Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…that supplement the music recordings they have available. For example, the latest issue, Peace, features an article, Coffee, Music, and the Performance of Peace by Jeffrey A. Summit, which explores issues surrounding the music they produce, namely the album Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith Harmony in Uganda. 5. BBC Radio 3: World Music Audio Archive Presented by Lucy Duran, the World Routes programme on BBC Radio 3 is a mixture of inter…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…were in Nairobi recording the old guard of Benga/African twist, we had our latest in a series of conversations with the Director of ILAM (International Library of African Music), Diane Thram. ILAM was founded in 1954 by the late Hugh Tracey, the legendary ethno-musicologist, who conducted ground breaking village recordings from the 1920’s to 1950’s. We are working with ILAM to begin to repatriate these recordings back to the villages from which th…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…Professor, gave us access to a collection of music and photos, from music promoter Peter Colmore. We are getting all the genres of Kenyan music. I would like the book to be done by types of music. It needs to involve DJ’s, musicians, writers, etc… We have almost all the material. It is now about making a big impression. My dream is we launch this book during the Smithsonian conference next year in Washington DC. In terms of artists, Winyo is doin…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…NGO the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Their latest report to us included the following information about the Birara group: “This is one of the communities that is still cherishing music and dance as the Batwa culture it is still leading and very creative. The community members also share the knowledge on culture and pass on the knowledge to the young ones in order to promote and preserve the Batwa culture which inclu…
The New Singing Wells website News
We are proud and pleased to announce the latest version of The Singing Wells website. We hope this will make it easier for you to find and explore our recordings of East African Traditional Music. Here are some of the added features of the new site: Stories Most of what we do is story-telling, in the music that we record, the pictures we take, the people that we meet and the journeys that we make – so we have split our stories into easy to read a…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…4. Singing Wells is about bringing the tribal music of East Africa to the latest generation of singer-songwriters, like Winyo: However important it is to capture music before it is gone, this is necessary, but not sufficient. We are not fossile collectors. The second part of our mission is to bring this music to the next generation, to inspire them to look to their heritage for inspiration before they look elsewhere. We do this with ‘Influences’…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…sed in different file sizes for ‘road posts’, formal trip reports and then latest versions of the Singing Wells book. And finally, we need to be able to archive EVERY THING. We feel it is very important that if someone later has a particular interest in a group or an instrument that they will find all we’ve recorded on that topic, even if it doesn’t feature initially into our ‘output.’ So, learning how to do all this in the middle of a field trip…
How music archives can help communities News
…l be on the road in Uganda, travelling to the north of the country for our latest field recording visit. It’s a good time to reflect on the importance and relevance a project such as Singing Wells. Why should we record and archive traditional music? Our objectives are not about archiving music for the sake of it. We do not see ourselves as ‘fossil collectors’, merely recording the music and dance performances of traditional groups and then…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…s free and open source which means any researcher can work with the source code to extend and improve its functionality, so it is constantly developing and improving. It’s also web-based so it’s easy to access and share, which is exactly what we want in order to carry on building the Singing Wells community. Rosie has made some ‘how-to’ guides on how to add to a map yourself which you can access easily on our website too, in a few steps, ‘Housekee…
The Batwa Trail News
…anda Wildlife Authority) office. I read more about the Batwa people in the latest Bradt guide. I am worried about the Batwa people destiny. The Batwa are the mankind example of how people can live in harmony with nature. Something that the Batwa did much longer than all other populations! I am an amateur film maker and I was pleased with the explanation about the living, the medicinal plants, hunting methods… that the Batwa use(d). When I think ab…
Jimmy reporting on Kenya Rift Valley field trip (March 2012) News
…Back in Nairobi after the latest field trip, Jimmy files this report via Skype. Jimmy reflects on the recording trip and the weekend ahead in the studio with Ben Kisinja and the Otacho Young Stars. Jimmy reporting via Skype from Nairobi Date: 9th March 2012 …
Singing Wells Project News Update News
…OCTOBER 2011 NEWS: Here is the latest news and itinerary for Phase 4 – the Batwa and Luo music recording trip in November. Click on the image to download the PDF: …
Abubilla Music release fourth album News
The latest album from Abubilla Music has been released and there’s a launch party on 2nd October in Richmond when The Saturday Morning Canasta Club will play tracks to a (hopefully) admiring audience – more news about that to follow. Click on the cover for a sneak preview – the track ‘Breathe’ performed by the Singing Wells Project’s very own Andy Patterson……. Importantly, the album also includes the global remix of an origi…