Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…o encourage the playing and sharing of local music. Luciky we have managed to arrange to see the Lango Cultural Group and the Deno Cultural Group whilst on a visit. They are also likely to play using the Adungu, and also the Ngwara Gwata (a hollowed out calabash). The musical styles are likely to be: “Kiri” a war dance – where the women dance wielding knives and the men carry spears. “Myele” a style which is performed when celebrating the birth of…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…cused our recording time on Mr Manager, their quite sincere thank you song to a factory manager that came to their factory and actually did a good job. We always found this song amazing – the group is deadly serious in their thank you to the manager. But in many ways, we kept thinking it is sad that they find it so rare for someone to essentially do his job that they need to write a song. Johnnie, Bishop and Eddie all joined in to support them in…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…ge rescue and then again went crossed to head back to Nairobi. That brings to six the total Singing Wells Equator crossings in the last 12 weeks. Arrival We arrived in Nairobi safe and sound at about 10pm, having survived the wonderful horrors of the road. We actually breezed through a traffic free Nairobi, although Tabu was at war with the GPS and decided to go his own way. The GPS, which had served us well for 1,000Kms, was not happy and yelled…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…this is the name for the grass they wear around their necks. This is used to bless all ceremonies. The song is used as an entrance song. ‘Seen’ : this is the name for a traditional cup in which is put a special honey drink called Kipketin. ‘Cheruto’: this is a lady who is married elsewhere and was given cows as a dowry. She refused the cows which is highly unusual and hence she is the subject of a song. ‘Nyarika’ : about a man who left home to wo…
Music of Northern Uganda News
…ing the Agwara With time fast running out, Steve and Patrick headed back to Kampala to meet with two Ugandan musicians who had expressed an interest in contributing to our Influences series for Singing Wells – a fusion of traditional and contemporary music. They met with Tshila, a guitarist and singer from the Baganda tribe who we first came across when she performed for the BBC series ‘Africa Beats’, and then with Jackie Akello from the Acholi…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…sted in first class audio equipment and can record using 8 mics directly into Pro Tools. But during the March Pilot programme, we realised that the visual experience was as important as the audio. So for our November trip we invested in two more digital cameras and worked out our new Camera 1-3 approach. Camera 1 is static group shot. Camera 2 focuses on instruments. Camera 3 is context. This worked extremely well but created a separate issue – lo…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…then onto Iten and Kapsowar to record the Marakwet and Keiyo. The last day to go to L Baringo to record the Tugen. Tabu is not sure what to expect of the tribal music in the villages we are visiting but he is always surprised by the quality of music we discover with Singing Wells. “I didn’t really know what to expect of the Batwa of Uganda, and was blown away by the musicianship. I expect to be surprised again!” The last time he was there was abou…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…tely stunned. Henry explains that this lady would need to make the journey to town 2 or 3 times a week, leaving her home one day, staying with another Batwa community overnight and returning the next. Extraordinary. Getting a lift in the van saved her half a day’s walk. The van pulls up on the track and Henry says we are there – or nearly there. The village is just up here he says, pointing to the top of the hill which looms high above us. We can…
Music of the Kalenjin: video playlist News
…etes as many of the legendary Kenyan long distance runners are Kalenjins, including Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee and the first African to win an Olympic gold medal (Mexico City 1968 in the 1500m). Video playlist The trip was facilitated by the generous support of donors to our charity the Abubilla Music Foundation. …
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…ochia Dancers Today is all about dances, so our videos will be much better than still photographs. Let us introduce you to the dancers; here in full glory are the Kochia Dancers who dance in the Ramogi style of dance (ref: for a great article on the Ramogi dance of the Luo, by Helen Odwar, click here): https://youtu.be/_qVuMFLJ9-M https://youtu.be/pwVlHnpw8Io https://youtu.be/B_M_OFRzDoU https://youtu.be/6AjxDKLPLkg https://youtu.be/2iGUcQRLRp4 Ph…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…to Right: Steve, Winyo (with Bone Guitar), Andy and Tabu. After this shameless tourist stop we head out towards Siaya. We’re still roughly 1 PM on the Lake Victoria clock, 90 minutes NW from Kisumu, but on a slightly different road than Rang’ala. We’re here to focus on the Nyatiti, the core Luo instrument – as played by the best players it is a bass, drum and rhythm guitar combined. And we saw some of the best players. We want to remind you f…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…p in mind – when the slaughter happened it was the decedents of folks with less than 10 cows slaughtering the decedents of folks with more than 10 cows. 250,000 people are buried in mass graves 50 metres from the memorial centre. What is hardest to understand, travelling through Kigali, is that the slaughter started here. This is an urban centre filled with incredibly friendly Rwandans. And yet, when the President’s plane was shot down on 6th Apri…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…or our trip to Kisoro. We have lots of music, lots of video and lots more stories to tell. But we want to keep disciplined and report daily, so forgive us if we can’t give you everything at once. Over the coming weeks, these blogs will be filled with the music and videos and far more background on the project and the Batwa. For now leave for Nairobi again and then, on Sunday, travel to Western Kenya for the next series of villages and more music….
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…s the green hills – here’s one that we effectively drove completely around to get to the village. This is one of the many views of Lake Chou – 15 of our 23 kilometre drive which took us around the whole lake. Our second introduction to ‘Batwa Fitness’ was on arrival at the village. The road stopped and we were told we’d need to take our equipment ‘up the hill’ another 1,500 metres to the top. It was at least 500 metre rise in elevation. We told yo…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…ame to studio he was very business like. He had a checklist that he wanted to go to. He wanted to get his to do list out of the way. He was very business like. Then in the evening we went to slippers to watch Winyo. We pumped some Tuskers into Andy and then relaxed a bit. He opened up more and we liked him. Andy now jumps in with a little more detail… AP: To be clear, that was the first time I’d been out of Europe and I was definitely nervous. The…
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…will be doing and we’ll update all of you on this website. Our final blog will be all about the highlights, low lights and photos. Lots of photos. Thanks for sticking with us throughout all this. Jimmy…