Support Singing Wells Page
…red charity which funds the Singing Wells project Sponsor a Recording Day£3000 Your Gift to Us Your money will be used to support a complete day of recording traditional music for the Singing Wells project. Your donation will be spent in East Africa, funding the recording sessions in the field. There may be as many as six different music groups performing on one day and your donation will mean that every music group is able to perform and their so…
Recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa Page
…terested in the field, head this way to see more of our detailed field reports, group biographies and in-depth information regarding the various different instruments and styles of music we have encountered on our field trips. Here for the Music? Click here! Want to just enjoy some beautiful East African music and revel in some jaw-dropping performances? Head this way to see more videos of the inspiring performances we have captured on our field t…
Tabu Osusa Staff Profile
…tee of the “Spotlight on Kenyan Music“ project which seeks to discover and promote young talent, performing a blend of African music. The Kenyan government through its Ministry of National Heritage and Culture also supports this project. Tabu is also the Project Coordinator of Ketebul Music’s Retracing Series. Supported by the Ford Foundation Office of Eastern Africa, the Retracing Series is a research based documentary project whose main objectiv…
Our Sponsors Page
…ly for a grant from the IIE to fund our field recording visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda in 2011. Here we visited 6 Batwa communities and recorded their wonderful songs and traditional dance. We were also able to tell the story of their lives since they were moved from their forest homes in order to create a National Park to protect the mountain gorilla population in the area. We would like to thank the IIE for their generous support of the pr…
South Teso Jazz Group
Patrick Okodoi and his group – the SOUTH TESO JAZZ are based on the adeudeu– a traditional Teso string instrument. This group plays an interesting folk local sound and is very popular in the area. They combine several adeudeu(arched harps) of various sizes and functions, notably: ADEUDEU BASS – 6-strings instrument played by two people sitting on it; struck as a percussive by player in the back; RHYTHM ADEUDEU – 10-string adeudeu; ADEUDEU SEKETA…
FAQ’s Page
…ideo has a donation button associated with it and you can donate £1, £5, £10,£20 or £50 to help support a music group you particularly like. Find us on YouTube here. If I support you where will the money go? How do I know it will be well spent? Donations to Singing Wells can be made through The Abubilla Music Foundation. Your donation will be restricted for use in East Africa to support the project goals. You can specify just how much you would li…
Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…audience of his supporters. A dance troupe danced in the Segere style for many of the songs. This is a Tanzanian style from the south. Here’s Leo performing:…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…the Dar es Salaam Development Corporation. They had multiple hits in the 80’s and 90’s including: Mpenzi Edita (name of a lady who portrays the lead singer) and MV Mapenzi (essentially the ‘love boat’). The latter is an East Africa classic that most people know. Throughout this trip, we will spent a lot of time with Henry, starting with this first night of live recording at the Bagamoyo Country Club. Leo: Leo is Henry’s son and has been our Influ…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…his name is a sign of respect – think, ‘Old Man Morris’. He was born in 1920. At two years old, he lost his sight as a result of a bout of small pox. He died in 1999. Throughout his long life he drummed. Here’s Leo Mkanyia , our 2017 Influences Artist, describing his experience listening to Mzee Morris’s music: “He wasn’t normal. He plays his drums like a guitar. You have to listen very carefully to realize not only is he keeping the beat, but h…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…ndMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon The donors of Abubilla Music Foundation, who support the Singing Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our prayers to Matthew and his family in this difficult time….
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…altz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Benga playing a dominant role. Currently, you can get advance copies from Ketebul Music Studios or place your order by contacting them directly. #shadesofbenga #legenda…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…k 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 bring more songs and stories to the world. Ke…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…That is why we will be in Nairobi in the studios with musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda – we are recording them professionally, surrounding them with great new artists and we hope giving them an opportunity to find new listeners that want to take elements of the music forward. With this as background, this is what we discussed on the grounds of the Kampala Museum. I will paraphrase a half a dozen voices and many long and winding conversatio…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…of the highlights from our channel. First place on the view count – at 272,000 views, goes to our awesome session with Otieno Aloka in his Luo village. Performing with a traditional band, this video of the famous singer of ‘Kanungo Eteko’ is a great example of the Singing Wells project in action; a modern artist connecting to his musical heritage as he plays the traditional orutu, whilst also inflecting it with his own contemporary style. https://…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…t African countries—Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania—covering an area of over 68,000 square kilometers. The Luo who live around its shores in Kenya speak a western Nilotic tongue distinctly different from their Bantu neighbours to the north and south, and their Kalenjin distant cousins to the east. The Luo comprise close to 3 million people. Their forefathers migrated south from the Bahr al Ghazal region in what is today know as Southern Sudan in a stea…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…to record a set of legendary musical artists – all of them in their late 60’s-70’s, all of them critical to Kenyan music history. These artists were: Ochieng’ Nelly Mengo Ochieng’ Nelly was born Nelson Ochieng Orwa in 1943 in South Nyanza. The guitar came to Kenya after WWII and inspired a lot of young men who were steeped in village music. One of these was Ocheieng’ Nelly who got his first guitar in 1961 and his playing was shaped by the Luo Nya…