Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…he #GlobalInfluncesProejct is another amazing track that makes you want to get up on your feet! We love this submission from Beats by Maggy, a producer based in Nakuru, Kenya. “The African sounds were so inspiring, I created the beats using fruity loop Fl studio. The African loop was so energetic so I had to feature some more energy to make it more lively.” We love this energy too – a perfect tune to get the party going! You can follow more Beats…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…th common focus on using music as a tool for community development. The group promotes traditional African values and acts in both education and local economy. Members also engage in traditional crafts like basket weaving and jewellery making for exhibition and sale. You can learn more about the group here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop singingwells · SW Samples –…
Busolwe Post Test Club Group
…about a boy in the village that is going astray. The singers advise him to get a job and settle down and find a woman. “Mabega Dance”: The song is about when you see someone who is happy and you know they have good fortune. But when you see them unhappy you know they are having problems. Magic Moment featuring the Tube Fiddle and Flutes. The flute (Omulelel) player is George Wandela. The two Tube Fiddle players are Wilber Mutanse and Geoffrey Wama…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon The donors of Abubilla Music Foundation, who support the Singing Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our prayers to Mat…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Benga playing a dominant role. Currently, you can get advance copies from Ketebul Music Studios or place your order by contacting them directly. #sha…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…the difficulties of archiving with an easily destructible medium like reel-to-reel tapes and the importance of now digitising these perishable recordings. The sound engineer who had recorded the music with Wachsmann kindly offered up the copies he had made a kept aside. Wachsmann went on to lecture at various universities and was awarded the bronze medal for “Devoted Service to Africa” from the Royal African Society in 1958. His legacy lives on a…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…that the Batwa were the most musical tribe he’d ever heard. We recorded group after group in awe. As we stopped into one very poor village we stumbled upon Tiny Moses. He had a hand-made guitar. We asked if he played and he said yes. We arranged for him to join us the next day to record. He brought his bass player who beat boxed into a clay pot. He brought DJ. And he played. We brought him back to Nairobi to record. Here is his music and story, wh…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…lication of all interviews and finalization of all archiving. Studio Follow-up: our final repeatable model is our set of routines around bringing artists we’ve ‘discovered’ during a field visit back to Nairobi for some studio recording with professional musicians. We experimented with the Batwa and Otacho Young Stars and we’ll going to take it further this weekend in Nairobi. We think if we can master these while following the ‘rule book’ we will…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…wn rich clay roads. On the way, Joshua told us about the history of the group, which was founded in 1982. The group and its song Uganda Land of Freedom is legendary in the Teso region (the name for the collection of villages around us). Joshua While you read the rest of this, why don’t you play the Magic Moment of the band as a good soundtrack to their story? During the civil war these villages were under rebel control from 1989-1992. The rebels c…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…then fill five foot high white bags of charcoal that line the roads in groups of 4-5. We often mistake them for nuns walking along the road in their beautiful white dresses. The white bags are typically crowned with a grass hat to keep them dry. Near Pakwach, this is a pretty simple cover but as you approach Soroti from Lira you get quite elaborate little weaved hats. These bags are sold for about 30,000 Ugandan shillings, but it takes days to fi…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…-pvBWlmTe They did a final song called Kanyaga Mbele. https://youtu.be/zyeH-PvP7-E We loved this group and they rank in our Top 10 so far for Singing Wells. We loved them so much we recorded a ‘magic moment’ with them and also an Influences session with Akello. She sang her song Wan Wilobo, a song for and about Ugandan women and their stories during and after the war, as they keep their families together through work dawn to dusk. Ker Kal Kwaro In…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…t one of our Polaroid pictures. This is a new innovation for us – every group gets to listen to their song back during their performance and we take a Polaroid photo of each person so they can take a photo home. Then a quick 50 kilometer ride back to Gulu (smile) taking photos the whole way home of great road scenes. We then bought some Ugandan instruments in Gulu and William, Akello and Hannah feasted on some grasshoppers on the road back to the…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…nging Wells when I began work in the summer of 2012. The Virtue Foundation – Ghana – Yellow Fever Immunisation Why do you think it is the best way to display data? When displaying data it’s no secret that people often understand it better when it’s interesting visually; this is why we often use charts and diagrams rather than bodies of text nowadays. Most people’s brains aren’t able to see patterns in data easily, especially when the data set is h…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…urrounded by beautiful tall trees which blocked the sun. There were two all-female groups waiting for us, which seems appropriate given it is International Women’s Day. The Music Elimu Cultural Promoters Our first group was the Elimu Cultural Promoters from the Tugan tribe. They are a collection of women from little villages scattered around the Kabarnet area and they want to promote good values of culture and education. They were all dressed in b…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…ng but they did not come today. They mainly have older members in their group. The group have never been recorded before today and they were very excited about others hearing their traditional music. Kathy spoke to them about their dress and its significance. The white paint in lines and crosses on the men’s arms represents the River Nile and where the tribe originated from. They came from Israel to Egypt along the Nile to the Sudan. This occurred…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…. The Magic Moment focused on their extraordinary ‘pogo’ style dancing, jumping up to 20 inches off the dirt floor in the homestead. Throughout the recordings, a lovely woman of about 70 could not keep from dancing. We loved it, although the owner of the homestead kept trying to have her sit down. She would start by sitting with the group and moving her arms to the beat. Then she would begin to sing, and then she would stand and sway, and then she…