Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…help. The only note I had was that we could reach Musisi through his sister-in-law. Now I had to find Musisi. He said his sister-in-law lived in Kasawo. Well it took me forever to find that village. After crossing swamps and taking wrong turns I kept asking for the village. Finally I found it and started asking for the sister-in-law. I found her and had only one question: is Musisi alive? He was, she said. But he lives in Kiboga which was about th…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…that say ‘see our animals not our people.’ And business is looking for big numbers which means popular things, which sadly means easy to digest, disposable pop culture. The whole drive to “marketing” is killing our culture. If the numbers don’t come in on something than you stop it. But culture is hard to really invest in. You don’t go for the popular musicians doing the big things. You have to go to the real groups in the rural villages. And they…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…tal. Polygram, which was based in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, later held record-pressing monopoly. Other big music labels locally were EMI and CBS, and these attracted artists from as far away as the then Zaire. But the activity at these multinationals could never rival the volume, spirit and camaraderie that reverberated from the independent studios on Nairobi’s River Road, which nurtured raw talent and threw together new bands in the flash of a r…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…f the year in Uganda in 2004. Their leader is Haruna Walusimbi. They have 4-5 drummers depending on the song, 2-3 flute players, 2 tube fiddle players and 2 thumb pianos. They also have the traditional Ugandan Xylophone. All instrumentalists also sing and are supported by three ladies who sing and dance. The three core members are: Walusimbi Nsibambi Haruna: He the Founding Director of Nile Beat Artists. Walusimbi was once the Global Youth Earth D…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…ople start using them again to store liquids and stop using plastic) The coordinator and lead female vocalist in the group is Irene Nabirye. The group is made up of 6-7 Bigwala players and drummers, plus dancers and singers. They performed four songs and then we did a magic moment with their instruments; these were: Muwe Bwobona Asaba: When someone asks you kindly assist them Mperekera Omwana Womurembe: When you are walking and living with someone…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
Report from Womex 2013 News
…course of the 4 days. Here is a picture of us all at our stand: And Finally… We were intrigued by the two fellas with a load of equipment at the end of one of the rows on the other side of the hall – they seemed to be doing something with records… Further investigation showed us that they were creating vinyl records from CDs – they would do one track free of charge. We are therefore now in possession of a copy of a Vinyl record with the track Mi…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…MacBook Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones 2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera ThinkTank sun screens (fo…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to record the music of the Mijikenda tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where we met and recorded the wonderful Batwa people. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global track from Abubilla Music fea…
A new type of city Story
…hat the capital would be like; this image speaks a lot about the city. The number of ‘proper’ buildings were few and in only the small centre. It was hilly and most of the roads were not built for vehicles. The shops were small shacks mostly and at night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconvent…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…ommunity began to arrive on the ‘stage’ and we were ready to start. The recording session was an extraordinary one, full of energetic dancing and wonderful, joyous singing. By the end of the session everyone was joining in with the performance. We had attracted a large audience of local people who had gathered on the hillside, including, of course, this group of three young Batwa boys who were intrigued with all our recording equipment. Andy invit…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…d features audio tracks and videos of the songs and dances that we have recorded along the way. Two final words: influences and origins. When we first set out the aims for Singing Wells, we realized that we couldn’t just be fossil collectors, finding and cataloging music that will soon die out, leaving videos and songs in the archives. We also had to work to make this music relevant and important to contemporary artists. A key part of a field visi…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…o give the background; here’s Bado, with Patrick, who we’ve known since the founding of Singing Wells: At about 1900, Tabu broke away with Hannah and Andy to go to a concert while Jimmy remained with the core group to continue recording. The recording group stayed until about 2130 at night, long after hotel restaurants closed, so Pato and Steve hosted the band to a dinner out. Hannah and Andy will report on the concert separately. Jimmy (Ketebul…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ht him with us to the hotel in Entebbe with his son, Odika Constantine. Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe It was a lovely afternoon on the hotel grounds and a load of German guests just back from safari became the rather surprised audience. Throughout the recording we competed with some very loud bird, a lovely school choir across the street, planes from the airport nearby and ‘wandering guests’, folks that decided to have one last view…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…square where we set up for recording. Exactly 24 hours ago we set up to record in Northern Uganda in the village of Obuell-Lira. This was the most idyllic rural scene we’ve experience – with picture perfect huts settled behind flower beds and sleeping cattle. This morning we encounter a perfect urban setting, with the square carved into a hill, with rows and rows of streets below us, and an equal number of streets and houses piled up above us. The…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…d Mwatela Kamanza (pictured in the far right of the group, Sengenya, we recorded in March 2011 near Mombassa ). We recorded three songs with the band at Ketebul studios tonight. These are: Ndege Ya Panda Mlima (Sengenya Style) : Written in 1988, this literally means ‘Music’ Strengt’h (Ndege) can climb up (Ya Panda) mountains (Mlima) and is about the power of music to heal and transform. Howenaya (Ngarawa Style) : This is about ‘asking back’ – the…