Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…ini Village and drive back to Dar es Salaam. Liwambwe We left the Bagamoyo Country Club early on February 22 to go to the Ukuni Village to visit the Makonde tribe, to record the group Liwambwe. The Group Leader is: Atanas Teleni. It is a fairly new group, having played off and on for three years. They had unique drums, including small drums with wooden spikes on bottom to be embedded in sand, called the Siganga. They also had a pair of drums calle…
Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
Recording at the Bagamoyo Country Club Early in the morning we return to the village Boma to collect musicians from the group Chibite, who we had recorded the day before. We love their energy and musicianship and wanted to record a fuller album. Three members were the same as yesterday: the brother/sister combo of Ndekwa and Ndahani and Ndahani’s daughter Grace. We then added Tabu and Estelle, two other sisters of Ndahani and Ndekwa. This was an…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…/RSE3dMgCEVk From the Boma Village we travelled to our hotel, the Bagamoyo Country Club and recorded music with Henry Mkanyia, his son Leo Mkanyia, Rajab Alli Nyunyusa, Tomato (Steven Jonas) Sophie Grant, and Elliot Wenman. First, a bit of background on all the players here: Henry: Henry was born in 1950 and has played in multiple bands throughout his life. He plays guitar and vocals. Earlier, when he was a soldier, he played in the JKI Kimbuga Mi…
Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…eld visit in February. We are struck once again by the amazing talent this country has to offer, and can’t wait to capture some amazing moments with these artists when we visit again with the full team in a few weeks time. Thanks to the good people at Dhow Countries Music Academy for helping us with the information and contacts from their database. Getting a private crash course on the ganun from ganun virtuoso and teacher Rajab. In a few previous…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…tune very cool drums inside and my drums will never go out of tune in the sun. As the sun dries them and the pitch rises, you simply wet them down to keep them in tune.” Here, we learn that drums must leave the drum maker with a tendency to pitch higher – that is, the sun will tighten them. You can always ‘loosen in the field’ with water and pounding of the fist on the skin (as we saw our royal drummers do), but you can’t pitch lower without goin…
The Return of Bigwala News
…one, and quite unique in its association with the political history of the country. The gourd and musical style were for hundreds of years an integral part the kingdom of Busoga, and would be played at coronations and other royal ceremonies. When Prime Minister Milton Obote sought to unify the nation in 1966, and in doing so abolished the kingdoms and made illegal the performance of Bigwala, the instrument had to be played in secret, and gradually…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…rds bore the label ‘Kanindo’. Another of Kanindo’s benga labels was called Sungura, Swahili for ‘rabbit’ and it too became the name given to a faster variation of the music, a spin off from kanindo. Currently sungura is one of the biggest music genres in Zimbabwe. It is said that many fighters during the independence war in Zimbabwe used to dance to kanindo records during the night vigils known as pungwe. However, it should be noted that Zimbabwea…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…ers in Nairobi in the 70’s. The musicians were very influenced by American Country music, and one of his songs was the ‘Yoodle’ which he recorded with Merciiria. He was heavily influenced by Gacungi wa Kamau, a pioneering accordion player who was the first ‘secular player’. He often visited Wanganangu’s homeland and recruited Wangangangu to pursue a musical career. We recorded 6 songs with Wangangangu over two sessions: Cal Wa Kadogo Ngurumo ya Sa…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…a. This is for entertaining in all seasons. Its use is unrestricted and is sung in remembrance of Bechau, an elder of Njuri Njeke, who always encourages the community not to forget their culture, especially Njun Njeke, the head of the council of elders. Ramare twasemania: Lead is Francis Rithaa and Lawi Mwiti. Is sung by men who are sent to pick the circumciser. They sing the song in two groups, who eventually agree on the choice of circumciser. ….
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…d danceable (although it certainly is); it’s also an essential part of the country’s cultural history. When Tanzanian independence leader Julius Nyerere took over from the British in 1961, he worked hard to foster a local musical style that the new country could call its own. We spoke to Rebecca Corey, who started the project in 2010 and still coordinates it today. “They started phasing out all foreign music from the local stations” in the 1960s,…
Kenya’s Amazing Musical Instruments News
…ll-played, it takes on the role of the “fiddle” found in Irish or American country music. The Orutu is a one-string instrument played with a bow, whose notes are created by finger pressure against the central stick, producing the effect of ‘fretting’ notes. Watch here as the Aloka Ohangla Group plays “Nyar Karapul” (the Orutu is on the far left): Nyangile The Nyangile is a Luo instrument whose name literally means “box.” To play it, a musician hol…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…nizing the only festival since 2005. Many people are performing around the country today due to those festivals. The group is very literate in music and we had a clear vision from 1990 of what we wanted to do. We are not doing badly and have a comfortable life from the performances. Some musicians who didn’t even have a bicycle not have houses. We are showing you can have a musical career. We are growing our knowledge and getting better at represe…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…ning show Wait a Minim.” “My work in Uganda led me to begin exploring that country’s traditional music initially with the aim of collecting useful materials for teaching purposes. That exploration has continued since then, apart from during the chaos of the periods of the rule of Amin and the Second Obote regime (1969-87).” Most notably for Singing Wells, in reference to our latest project, is Peter’s work to record the King’s musicians of the Bug…
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…dinner and a few free drinks (we had charmed some flight attendants on the plane to contribute to Singing Wells with a few whiskeys). Most of us then went to bed for the night, deciding to have one final evening free of our London friends. Patrick, however, woke up in time to be a ‘greeting party’ to the London arrivals. Message from Abubilla Music Foundation Team Representing the AMF are Jimmy Allen (Founder), sound engineer Andy Patterson and Vi…
Sponsor a Singing Wells recording session News
…cover. We also organise a pre-trip ‘recce’ where a smaller team visits the country/ region in advance to pre-record groups, identify key talent and make all the preparations to ensure we don’t waste a moment on the full trip later in the year. You can find out more about our field recording visits here. This year, we’re headed for Uganda. We have a jam-packed schedule to keep to: we’re going to be following the story of Uganda’s Royal Instruments,…
Our Pain, Your Gain.. Story
…We wanted to find a shady spot to record the Sagat Traditional Dancers during our trip to the Rift Valley. But we ended up recording on top of hill in the blazing sun, overlooking the baking country side. But it made for lovely photos….