Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…d to the KCC area, a lovely field about 100 meters below the road. While a lot easier than the hill we faced in Kisoro (SW Uganda), we nonetheless had to take our 44 bags down to the site. We set up under a tree and recording 4 separate groups, all of whom stayed for the day. The 80 or so band members, all in full costume, were scattered across our 100 meter field. Unfortunately, the field was also shared by biting red ants – this created some int…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…ere’s ‘I Hear the Sound’: Group 4: Jovah Followers of Singing Wells know a lot about Jovah. We first heard in during our first trip to Uganda, where she was the lead singer of her group, Mperwa Dancers. We then invited her and others from Kisoro to join us in Nariobi for a set of songs. She was amazing and we’ve recorded two separate influences sessions with her: Bashitsi Bahire with Winyo and Inyange mixed by Abubilla Music, both of which feature…
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…élange, she said, “is characterised by these high guitar riffs, and then a lot of African polyrhythmic drumming in the background, and even featuring horn sections.” True to its name, muziki wa dansi is music that practically forces spectators out of their chairs. When you hear this music in concert, says Rebecca, everyone will be dancing. But the music itself wasn’t always meant to be pure entertainment. True to his socialist roots, Nyerere wante…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…a great teacher, teaching many people how to play the tube fiddle and xylophone. He would showcase Ugandan music at the Ugandan museum, together with lots of other musicians of his time. He gave dozens of workshops in Europe. But he was illiterate. Peter Cook was taught by him. And his son Andy Cook who lives in Edinburough. “ Here’s their music And that was it for Kampala. We packed and divided up. Jimmy, Tabu and James drove together to continu…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…azi 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 organizing the only festival since 20…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…s/traditions and can train the youths. One already died in May to move the number from 4 to 3 and one of the three surviving is very ill. But it is almost certain, now that the trumpets won’t disappear. Young people have some interest, thankfully, and are learning.” Click here for further reading on the Bigwala. Here’s their music: Adagha Nalya Drama Group Our second group was from the Bukoona Village and called the Adagha Nalya Drama Group. Their…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…to a good start, and that you’ve been bringing in the year by listening to lots of traditional East African music. Before we start posting exciting news about the upcoming year, here’s a quick recap of what we got up to in 2015: 1. We went discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms In Nov/ Dec 2015 we travelled between Kampala and Jinja in Uganda in search of the lost music and musicians of the royal palaces. We posted regular updates abou…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…we also spent quite a bit of time filming ‘drum tuning’, which involves a lot of fire, a lot of water, some spitting and very careful brick placement. We had two groups. The “first group” started with a drum solo, but then handed over to the second group to give a full performance. So, for story telling purposes, we’ll move the drum solo to later in the narrative and switch the first group to later. Are you following this? The Music Groups Busolw…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…st someone will need to wake him up. The Amadinda percussion reminded us a lot of the Likembe bands of Northern Uganda— very soothing and seductive rhythms. For the last two songs they were joined by Passy Nassonko the lead female singer of the Kika Boys Cultural Troupe (our second group). We talked to James Isabirye, our musical expert, about this group. “This group does not perform formally anymore, because they have no platform. The King invite…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
…as 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 Africa is a shame? It’s a massive shame! But the western style of living is so appealing…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…at identity. Being good is one thing but being unique is another. We see a lot of copycats, so when someone comes along that has a genuinely unique sound that is influenced by traditional roots we get very excited. What kind of challenges do you think Singing Wells faces? One of the biggest challenges we face is that we don’t get our artists to perform enough to build their identity. We have great recording material but we don’t get these artists…
Archiving Guidelines News
…information to be passed on to guests of the archive wishing to play materials. Advice can also be found on the Council on Library and Information Resources website. Section 5 of a report, Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling: A Guide for Libraries and Archives, provides a lot of information on specifically long term storage of magnetic tape. A report from UNESCO in 1988, which was presented at an IASA conference, also gives details on the type of i…
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. …
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…t had been recorded previously. The project is video and audio and we have lots of great interviews. This was sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Bridging the Gap: We have also completed Bridging the Gap. It is similar to Singing Wells and Spotlight, where we are trying to bridge the gap between generations by having young people work with older artists to sing traditional songs. The old can see the young sing their songs. And the young can hear tra…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…: http://www.sweetdreamsrwanda.com/ New Friends at the festival We met a lot of new friends – as that was the point of our being there. We were spreading the word of the project and its aims and objectives, with listening stations for passers by to listen to the music we had recorded. We had a few instruments from our collection on display, and some even got played by some of our fellow Womexians as this photo from Louise shows: I gave an interv…
Clowns Story
…On our first recording day during the Northern Uganda Field trip 2012 we had the pleasure of working in front hundreds of children who slowly climbed a tree to watch the proceedings. They were delighted by the cameras and we had a lot of fun showing them their smiling faces. This little boy was the biggest show off….