The origins of Singing Wells Story
…I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows where we have travelled with the Singing Wells project and features audio tracks and videos of the songs and dances that we have recorded along the way. Two final words:…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…We wrap up with a long file sharing session – then the final Abublla Music gang heads to the airport for a flight to London while the Ketebul team returns to their homes and apartments for a well deserved rest!…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…a walk down stares on to tarmac and up to our very nice and pleasant Kenya Airways flight. We left and landed on time and all bags were waiting. We felt pretty sure that no baddies could have gotten through those 8 steps and were quite relaxed flying. After some chores we all then gather at the Go Down Arts Centre for recording. In the early afternoon, we had a chance to interview Tabu about the Uganda trip: Q: What did you want to get out of the…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…s around bringing artists we’ve ‘discovered’ during a field visit back to Nairobi for some studio recording with professional musicians. We experimented with the Batwa and Otacho Young Stars and we’ll going to take it further this weekend in Nairobi. We think if we can master these while following the ‘rule book’ we will succeed and you will benefit (assuming we survive this road journey. Yes, we are gradually building up a Singing Wells set of “n…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…rywhere, mostly on the side of the road with someone lying beneath them repairing something. In Uganda,, on most of the roads we travelled, there wasn’t a huge problem with ‘passing’ because the roads were not that crowded. Then there are night roads. These are horrible things that will kill you. They are pitch black. They are filled with deep holes that swallow you. They are lined with bikes and motorcycles that fall from the shoulder in front of…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…arch, and, naturally, this was difficult as information on the subject is fairly scarce and sometimes contradictory. However, the beauty of the map (as with search engines and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia), it is Open Source and so people from all around the world can add information to make the map a very useful source of information. By creating the basics, as we have, the broad tribal and musical structure of East Africa is there, now…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…, sunglasses, papers) and then took the train to C57, where we boarded our flight and left pretty much on time. Jimmy sat next to Andrew who lives in Kampala and married to a Uganda woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted befo…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…end the ‘field visit.’ Now the hard work begins of producing all the videos… Jimmy March 11th, Joma Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi Kenya…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…our first session. Interview with Steve Kivutia Steve was born in 1982 in Nairobi but his ‘home’ is the village of Kakamenga; his father moved villages to Moi’s Bridge (names after Kenyan President at the time). He was born in Mata Hospital and sent to Maseno Highschool, graduating in 2000. During school he loved Alpha Blondy, a reggae artist from the Ivory Coast, but also loved Hip Hop. He took a gap year and the joined a university to take compu…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…012 and then we will travel to Tanzania and Burundi in 2013, returning to Nairobi in Autumn 2013 in time for the celebrations for Kenya’s 50 years since independence. In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows where we have travelled with the Singing Wells project and features audio tracks and videos of…
Andy’s cover of Boys of Summer News
…he project or producing music for various clients he actually finds time to write and record his own material and is also a member of Abubilla Music’s house band, The Saturday Morning Canasta Club. You can listen to more of Andy ‘s music online at his website: click here but before you go over there have a listen to his brilliant cover version of Don Henley’s Boys of Summer, recorded this summer at the Abubilla Music studio in Spain. You can fol…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…eep art alive and well in the community and in particular in the youth of Nairobi. At the Art Centre we went to a photograph exhibition of “Nairobi Burning” during the 2007 riots. There were some poignant photos of the slums burning and people being beaten and killed. The unrest mainly affected the poor areas of Nairobi. One of the artists, Uncle Subu, from the Art Centre took corrugated iron from the slums after they burned and has made life size…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…I feel I know him already. The complete Singing Wells team congregates at Nairobi airport. After many months of planning the trip, this is the first time I actually put faces to the names. Steve has been integral to the planning – preparing the budget down to the last shilling and organizing the logistics of taking a team of 10 to Kisoro and beyond. We have spoken on the phone and emailed many times. It’s good to meet at last. The flight to Kigali…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…as. This is known as spatial data. Downloading the outline There is a free online source for spatial data at http://www.diva-gis.org/. To get your spatial data you click on Free Spatial Data in the top-right corner. On the Free Spatial Data page click on country level data. On the Download Data by Country page, select the country you need and make sure the Subject is Administrative areas. There is other data available for free download from this p…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…ch story as horrible as the one before. As you can imagine, we boarded our flight to Nairobi somberly. We reflected on all the people we met on the long drives through Rwanda and wondered how they now face their neighbours – you are fairly certain every person knows a either victim or an executioner well. To prove the point, we asked our Ugandan driver what he thought of the memorial. He said he now understood how his dad died – he was a Ugandan w…
Congratulations Singing Wells! News
…see these fruits of their expertise and enthusiasm. Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator World and Traditional Music, British Library website: http://www.bl.uk online gallery: http://sounds.bl.uk main catalogue: http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-bin/webcat…