Here for the Music? Page
…c traditions continue to be practiced, can be shared amongst the widest audiences and become a source of inspiration for new musicians.”…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…. This was a group of wonderful dancing and costume changes. Every song a new and wonderful outfit. We recorded six performances: Omusingero: A song about playing the drums and dancing Nchuma: A song about traditional music that the elders love to play Mrondogomo: A wedding song Kidedeya: A send off song, a marriage song Kidedeya: Freestyle Magic Moment: Omusingero again https://youtu.be/AtwkoD3sDFo From recording we then drove eight hours to…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…n Hero Brass Band. When you combine the two bands, the traditional and the new brass sound, Julius says, they blew audiences’ minds. As the bands have grown there are roughly 160 total members of his group, of which 100 are performers. They are roughly divided between the two bands. For income, they do performances and also work four acres of land to feed themselves. Many of the members also do arts and crafts or a skilled trade – Julius’s dream i…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…lowing Amina Muta on Facebook. ATIENO OLUOCH X ADUNGU CULTURAL TROUPE This newest submission is called Wena and is by Atieno Oluoch. We loved the vocals and the way they complimented the rhythmic musical workings of the Adungu Cultural Troupe. This new version gave us summer vibes and felt incredibly uplifting! “I’m humbled by this opportunity and glad to have participated in the Singing Wells global project. When I picked the loop, I thought of c…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…ed in this part of the process. Though they said it wasn’t pleasant, they knew the importance of this part of the process and wanted to be a part of it so that they could continue their education about this instrument. It is amazing to see young people getting actively involved in the traditions and methods of creating this instrument, so that they will be able to continue these traditions for generations to come. Meet the Students In this weeks v…
Mission Page
…shared amongst the widest audiences and become a source of inspiration for new musicians. Aims of the Singing Wells Project East Africa is a region with a diverse cultural heritage. Its borders encompass a multitude of different ethnic groups, each with their own unique traditions and histories, languages and dialects, religions and beliefs, ways of dressing, music and dance. We believe the importance of preserving music traditions cannot be under…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…f improving their performances. Most of them were ready to experiment with new ways of playing their traditional musical instruments, as well trying to devise standard tuning for them. Furthermore, we appreciated the fact that our intentions were well received and that the musicians did not consider us to be some arrogant city slickers trying to teach them their own cultures and traditions. Our goal was to build resilience by trying to restructure…
Day Three: Bungoma Town to Kakamega Story
…ditional song in three parts where a man goes to visit his daughter in her new home Influences: Fadhilee Itulya, our influences artist, joined Wilbert to play acoustic guitar on another version of Ndirenje. We travelled from Bungoma Town to Mumias (which was a lot longer than it should be as we travelled the wrong direction for 30 Kms, initially.) But we eventually arrived in Mumias to record Mumias United, a very large dance group. The group was…
Privacy Policy Page
…. Why are we telling you this? Well the European Union have introduced a new directive that makes it a requirement for websites to get consent for using cookies. Nothing has changed at singingwells.dev – except for the little cookie triangle in the bottom corner of the screen. The Cookies that we use are very much standard and in the true spirit of Abubilla Music and the foundation, we like to be open with you about our methods and how and why w…
Day Four: February 19, 2020 (Maruhabi Palace) Story
…the harvest. New composition. Mjomba – Uncle, celebrating the good hunt. New composition Uye – Come Back Please, used at a wake after someone is buried. New composition. Uringe – Be Proud. Old Traditional song Kyaso – old traditional Zanzibarian song of celebration Mnyamwana – Respect for women. New Composition. They sang in a combination of Hehe and Kigogo, both languages from mainland Tanzania, as well as Swahili. They had incredible energ…
Tarajazz Group
…rican rhythms such as Msewe and Kyaso (both from Zanzibar) with Singeli (a new tribal rhythm). Taarab came from early 1800’s as Egyptian music. In Zanzibar the Mother of Taarab, Siti Binti Saad, made Taarab more popular in the 1920’s to 1950’s. We spoke to Hassan Mahenge, the assistant director of this band. He is a teacher at the DCMA. He teaches the Oud and plays the saxophone. All the students at the DCMA study traditional music such as Taarab…
Kidedeya Group
…Freestyle Magic Moment: Omusingero again…
Kirundo Group
…r the harvest. New composition. Mjomba – Uncle, celebrating the good hunt. New composition Uye – Come Back Please, used at a wake after someone is buried. New composition. Uringe – Be Proud. Old Traditional song Kyaso – old traditional Zanzibarian song of celebration Mnyamwana – Respect for women. New Composition. They sang in a combination of Hehe and Kigogo, both languages from mainland Tanzania, as well as Swahili. They had incredible energy an…
What We Do Page
…ot consider it relevant today. So we have developed the Influences series: new compositions comprising a fusion of traditional and contemporary styles, themes, harmonies and instruments. Influences is led by musicians from Ketebul Music or singer/songwriters from the areas we are travelling to during our field visits. “Singing Wells can’t be just about archiving. We can’t be fossil collectors. We also have to make sure we can bring these tradition…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…ded to make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video documenting t…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…by long time Singing Wells partner Prof. James Isabirye about an exciting new project he was hoping to undertake – the revival of the naizungwe drums of the Basoga people in Uganda. James led our revival of the entenga royal drums of the Buganda kingdom starting in 2015 and contacted Singing Wells with the hope that we would support him with funding for his new project. We are excited to announce that we have agreed to support James in his endeav…