Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…mbe (MP), Minister, Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, The United Republic of Tanzania. Dr. Harrison G. Mwakyembe (MP) We also met with Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda. He was the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, from 2008-2015. He is now a Patron of the Cultural Yamnyausi Foundation. That evening both Ministers hosted a fund raiser for the Foundation and invited Singing Wells members as special guests. We were gr…
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…ncers and the Lomuge Group. The day recording the Pokot tribes was rounded off firstly with Kalomoywa, (the group are represented on the album with the track ‘Kamitol’) and secondly the Takar group – their Korutan and Chepo Mining making it through past technical difficulties on set. The very visual performances of the and the Sagat group (their image is on the cover) and the Embolet are both represented on the album. The final field day of the tr…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…I – leg rattles; EFIRIMBI – a metallic whistle; OLWIKA – antelope horn aerophone; LIKHANGO – another aerophone made out of a reed attached to a wild goat horn; MUTINDI – flat two-skin drum played using two wooden sticks. Their props included spears (lifumo), shields (esikhumba), fly whisks (mukia) and clubs (eskong’o). They were wearing hats and tops made out of leather, leaves and feathers, and most original skirts which were in fact recycled umb…
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….
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…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…the morning of Sunday, 6 March 2022. The Ketebul Music team met at our new offices at the GoDown Arts Centre on Kayahwe Road off Dennis Pritt by 9:00am. It took us an hour to load the van with the equipment and our personal effects. On our team was Tobias Odhiambo (or Shunkyz as he is known in the music circles) as soundman in charge of the technical aspects of the recordings. Shunkyz was assisted by Fiston Lusambo, a Briton of Congolese origin an…
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…
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….
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…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
We are so excited to see that our hard work is paying off – in the last few months we have almost doubled our views on our Youtube channel and are now approaching 5 million total views across our videos. When we started Singing Wells almost ten years ago, we set an aim to bring the traditional music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to b…
Rediscovering the lost Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: Day 1, Uganda Story
…Drums of the Buganda Kingdom. Along with flutes, trumpets, strings and xylophones, the Entenga were part of a set of ‘royal instruments’ and much of the music was lost in 1966 when the palace of the Buganda Kingdom was attacked by government troops. The palace and instruments were destroyed, the King exiled, the royal musicians disbanded and much of the music forgotten. In 2013, we considered any idea of reviving the Entenga to be very unlikely, b…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…ers is someone that can exploit this material and could provide royalties like producers and film makers that could really 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 ma…
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: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…ook considerably longer), drank the mandatory round of Tuskers and slipped off to bed. Working Practices: Roles and Responsibilities of the Team Each day, we will also bring you a set of ‘working practices’ we have been using at Singing Wells and that we hope will be useful to others setting up a similar project. Today we focus on roles/responsibilities of the core team. On arrival at the site, we divide into three teams: Interview Team This team…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…dle players and 2 thumb pianos. They also have the traditional Ugandan Xylophone. All instrumentalists also sing and are supported by three ladies who sing and dance. The three core members are: Walusimbi Nsibambi Haruna: He the Founding Director of Nile Beat Artists. Walusimbi was once the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassador for Africa after winning the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassadors Competition in Marikina-Philipines. Nabayaza Sumaya Baiga: Sh…