1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…m 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 endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has been under way for a month now. James gives some background about his inspiration for starting this project: “I led the revival of entenga royal drum music of Buganda kingdom. At the ti…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…o pursue music professionally. It was Leo’s mom that finally intervened to support Leo’s musical ambitions, when Leo turned 20, noting that she had married a musician and loved a musician’s life. Leo calls his style “Swahili Blues” which was inspired mostly by his dad’s music, the music of Salim Abdalah (a great Tanzania guitarist) and his Mzee Morris’s drums. Ketebul Music first met Leo in Nairobi and helped produce his third album Bangili, which…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…ing for three reasons: We had the whole day so were able to record a large number of songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a professional musician, Leo also teaches music to school children so he is a natural with kids. On all the songs that he did, he had the whole village singing and laughing…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…ts are quite central to Tanzanian dance as are acrobatic acts. We spoke to Leo about this. “Yes, we love to bring comedy to our music. If you look at most circus troupes that are touring in the world today, a huge number of the acrobats and clowns are Tanzanian.” https://youtu.be/C-4PdHne3Jc We’ll leave you here. We checked in to our hotel, the Mediterraneo Hotel, Dar es Salaam. Tomorrow we head off for Bagamoyo….
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…you are based in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon The donors of Abubilla Music Foundation, who support the Singing Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We a…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…ation started everything. We needed to revive these trumpets. I got UNESCO support, I got Singing Wells support and gradually, we formed a group. Singing Wells filmed them in 2013 and helped us tell their story. We also invested in the farmers – James Lugolole is coordinating them to grow the gourds and we are building new trumpets (we now have about 20). And finally, James Lugolole is helping train the new musicians and we now have 4 separate gro…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…ring the same note as the Enkologi, but octave different. Today, they were supported by the royal drum, Mbuutu (not to be confused with the 15 drum ensemble of the Entenga). They played the following songs: Sematimba ‘Ne Kikwabanga Anamwa Nganga (with accents over the ‘g’s’) And with that, we faced a thunderstorm and packed ourselves up for the hotel, and packed in the hotel for our flight on December 4th back to Nairobi. We will not provide a fie…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…hat they are missing – but the local communities must decide if and how to support this music on a sustainable basis. Step 4: if there is support, build the infrastructure. This involves seeds for gourds for trumpets, or drum-making for drums. Inevitably something needs to be invested in the infrastructure. Step 5: Bring on the young. Inevitably, you then need to bring on the people to learn and enjoy this music. And here we had an interesting deb…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
One of our favourite artists, the Elgon Ngoma Troupe, is seeking sponsorship for a new piggery on their project. The piggery will allow the troupe to establish a sustainable form of income for the project, which houses children from disadvantaged backgrounds through performance of traditional music, through breeding and meat production. Donate to Elgon Ngoma’s gofundme page here! And you can watch one of their brilliant performances, recorded on…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…our work is having. We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us over the last few years, and for creating such a thriving community in the comments below. As we build towards our ten year anniversary in 2021, we are thrilled to know that we have the support of such an engaged audience. Here’s a few of the highlights from our channel. First place on the view count – at 272,000 views, goes to our awesome session with Otieno…
The Return of Bigwala News
…tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ai9y5pkl6E According to Atlas Obscura, this support has allowed the seeds of this unique gourd, which were thought to have been lost, to be rediscovered and grown. Now over 100 students have been trained in building the instruments, and have played at two royal celebrations. There seems to be a promising future for this important thread in the tapestry of Uganda’s cultural history. Sources: https://www.atlasobscura.c…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…make this available. We need to think about rich Kenyans and how they can support the music of their village with our help. We need to think about corporates and get them off the popular big number kick they are on and get them to work on authentic things. You guys can get better and better at producing videos, but until we make this bigger and more sustainable, the project is always one heart attack a way from stopping. But let me end simply – t…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…y, and has remained there since. It is at Chandarana’s studios that a vast number of musicians from western Kenya first put their work on spool tapes. Chandarana’s business acumen was in large part responsible for the replication of the Benga sound by singers from the mid-Rift Valley region. His shop and recording premises in the town are still in operation, though he has retreated into reclusive old age and is hardly keen on granting media interv…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…the Roasters in Nairobi in the 70’s. The musicians were very influenced by American Country music, and one of his songs was the ‘Yoodle’ which he recorded with Merciiria. He was heavily influenced by Gacungi wa Kamau, a pioneering accordion player who was the first ‘secular player’. He often visited Wanganangu’s homeland and recruited Wangangangu to pursue a musical career. We recorded 6 songs with Wangangangu over two sessions: Cal Wa Kadogo Ngur…
Naizungwe Drums News
…m 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 endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has been under way for a month now. We will be documenting the progress of these drums with pictures and videos here, and more details about the project and the instruments themselves are…
Entenga: Performing twice for the king of Buganda News
…We were first introduced to the Entenga drums in 2015 and have since been supporting James in an initiative to revive the drums and teach younger musicians how to play them (read the field reports here or watch our documentary for more information of this project). The Entenga players were mentioned in the king’s speech, which James translated for us as: “ … I would like to thank especially those who played instruments of the palace, and in parti…