Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
…ul, dynamic fusion of Taarab, Traditional African rhythms and contemporary Western and African sounds. Performers: Tarajazz: Suleiman Makame (keyboard, director), Hassan Mahenge (Saxophone, assistant director), Mahsin Basalama (contra base), Christopher Weston (Cajon and high hat), Regina Juma (singer). There was supposed to be a violin player but unfortunately he couldn’t make it. Kirundo: Lukoa Nenes (sticks), Joshua Muyumovela ( shakers), N…
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…i players from different locations in Luo land, he also helped us date the appearance of the famous “Koblong” tune to approximately 1954. Finally, he showed us his instrument tuning technique, which seemed well elaborated and in accordance to what we’ve heard from other traditional players. When watching him play, many of the Singing Wells team noted how frail William seemed; his legs would shake as he spoke to us. Whether this was down to his age…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…s for musicians based in remote areas. Our mission to travel and stream in Western Kenya was made possible by funds from Hivos, with the additional support from the Abubilla Foundation. Travel to Stream After one week’s training and familiarization with the new software and equipment, we took the road to Western Kenya on the morning of Sunday, 6 March 2022. The Ketebul Music team met at our new offices at the GoDown Arts Centre on Kayahwe Road off…
Day Two: 8 March 2022 (Ilesi) Story
…a little time to play in sync with the polyrhythmic beats of the Iteso of Western Kenya. When the tuning session was finally figured out the actual recording started at about 17:00 hours. The three sisters and their two brothers have pleasantly matured musically and it was really encouraging to see them helping to keep their father’s legacy alive. All was done a few minutes to 8:00pm. After the routine photo shoot the Obasie Palnyang brothers and…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…tego was born Musa Odhiambo Omondi on 26 December 1974 in Asere, Ugenya in Western Kenya. The middle child in a family of three Olith Ratego dropped out of school at an early age to help his father, Walter Omondi Onyango, run his carpentry workshop. A self-taught musician, Olith Ratego later used his woodwork skills to create a novel five-stringed instrument he named okoddo after his great-grandfather, Okoddo Madanda, who was known to his peers as…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…ur experimental fusion of contemporary elements with traditional sounds of Western Kenya region. Dave and I go back a long way as we worked together on several musical projects under the Nairobi City Ensemble. Other notable projects with Dave were during the period of Spotlight on Kenyan Music, which was a collaboration between Ketebul Music and the Alliance Française in Nairobi. Mention should also be made of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…t it soon paved way for what the locals called a ‘box guitar’, which truly appealed to the Luo ear. Interestingly the accordion had a far greater appeal and impact amongst the Kikuyu people of central Kenya. In the late 1940s individual guitar players began plucking away at the chords as they would the nyatiti, all the while singing in the language of the lake shore people. Traditional Luo dance forms and songs were fused to produce new and distin…
Latest Field Trip – Kenya 2018 News
…We’ve returned from our latest field trip, this time to western Kenya. Field reports coming soon….
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…allen out of fashion in recent years, with most Tanzanian youth preferring Western imports. “My music is no longer on the radio. That’s why people don’t know about it anymore”, he laments. “There needs to be more of an effort to teach young people about the music of the past, so they will like it.” With an estimated 250,000 hours of material on reel-to-reel tapes and vinyl records, some of it in an advanced state of decay, the task of the Tanzania…
Kenya’s Amazing Musical Instruments News
…ng) banging on the bottom of the Nyatiti. The rest of the band joined in clapping, dancing and providing wonderful backing vocals: Orutu After the Nyatiti, the Orutu is the second most important instrument in Luo music (though we also encountered it in central Kenya, where it’s called the Wandindi). When well-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 bo…
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…ts – particularly some musical instruments and recording techniques – from Western music. Last week I was in a taxi driving through Nairobi’s Westlands and talking to a girl about Sauti Sol – one of Kenya’s most popular bands. She described their music as ‘Afropop’, a contemporary music genre that combines traditional African music and Western popular music. Afropop influences The Sauti Sol band members have named a musician that influences them a…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
…e popular! So not all hope is lost for young Kenyans? Look, we aspire to a western life and we enjoy western music, but we have our own way of speaking in Kenya, our own slang – our own twist. There’s still some authenticity but it’s about mixes and making the most of these influences. We can’t go backwards but you could try and ensure that going forwards all is not lost for traditional music. How do you think Singing Wells could engage the youth…
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…d the Otacho Young Stars group on a trip to record the music of the Luo in Western Kenya in December 2011. They were later invited to Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to form part of our influences series. I love this song because it’s cheery and upbeat. It’s the kind of song everyone should listen to when they wake up to start the day with positive vibes. 2. Ochieng Nelly – Osare I’ll admit, a few weeks ago I knew very little about the history of Benga…
Current Leading Figures News
…the circumcision ritual for which the Bagisu tribe are well known. Julius appreciates and is an ambassador for what music can achieve in Uganda. As an orphan himself, struggling to pay the university tuition fees, he saw how he could create a better life for himself – but most importantly others – through the power of both traditional and Western music. “Do I want another semester of education, with no promise I will be able to fund another, or c…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…long, and in 1946 realised someone needed to fully dedicate their time to “appraising the social value” of traditional African music, otherwise it would disappear. Tracey would have to step up and be that someone, especially at a time when African radios wanted to broadcast in their own regional vernaculars but had no recordings of regional music to play. He was lucky enough to obtain funding from Eric Gallo, who owned a recording label in South A…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…ch play Bigwala music, attributes the music’s decline to two main factors: western influence and the 1966 abolition of kingdoms by former president Milton Obote. But, there is hope as the National Council of Forklorists in Uganda (NACOFU) has been helping the villagers to preserve the music, by encouraging them to grow gourd trumpets, teach it to the youth and increase the profile of the music, by performing it at more occasions. Nevertheless, the…