Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…et Mumias United Group led by Francisca Oduor. Established in 1997, Mumias United is a folk group that presents traditional music and dances of the Wanga. The Wanga (AbaWanga) are a sub-group of the Luhya people famous for their historical Kingdom. The Wanga Kingdom was the most highly developed and centralised kingdom in Kenya’s history before the arrival of the British and the colonialization of the area. Today, the Wanga, who live mainly in Kak…
Day 4 – Tuesday 4th July 2017 Story
…the arms (ogwero, milinginda, apindi, mago), while confirmed siyala is the best type for the head. His method deferred from the previously interviewed nyatiti makers essentially in two points: He never sells an uncomplete nyatiti (includes painting ad strings); All of the instrument’s components are fixed and left to dry together (resonators, skin, arms and head). Finally, he makes a clear difference between clients who are traditional and/or loca…
Day Three: Bungoma Town to Kakamega Story
…ias, we travelled about 10 kilometers to another village to record Matungu United. Matungu United was founded by Richard Ometi, who is a Head Teacher of a local school, teaching sciences and also teaches students in traditional African instruments. The band was filled with various students, each learning to dance, sing and/or play a traditional instrument, including on the day: Fimuka: Shakers Lidungu: stringed instrument Isiriri: Single string in…
Mumias United Group
…Mumias United was founded in 1997 by Francesca Odour. They have 38 members and 22 showed up for our performance. They perform in the Imbira style. They are part of the Wanga tribe, which is a sub-group of the Lua, known for their Kings (Nabongo). We performed next to the mausoleum where four kings were buried, dating back to 1700s….
The Best of Singing Wells 2011 Album
…A collection of some of our favourite tracks from our trip in 2011. NOTE: some of the tracks on this album also feature on the release ‘The Batwa of Kisoro’ under different titles. …
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…all been drum makers. This begins to make sense when he says that one drum offers 54 different jobs: cutting the tree, shaping the trunks, putting cow dung on frames, drying skins, making strings etc. For the 24 individual drums that we are making, the amount of work quickly adds up. Why are we making 24 drums? James answers: “The set we are making comprises 24 drums of big, small, medium and small sizes. We decided to make many because we would l…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…c and the performances. In the case of the naizungwe, however, despite his best efforts, James has been unable to locate any surviving old players who can facilitate a similar education. As a result, he is hoping to work alongside Haruna Walusimbi of Nile Beat Artists to reconstruct the performances directly from the recording he received from Peter Cooke. James tells us: “Nile Beat Artists is a semiprofessional group of musicians that include hig…
Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
…t one: We recorded with Chibite players only: Muheme (the tree to make the best drums). Interestingly, we later had a long conversation with Leo about wooden drums. He said that most drums are now steel, because it takes a whole tree to make one drum and you can’t afford to keep cutting down trees in villages. He then told the story of another tree, the Mninga, which is a very rare tree out of which the best marimbas are made. He was in the market…
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
…So, we’ll tell you about these missions in these field reports, trying our best to record accurately the songs, performers and instruments. We welcome all corrections as we recognize that there will be mistakes. With that out of the way, let’s begin. We arrived in Dar es Salaam Tanzania at 0815AM (yes, our departure from Nairobi was early!). The full Singing Wells crew is sleepless. The Abubilla Music Foundation Crew (Jimmy, Hunter, Sophie and Ell…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…he lives in Kiboga which was about three hours away. She gave me his son’s number and Musisi’s and we called. I talked to him! My only thought at the time was: GET MUSISI TO KAMPALA. I could not lose another teacher. So I agreed I would send money for Musisi to meet with me. I gave him a job to teach students how to play the drums. I was so relieved to have found a drummer. He arrived in Kampala and we set out to teach. But very quickly it was cle…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 2 – Flutes Story
…orm 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 field report for December 4th, but stay tuned for December 5th, when we continue recording Uganda musicians, but not in a field. In a studio. To a click track. With other professionals. As we seek to revive these sounds… Read part one: reflections from our time exploring the royal instruments of the Kingdoms of U…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…orporating the xylophone into contemporary songs. We do need to record the best village players and make sure others can find them, but there is probably a ‘market.’ Bigwala trumpets At the other extreme, the Bigwala horns of the Busoga kingdom or the trumpets of the Buganda kingdom are unlikely to enter the musical mainstream. They are ceremonial instruments and in some sense need a king – they were used to announce the King’s entrance and exit,…
Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…e Singing Wells team has been travelling through Tanzania in search of the best groups to record during our upcoming field visit in February. We are struck once again by the amazing talent this country has to offer, and can’t wait to capture some amazing moments with these artists when we visit again with the full team in a few weeks time. Thanks to the good people at Dhow Countries Music Academy for helping us with the information and contacts fr…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…fer to musicians as the ‘last surviving’ musician. This is based on James’ best reckoning, having tried for years to find others. Neither James nor the musician involved wants the title of ‘last surviving’ and we would love to be proven wrong. Musisi is looking for more drummers and the ones we talked to today are desperate to find others that played with them. Richard Ssewannyana We first travelled about an hour from Mukono to the village of Bamu…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…tudents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpG0HLNxVQA The Singing Wells team united in Nairobi on November 28th and flew together to Kampala on November 29th. We are: Tabu Osusa, Jimmy Allen, Steve Kivutia, Patrick Ondiek, Hunter Allen and Nick Abonyo. After a night at the Fairway Hotel, we met James Isabirye at his university, Kyambogo University, to record the Entenga. Centre: James Isabirye We have been working closely with James since 2013. Duri…