Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…first encountered the group on our trip to record the music of the Luo in Western Kenya in December 2011. Up to that point, we had had a bad day – which included Andy taking the collected rainfall of the past hour, in the face from the roof of the tent…. We then moved from our original recording location to the DRC – not the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Dinky’s Resort Club, down the road in Rongo. We set up the recording gear at the back of…
The Beat of Kenya News
…d videos of the instruments being played, which are from our field trip to Western Kenya in November 2011. The instruments now on display at the Manitoba Museum were donated to the museum in 2011 by a Canadian who had worked in Maseno, Kenya in the late 1960s. During the course of his work there, he was often invited to gatherings in the villages around the area where musicians would be part of the evening. At the end of the evening, the musicians…
Listen to more ‘Influences’ tracks from Singing Wells News
…ho Young Stars who we first met in December 2011 during our field visit to Western Kenya to record Luo music. Experts on the traditional instruments the orutu and nyangile, we loved this group and invited them to record at the Ketebul Music studio a few months later. Here they are performing ‘Mr Manager’ accompanied by session musicians and also Winyo with backing vocals. (Click here for blog post) During our field visit to Northern Uganda we trav…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…they begin to sing, a different song emanating from each well. The animals appear from the bush, seeming to recognize the unique song of their master. Once the animals have had their fill the herdsmen climb from their wells and disappear into the bush. The songs tell stories of Samburu traditions and help the herdsmen keep a steady rhythm while they lower and raise their buckets. These ‘singing wells’ illustrate the importance of traditional songs…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…ame ‘Winyo’, which is a Luo word (a tribe from the Lake Victoria region of Western Kenya) for “a bird”. The reason for this becomes apparent once you hear him sing. His voice has been likened to that of a singing bird. He is a singer/songwriter of great sensitivity and an acoustic guitar player, backed by his 5-piece band of accomplished musicians. Winyo derives his music and musical strength from his fore fathers whose African music was rich in m…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…n 2011. They were keen on this new technique and trained me to use it for mapping health data in Ghana (example shown below). This was in collaboration with Harvard University. Following on that I spent some time working with the GIS department at Harvard in Boston specifically learning how to use the mapping software, and I also attended GIS classes given at Harvard. I then brought the idea to Singing Wells when I began work in the summer of 2012…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…esented in the darker pink, the Adungu in the lighter pink: References: ‘Saharan Vibe’, (2011), ‘Luo Nyatiti Music from Kenya’, Available: http://saharanvibe.blogspot.co.uk/ Blench, Roger. Reconstructing African Music History: Methods and Results, SAFA Conference, 2002 Ruiz, Ana. The Spirit of Ancient Egypt, Algora Publishing, 2001 ‘Anyango Official Website’, 2012 JOWI music, ‘Nyatiti’, Available: http://anyango.com/e/nyatiti/ ‘Kaypacha’, Musica…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…ar to those of the Acholi and the Alur. They are part of the Luo group or “Western Nilotic Group”, and so all of the languages in this area are fairly similar to understand. Origins: Their original homeland was north of Lake Turkana where they used to live along with the Jie and the Karimojong. This means, by implication, that the Langi are also related to Dodoth, Lotuko, Topsa, and Turkana of Kenya. Together with the Iteso, Kumam and Karimojong,…
Alur Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…y the Ugandan ban on traditional monarchies in 1966. Language: Part of the Western Nilotic language group, their language is closely related to Acholi. Some Alur speak Lendu. Origins: Their tradition states that they migrated from southern Sudan with other Luo following the Nile banks. Their original homeland is said to have been Rumbek on the confluence of the Nile and the Bahr-el- Ghazel rivers. The Alur legend of origin says that there once liv…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…they begin to sing, a different song emanating from each well. The animals appear from the bush, seeming to recognize the unique song of their master. Once the animals have had their fill the herdsmen climb from their wells and disappear into the bush. The songs tell stories of Samburu traditions and help the herdsmen keep a steady rhythm while they lower and raise their buckets. These ‘singing wells’ illustrate the importance of traditional songs…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…s of the slums burning and people being beaten and killed. The unrest mainly affected the poor areas of Nairobi. One of the artists, Uncle Subu, from the Art Centre took corrugated iron from the slums after they burned and has made life size cut outs of people in various happy and natural poses. He wants to be sure we are reminded of this terrible time so it won’t happen again. After a busy day of packing, meeting the whole team and getting organi…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…he top and we are in the midst of the Birara community. Shy children start appearing from the trees, young ones carrying even younger ones on their backs. The team sets up the studio and after a brief technical hitch with the power supply (a cabling issue apparently) we are soon recording the first ‘welcome’ song. It’s an extraordinary moment. Here we are on the highest point on the hill, overlooking a stunning array of green hills, all covered wi…
Return of the Batwa @ Ketebul Music Studios Story
While in Western Kenya, we made a decision to bring some of the Batwa singers back from Kisoro to Uganda. We spent Saturday and Sunday recording them and the results are fantastic. The whole way back from Kisoro to Kisumu we talked about the Batwa and how much we loved the singers. We thought about bringing them to Nairobi sometime in the future. We then decided the future is now and called Henry Neza to see if he would be willing to travel with…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…e Scenes For the most part, we want you to enjoy the performances as they happened, without noticing the Singing Wells team. But these performances are recorded with six mics (two centre, one far right, one far left, lapel mic for singer, lapel mic for lead instrument) and three cameras (Camera 1 stationary, Camera 2 close in, Camera 3 roving). So there’s quite a big crew setting things up and recording both audio and video. So here’s the view fro…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…performance, they had to wait quite a time to get ‘on stage’. This did not appear to be a problem – they watched and clapped the Gatera performance with enthusiasm, despite the onset of some spectacular rain (which did not subside until the early hours of the following morning causing the power cut which lasted the same length of time). Their wait allowed us to capture some photos of their members which demonstrate wonderfully the age range across…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…usic at weddings – it ‘wasn’t cool’ to listen to it otherwise! She started appreciating traditional African music from Western Africa. Now she is much more interested in learning about traditional Eastern African music and her roots. She has been following the Spotlight series produced by Ketebul Music and first met Tabu in September 2011. She is interested in using traditional music from the Kalenjin tribes for her documentary about Kenyan runner…