Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…! We recorded five performances: Busumabuno Kulima: A song about farming Watoto wakalime Freestyle on Kulima Magic Moment Busumabudo, focus on percussion https://youtu.be/dHeTdA5m5gQ Group 3: Awilo: The group, which is a comedy circus act, is from Ikungu lya nkoma and performs in the Bununguli style. They are from the Sukuma community and were formed in 1981. They played the Ng’oma and entertained the kids with circus acts involving fire, razor bl…
Royal Entenga Drummers Group
…f the music forgotten. But in 2015 James discovered the sixty-something Musisi, possibly the last surviving drummer. Musisi was just a teenager at the time of attack and barely survived the night of the attack itself (more on this here). James met him and realised that together they could begin to build the drums. Working closely with Albert and Shaban, a professional drummer who now leads the new band, they built a new set of Royal Drums, recruit…
Makunga Group
…ain indigenous community of Tanzania (always from the land, never migrated into Tanzania. The group was formed in 2018, but was built on a much older group. They perform in the Wuyina style. Their instruments/costumes include the: Ndulele (Horn), the Nindo (Shakers), the Mbega: (Animal Skins), the Muheme (Drums), the Kabati (Shakers), the Kalimba (Thumb Piano), the Zeze (Orutu), the Izeze (5 string large instrument), and the Muhongwa (Wooden water…
Baseki Group
…Simiyu: A song for praise for the region. Bahuni ba ng’wanza: A song referring to local women of questionable virtues Balimi: A song about farming where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe to the beat. Throughout Tanzania, we saw school kids walking to/from school with their hoes, where they o…
Biluli Dutwa Group
…Simiyu: A song for praise for the region. Bahuni ba ng’wanza: A song referring to local women of questionable virtues Balimi: A song about farming where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe to the beat. Throughout Tanzania, we saw school kids walking to/from school with their hoes, where they o…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…en performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE. We recorded five performances: Changamoto: This is about life’s challenges Mawazo Gakwira: About deep worries Nkewane nsanja: girlfriend got pregnant and came to…
Day Two: 8 March 2022 (Ilesi) Story
…resume the recording session. However it took a bit of time for the group to get some of their traditional instruments, including the adeu deu, in tune in with the guitars that were to back them up. One of the band members played the harmonica but it was only in the C key and so it was left out of the recordings of songs on different keys. Guest musicians Fiston, Ben and Gido also had to take a little time to play in sync with the polyrhythmic be…
Our Sponsors Page
…ard from the start of The Singing Wells project, helping to design and put into practice our ideas for our website. Our website is the main repository for all of our recording activities in East Africa, and the we are very proud of the latest version. Thanks to Wes and the team at Nebulo Strata for their continued help and support. To find out more, go to: http://www.nebulostrata.com Clarkson, Wright & Jakes Type of Sponsor: donation in kind Tha…
Ayub Ogada Group
A musician we choose to bump into frequently is that of Ayub Ogada, probably the most internationally acclaimed Kenyan musician, whose use of the nyatiti in different musical genres is both original and pertinent for our Masters of the Nyatiti story. We spent the day at his home in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu town, and conducted a long yet free of form type of interview. Although a Luo himself, Ayub had never learned how to play the nya…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…icularly impressive, with ongeng’o rings used both by themselves, and also together with the Nyangile, a wooden box topped with two of the rings, one of which is held with the feet, and beaten with a stick. You can find out more about the band here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop Nyatiti Group – 158BPM Another wonderful Nyatiti group led by Okumu Korengo who is cons…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…and arpeggio and I was really happy with how the rest of the elements came together in this piece.” To hear more work from Ng’at Maler, you can follow him at @ngatmaler MAKOSSIRI X ALOKA OHANGLA We love this brilliant submission from Kenyan techno artist, Makossiri. Describing herself as “A true rebel from the outerworld who defies boundaries through her genre bending sound grounded in African rhythms with a futuristic twist”, we loved how she too…
FAQ’s Page
What is the Singing Wells project? Singing Wells is a project jointly operated by Ketebul Music, a non profit music studio in Kenya and the The Abubilla Music Foundation, a UK registered charity. Our goal is to preserve the music traditions of East Africa and make this music relevant to the next generation of musicians and fans. Who works for the Singing Wells project? Our team is made up of audio and video engineers from both Ketebul Music and…
Page
…ers and songwriters to show how this “traditional” music is still relevant into today’s modern world. Below you will find links to the musical loops we have selected that are available to download for the project, If you are interested in joining the Global Influences Project, you can download the project brief here or get in touch with us with any questions you may have. SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS PROJECT ARE NOW CLOSED. Click here to access the Glob…
Recording Resources Page
…anagement Audio Recording Protocol Field Visit Workflow We hope these are useful for other researchers in the field. Please do get in touch if you find these helpful!…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…r second Field Visit to Tanzania. (Please go here for the first trip) For Singing Wells, a field visit is when we visit a specific region of East Africa and record musical groups in villages. On average, we do one field visit a year, recording roughly 20-25 groups, and a 100-125 performances. We have roughly 1,000 videos online. Our general setup for a recording is: a) Steve is in charge of audio and we typically have two general mics for the grou…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…ent from the traditional nyatiti players. He says he created his own style of music and learned to “adapt in order to survive”. At his home, we encountered another talented musician – Martin Njoroge “Papillon”, whom Ayub has been mentoring. Papillon played for us a few tunes on an original string instrument he invented and manufactured himself. This was very interesting to observe, since the instrument in question was based on the nyatiti, althoug…