Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…cers pulls it back by the tail just before it strikes. Breath-taking. This form of performance is new to us (but, of course not to Tanzanians) and we’ve not seen it in Kenya or Uganda. In fact, ‘clown’ acts 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…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…mpets. I got UNESCO support, I got Singing Wells support and gradually, we formed a group. Singing Wells filmed them in 2013 and helped us tell their story. We also invested in the farmers – James Lugolole is coordinating them to grow the gourds and we are building new trumpets (we now have about 20). And finally, James Lugolole is helping train the new musicians and we now have 4 separate groups. Slowly, we think we are reviving this instrument….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…. For tuning he uses the following instruments: the knife (Akambe), awl (Olukato), hammer (Ennyondo) and wedge for tuning. For this step, the re-stringing, he stopped after a few strings, explaining that he was ruining his drum by showing us. Here, you saw the real skill levels of the drum maker. With his hands moving very fast, he was taking out the stitch of nylon string, cutting off the former holes, creating new holes and re-lacing the drum sk…
Support for the Elgon Ngoma Troupe News
…e project, which houses children from disadvantaged backgrounds through performance of traditional music, through breeding and meat production. Donate to Elgon Ngoma’s gofundme page here! And you can watch one of their brilliant performances, recorded on our 2014 field trip, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkyDtBXfunI Watch Julius, the leader of the group, explain who the Elgon Ngoma troupe is, and their mission: https://www.youtube.com/watc…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…uld have had a dozen people come on influences. We could have rehearsed performances and help the groups reach a far higher level of performance. And in every location, we could have recorded another 20 groups. It is all out there and it is all amazing but fading fast, and we are two teams in two cars chasing after it, trying to capture as much as we can. But as a Kenyan I am frightened that we are devoting so little to this. Where is the supply o…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…golese music production spiced with additional Caribbean influences like zouk. This music came to be known as Paris soukous, a lively and compelling beat that was different from the one played in Kinshasa. Their signature of intricate guitars could be heard on virtually every soukous record out of Paris, which became the recording capital for Congolese music. Stars from Kinshasa like Pepe Kalle and Madilu System couldn’t resist this new trend, and…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…living won’t have any peace. Omukazi Ow’omwano Tanoba: Tamenha Ibuga Nalufuka: This was an incredible dance number that ended with all the Singing Wells crew, and many of the hotel staff, jumping up and dancing with the group. Here is their music: James Isabirye says, “It is a challenge for me to talk about Nile Beat because I have so many feelings about it. But what I’m most proud of its contribution to the preservation of Ugandan culture by org…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…ums, pipe flutes and Siragi Kirimungo also played the thumb piano. They performed 5 songs for us; these were: Ababusoga Nga Tukungaine: When people assemble they agree on issues and speak one language. Waiswa Mugudde: A Dance song. This is the name of a first born male twin (Waiswa)and the song is about a proverbial Waiswa of old who used to shy away from women. It is a common folk song. Omuntu Kyakola: When someone is jealous about what someone e…
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…and listen to stories. So we will have to transmit these stories to their iPhones and iPads in the form of music, the universal language. Where are you from? From Kenya, in the East of Africa. To be more specific, we hail from a small village in Siaya County where most of the renowned Luo musicians come from. Ever heard of Otieno Aloka (the famous Ohangla artist)? He is our next door neighbour back at the village. We borrow each other’s salt from…
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…e African Twist.The traditional Benga sound is about 60 years old with its formative years occurring between the late 1950s and the 1960s. Its roots run deep in age-old Luo musical instruments. Singing Wells and the ‘bridge’ between traditional and modern Tracking the story of Sauti Sol’s musical influence excites us, as it’s a reminder of how important the Singing Wells mission is. When we learn that one of the most popular modern African bands i…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
…ly influenced by the west. I think a big part of that is because film as a form of media has a massive effect on people and how they perceive themselves. We watch a lot of western media, so a lot of our ideals are based on western notions of what great life if like. It means that people aspire to western ways of things, and so we don’t embrace our cultural music and heritage… it’s not ‘cool’. Do you think losing the cultural music heritage of East…
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…to the top five because of the incredible clothing and dance moves. 4. Kumbuka Asee – Itinga These guys are some of my favourites. Again, great moves, great outfits and great rhythm. The group is led by Margaret Mbia and plays in the musical style of Kilumi, wathi wa kikamba. They were formed in 1974 and the two drums at the front are called Kilumi, played by Makai King’ei and Koka Mbindyo. 5. Ohalanga Drum Solo – Keith Moon Final favourite has to…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…sis on Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Dr Hauke Dorsch is currently the Director of the Archive and stated that currently only material needed for academic work within the University is available in digital form, but they have hopes to secure funding to digitise more of the archive. Access to the AMA is currently predominantly available to researchers on site in Mainz, but, mostly African, musicians and school childr…
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
…be done by the secretariat such that incase the dancing group wants to perform they will always inform the tourism officer who should respond positively. Otherwise the rest of the equipment was allowed to be kept by the Batwa themselves with close supervision by the tourism officer. After the resolution the tourism officer went ahead to deliver the equipment and the uniform. All the groups in general were very happy to get such unique uniforms th…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…rdiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performances from Matthews herself, The Welsh Ballet and The Treorchy Male voice choir. I heard a bit of a day showcase from the Emily Portman trio on the daycase stage at the Motorpoint arena. Louise joined our trade fair neighbours from New Zealand at the Daycase stage to hear a showcase of Maori music. We also managed to pop down to see two performances on the Friday night…