’ and ‘Susumila’ were mega hits in the coast region, earning him a performance slot at Safaricom Live in 2010. He has…
Group 6: Sudi Mavenge Story
…travel outside of Rwanda, they are characterised by their pride, it never changes. Kantengwa – this was a deeply sad original story that inspired Sudi to write the song. A boy was in love with a girl, Kantengwa. They met for the first time but then the girl went back and had an accident and was hospitalised – the boy spent three weeks without knowing what had happened to her. The day he finally found out and was able to visit her in hospital was…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…ed four performances: Wachumba Walya: A song about someone who is too mean-spirited to support his community even though he has lots of money, it is about a man “who eats along, without his brother’ Ntelela Engoma: A song about living with respect to traditional ways Basigazi Fura Emyende: A song about overcoming all of life’s challenges by working together Mwije Tuzane: We filmed this freestyle, where the group encourages the audience to get up a…