Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…t is never for just entertainment. Our first song, ‘Welo Obino’ is sung to welcome visitors, a celebration for new comers in the village. That is why we sang it for you first. We then sang ‘Dug Gang’ which is to celebrate the end of war, to call the people over to tell them we are in peace. ‘Alocaloca’ was our final song: it is all about change. It is mainly sung to mark the end of a dispute or a war. These songs now mean more to us as the hardshi…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…be being rewarded for bringing the story of Macedonia to you. You’re most welcome. But we digress. A group of us is in file management mode and this is worth a brief discussion (well, mostly because we are driving on the road in pitch black to Kampala and are using this blog to distract ourselves from the terrors occurring outside!). Behind the scenes, Singing Wells is all about finding the right 3 or 4 repeatable models that will drive our succe…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…roup started to argue that the band could serve a purpose and help provide welcome distractions for the rebels. Eventually, after a few tense hours of debate, the village was spared. The rebels were about to take the young boys as soldiers, but by that time Joshua had gathered the whole village into the band, dancing or banging some percussion instrument. He convinced the rebels that the whole village was the band. And the whole village was spared…
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…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…s of expenses (we run a very tight shop, thanks to Steve’s leadership), we welcome Ben into the studio to record. The Otacho Young Stars stayed the morning as well. We had a full crew to support Ben – Johnnie and Bishop on guitar, Nina and Winyo on vocals. Watch this space. We also continued our work to capture new artists for Missing – Global Remix, our 2012 fund raising song. We had Prasad Velankar, a wonderful Indian percussionist join us to pu…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…Chemurwombai. ‘Kiseng’ : a blessing and a thanksgiving to us for coming. A welcome blessing in which grass is given as a blessing and to honour us. ‘Kirongo’: part of a blessing to say good-bye and come again. Used in initiation rights for men. https://youtu.be/zdA6j78RZjU https://youtu.be/LpcsgT8LRUg https://youtu.be/GCbYevDBGBA Embolot The second group were the Embolot from village Kamogo. They live in the forest as farmers. Honey from the for…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…we get out of the vans and head towards the ‘stage’, they begin a rousing welcome song. Once again, I have the Canon 60D in hand and concentrate on the ‘behind the scenes’ footage. We are soon surrounded by an audience of women and children. Many are reluctant to have their photos taken but some of the boys become bolder and then insist on seeing every photo I take of them, posing unashamedly for each shot. Some remain shy and slightly distrustfu…
Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga News
…project, Samba Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga are touring the UK later this month, in support of Samba’s new album Maisha Ni Matamu (Life Is Sweet) on Virunga Records. We first met Samba in Kenya, on a recording trip as part of The Singing Wells project. He sang as part of a ‘Welcome’ concert put together by our friends at Ketebul, along with Winyo and Ayub Ogada. We’ll bring more news on his new album as we have it, but until then you can view h…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
DAY 5: Welcome to the most beautiful setting for a music recording session. Today we visit the Mperwa Community. The second day of recording – beautiful sunshine in morning and there’s a patten emerging. Morning sunshine, afternoon rain, then the power goes out. Then the locusts attack. But let’s focus on the morning. This morning we recorded the Mperwa Dancers – the lead singer had a beautiful voice and we did an ‘Influences’ sessions with her….
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…erful to see the fusion of old tribal music with contemporary music in the field and in the studio in Nairobi. The one thing that I learned on this trip was how important it is to talk to the tribes to get their histories but also to make them feel welcome and at ease. It would also be useful to have a debrief afterwards to see how they felt it went and if they have any comments. I hope to go back to other areas of East Africa to hear their storie…
Nick Abonyo (the ‘clapper-man’) News
…rs’ to discover real music.” Nick’s favourite Singing Wells moment was the welcome we received at the home of Ogoyo Nengo in Rang’ala, Nyanza province. “She is a great artist and for her to welcome us to her home was a great honour. I felt so proud.” His worst moment was during the first day of recording on this trip to record the Kalenjin……when the rains came. In his typical wordy style Nick reported, ‘I was wet.’ When asked who from the team bos…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…took us to his village called Sita in Gede. On arrival we received a warm welcome and Bado’s family was really happy to see me again and like wise. We got down to business and set up quickly and the first group was Mwanzele Nyerere wa Konde Music Club. I was excited because this would be my first time to see Mzee Nyerere wa Konde perform live and they did not disappoint. Later they were joined by Winyo for a performance which in simple words was…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…in a unique way, different from the grainy footage of government “tourist promotional” documentaries dating from the 1960s. I was born in Nairobi 48 years ago. At 14, my future music career came to a crashing halt when I was kicked out of the school choir for miming. I wouldn’t dare sing; my voice is just a notch better than a toad’s. My attempt to learn guitar was also thwarted when my finger tips formed that kind of stuff you find on your heels…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…rmance by Samba mapangala, Winyo, and Ayub Ogada, that he had organized to welcome our friends from Abubilla. We all joined them later, and I couldn’t believe how late it was when we finally left to go home. Jimmy made a point to check with me whether I knew when we were to depart from Nairobi according to my itinerary. Yes, Jimmy can be a funny guy. Day 2: The Road Trip to Malindi On the day of departure, I made a point to make it to the studio…
More on the launch of the Ketebul Music website News
…vered a great site right on brief and within a tight budget which is a big bonus for the Singing Wells funds. Here are a few words from Wesley Burden about the challenge we gave them…… “Ketebul Music required a website design that delivered a strong sense of the colourful music of East Africa and the traditions that their non-profit organisation aims to help preserve. Using our experience from working with Abubilla Music and Sideways Recordings we…