Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…me Ndaba also plays the Endongo (the thumb piano) and sings. They played a number of songs and then we kept doing magic moments – but frankly, everything they did was a magic moment. Even at the end, when we played back their music over the speakers they all stood and danced and sang harmonies to themselves. Their songs were: Abalimperekera Baliba Muganda: When I die, those that will escort me to be buried, will be many. Enumba Y’eisubi Esana Buko…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…Their style is Embaire, which is the xylophone. Their instruments were: Embaire, Xylophone Endigidi, tube fiddle Enkwanzi, pan pipes The performance was simply spectacular. Our search for the best xylophone players in Uganda is declared over! What a group. Obutasoma (Education), with lead singer Muniru Ayubu Obwiire Bukyeire (The Time Has Come), with lead singer Kisubi Eliasa Magic Moment: We loved the xylophone and asked the group to replay a min…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…meters back to Kampala and stayed at the Kampala Imperial Hotel, which had air conditioning which was highly valued by those of us from London, but treated with disdain by those of us from Nairobi! We had a quick shower and joined Rob Marshall of Sony for a quick drink to talk about African music and distribution. One of the big issues we face at Singing Wells is how to distribute monies for our artists efficiently. We discussed various pilots for…
Current Leading Figures News
…(Through Art Keep Smiling ) is ‘a grassroots non-profit organisation whose services are for the benefit of the community.’ They saw the desperate need for a centre to provide space for Northern Ugandans to nurture their artistic talents, as “for over 20 years the people of Northern Uganda have been victims of a cruel civil war between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).” Odwar points out that Jan England, the UN under se…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…’s vibrant, folky art beautifully adorns their CDs covers, they know their customer base; “Cultural Creatives” (a sociological term for 50 million North Americans and millions more around the world with an interest in culture, travel and the arts), and have ensured they have visible presence in the places it matters, such as speciality retailers and record stores, all across America. 20 million CDS sold, with 70 of its collections selling more tha…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…listen to the recordings, one must make an appointment with the Listening Service to listen to the recordings on site at the British Library. Michael Baird produced 21 CDs of Tracey’s work; Historical Recordings of Hugh Tracey series. These can be bought online at SWP Records and a review of most of the CDs can be found here. Michael Baird said “The sad conclusion after compiling this series is that so much music recorded by HT [Hugh Tracey] has…
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. …
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…immie Rodgers music was inspired by and build upon the influences of Black-American music, and it is only fitting that his work filtered back to Kenya. We find this circular tale in all music we are recording – most notably the massive influence of gospel on East African music, which, in turn was created in large part by Black-American music, directly inspired by early African village music. We listen to the likembe music in Uganda and here the st…
Promotion of Batwa Culture/Music: UOBDU report Nov 2013 News
…ts for all the six groups. On 7th January 2013 the team identified the two service providers who were used by the organized before to design T-shirts and wrappers clothes for UOBDU dancers. On 18th January 2013 both service providers delivered their work to UOBDU and receive their payments. Each Batwa group were able to receive 12 T-shirts which had the name of the community written on back with clothes for wrapping. In addition, each group receiv…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…sounds vulgar – some Kampala teen-ager singing F this and F that in a bad American accent. Why is this good? Why is it unique? Why is it art? What they should do is learn about their culture, their identity – it is so rich, so wonderful, so new and exciting for others. If I’m an American or English person, when I hear a Ugandan I would want to hear something new from their culture – why do I want to hear t hem cursing about the police in Los Ange…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…onsuming music. In Africa – 60% have electricity whereas 86% have a mobile phone. This is again another area in which the Singing Wells project may be interested in the future – mobile phones and ring back tones as a method of delivery for music. Mike and I also attended the African music networking session which became the launch for a new initiative by the Cape Verde government. It has been calculated that music is their biggest export and so ha…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…oulder dance) and ‘Nasale’, playing traditional instruments such as the Embaire (xylophone), Ndingidi (tube fiddle) and Efumbo (long drum). Once the recording sessions are finished we will pack up the studio and drive the short distance to Mbale, the location of our recording session on Thursday morning. Day 4: Mbale & Nakisenyi – Music of the Bagisu and Basoga On this morning we will meet the Elgon Ngoma Troupe who perform Bagisu music. Steve met…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…ics 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 (for the laptops) Various Canon zoom and fixed lenses Plus at least 9 Sandisk memory cards and 15 portable back-up drives and a lot of leads and cables…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…ut facilities for garbage disposal or water drainage, and breathe polluted air. 2 There are Healthy Cities policies and programmes aimed at addressing these problems. At times, it seems to be assumed that eventually everyone will move to the cities. MK Rajakumar, the great family practitioner/philosopher, former WONCA President from Malaysia, points out that, in the totality of human history, cities are a very recent and potentially ‘unnatural’ ph…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…re comprehensively written and prove and interesting insight into life in Nairobi at this time. His diary writings tail off towards the end of his life. He died in Nairobi, on the 24th January 2004, aged 84. Colmore was a keen photographer and as his diaries and the archive show – he seems to have taken a photograph of almost everyone he met, including the ruling politicians of the era. The archive also contains some interesting artefacts from Ind…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…ls YouTube channel……73,603 views and still counting! It’s not a meaningful number in itself (like a nice round 100,000 – our next target) but it does mean more and more people are finding us and enjoying what we are all about – bringing the more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi…