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
…on music and art, Oyer knew she wanted to channel her efforts into indigenous music. As a teacher, ‘She saw the enriching possibilities for including cross-cultural music in her related arts courses at Goshen College’ and began to teach an annual African Arts course. Over 20 years, Oyer visited 22 countries as she was lucky enough to receive funding from various projects: Kenya National Archives, Kenya Conservatoire of Music, a teaching assignment…
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…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…m BBC Radio’s Jazz on 3 led a discussion on social media and how it can be used and has been used to increase interaction with the program. One interesting idea was when they held a Google hangout between guest Moby and a few of his friends and live streamed the result on YouTube – something I am keen to try in the future. The Evolving Markets discussion looked at both the African and Indian markets and how the markets are evolving. India was a…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…have two mobile recording units, each capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the systems we have chosen is that they can run off the battery power of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) W…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…Salaam for Hi Fielity promotions. In later life, he was involved less in music and his business interests widened to include that of the Photo Me franchise in Kenya. His daily diaries between the years of 1970 and 2003 are 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 pho…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global track from Abubilla Music featuring musicians from Sao Paulo, Nairobi and London which was produced to support the launch of the Singing Wells project in 2011. Keep watching! …
A new type of city Story
…us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…in Kisoro when we travelled to the Mperwa Batwa community. Consisting of just a small number of families, the Mperwa have settled on a small area of borrowed land just a few kilometres from the town. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnificent Virunga volcanos in the distance. But we were quickly struck by the impoverishment of this small commun…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…oject which aims to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. Jimmy Allen, Founder Abubilla Music and Trustee of the Abubilla Music Foundation…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…hing to say. Mudamu Ariyemoy: This song is a funeral song about a very famous mwenzele musician, named Binihare, who taught the band leader the music. Binihare died in 2010. The song is titled ‘whoever is alive’ i.e., you must remember this great musician and remember that next time it might be you we sing about. Binihare had made the band leader promise to sing in his funeral. Thanks to Bado, the son, for working with his father to give the backg…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…. He was abducted by the LRA from his home in Kitgum District when he was just 17. He was held as a soldier in the bush for 6 months until he managed to escape. He described the day it happened: the rebels arrived to his village and asked him to show them the way to town. In a way this was a blessing, because his family was saved (often, on abduction, the rest of the child’s family would be killed, so they’d feel angry, distant and unable to retur…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…th rows and rows of streets below us, and an equal number of streets and houses piled up above us. There were cars, motorbikes and taxi’s driving past and planes flying overhead. Everything was for sale by everyone who walked by. No sleeping cattle. No flower beds. But, as always, there was wonderful music. The first group was the Adungu Cultural Troupe, masters of the Adungu. We had interviewed their leader on our ‘recce’ trip earlier. Here’s the…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…er, my grandfather. He’s taught everyone, including Kaboge Chagalla (a famous Nairobi percussionist) and Mwatela Kamanza (pictured in the far right of the group, Sengenya, we recorded in March 2011 near Mombassa ). We recorded three songs with the band at Ketebul studios tonight. These are: Ndege Ya Panda Mlima (Sengenya Style) : Written in 1988, this literally means ‘Music’ Strengt’h (Ndege) can climb up (Ya Panda) mountains (Mlima) and is about…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It se…