Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…nd wished us good travels. We drove to Murungurune, where we met our local contact, Chief Kimathi, and then had a hard 3-4 kilometers ride up a very rough dirt road through the Ruthumbi forest to a high hill that overlooked the beautiful green valley below. Here’s our route: Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self Help Group This group formed in 2000 with 21 young men. They are led by Edward Kiogura. This is Authi style, they are Ameru from the Irimben…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…first joy was the site of Mount Kenya as we hit the road. We met our local contact, Jane Kagai, and then travelled to the KCC area, a lovely field about 100 meters below the road. While a lot easier than the hill we faced in Kisoro (SW Uganda), we nonetheless had to take our 44 bags down to the site. We set up under a tree and recording 4 separate groups, all of whom stayed for the day. The 80 or so band members, all in full costume, were scattere…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…to Kitui, on the Mombasa Road, arriving at 10:00AM. We picked up our local contact, Dominic Mukora, and drove to the Kiongwe Market to record our first group. Here’s our route: The site passed the first Singing Wells test, lots of chickens and children; we find their noises the perfect backing track for all our recordings. The market structures were beautiful with the typical brick structure, light blue paint and the red earth of Africa bleeding u…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 0 – London/Nairobi Story
…(Video 3), who is from the Meru ethnic community and has been our primary contact person to support this trip (e mail: lkoome2000@yahoo.com) Raphael Sipalla (Audio 4) our ‘Influences’ artist (e mail: ruffmaud@yahoo.com) We will be interviewing them throughout this trip to provide additional color to our Field Reports. We spent our Saturday packing and preparing the vans for the trip. Let’s remind you of our team – we cheated and took photos from…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…nd paid for all their instruments. Some of their songs are actually public service announcements set to a catchy tune, conveying information about how to take care of children or how best to help one another build a new, independent Tanzania. “It was all about love, all about unity, all about coming together and building a new nation”, said Benson Rukantabula, who also works on the project. But as with any state-sponsored propaganda, some messages…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…azi Ow’omwano Tanoba: Tamenha Ibuga Nalufuka: This was an incredible dance number that ended with all the Singing Wells crew, and many of the hotel staff, jumping up and dancing with the group. Here is their music: James Isabirye says, “It is a challenge for me to talk about Nile Beat because I have so many feelings about it. But what I’m most proud of its contribution to the preservation of Ugandan culture by organizing the only festival since 20…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…teaching them to the music students and to music teachers who came for in-service courses. Like Musisi, Busuulwa had not found conditions good for him at the palace and after the attack on the palace and the flight of the Kabaka (King) into exile in London, Musisi no longer had a patron so they were both enthusiastic about working at Kyambogo. Sadly Bulasio Busuulwa died during that awful period of turmoil under the dictatorship of Amin and Obote…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…s/traditions and can train the youths. One already died in May to move the number from 4 to 3 and one of the three surviving is very ill. But it is almost certain, now that the trumpets won’t disappear. Young people have some interest, thankfully, and are learning.” Click here for further reading on the Bigwala. Here’s their music: Adagha Nalya Drama Group Our second group was from the Bukoona Village and called the Adagha Nalya Drama Group. Their…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…ery important for certain occasions, like marches. He is providing a great service. Brass music is very good and I love it.” Tabu argued, “He knows the traditions. It is not what you play, but how you play it. He is so steeped in Ugandan music that he will create a very interesting fusion over time.” Eridat Makwiri, or Muzane Following the Elgon sessions, we were joined by Eridat Makwiri, a Litungu player. A Litungu is very similar to a Nyatiti, b…
Current Leading Figures News
…ery important for certain occasions, like marches. He is providing a great service. Brass music is very good and I love it.” Tabu argued, “He knows the traditions. It is not what you play, but how you play it. He is so steeped in Ugandan music that he will create a very interesting fusion over time.” David Odwar David Odwar founded the TAKS Centre in 2005, along with his sister Joyce Laker, who Steve and Patrick met in 2012 on their recce for a…
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. …
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…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ese groups were identified by James Isabirye who will be our local liaison contact while we are in Uganda. Steve met James following a chance meeting with an old friend while in Kampala for the ‘recce’ trip. Here’s an extract from Steve’s notes: “I had a chance meeting with an old friend from Addis Ababa, Teshome Wondimu, who runs an organisation called Selam which hosts an annual festival in Addis Ababa. While chatting to Teshome, I mentioned tha…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…e the Influences series. Since our visit to Kisoro we have been in regular contact with the local NGO the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Their latest report to us included the following information about the Birara group: “This is one of the communities that is still cherishing music and dance as the Batwa culture it is still leading and very creative. The community members also share the knowledge on culture and pass…