Namaddu Troupe Group
Dance Style: Namaddu The group belongs to the Bagwere Clan Band Leader: Ndoboli Ramathan Instruments include Ngoma (drums), the Mudiri (long drum) and Entongoli (6 string adunga). Song meanings “Lwaki Ndamba”: Why do I have to suffer? A woman can’t have a baby so her husband beats her and sends her to the witch doctor who ensures she gets pregnant. She then returns to husband, who has been off drinking, and they reunite. “Kwakira Wiita”: A song…
What We Do Page
…nce then we have completed more field visits in both Kenya and Uganda. Our long term goal is to visit each country in East Africa and research, document and record the music and dance of the major traditional music styles of each region. Click on the following links to read our field reports from each of our visits: Music of the Mijikenda – Kenya’s Coastal Region Music of the Luo – Nyanza Province, Kenya Music of the Kalenjin, Great Rift Valley, K…
Video playlists from Kenya 2018 Story
…l Omong’oluk Traditional Dancers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILMAhvkRtg0&list=PL6jxUA468Mq9LNfV2MxN2k1JwC-xu5n06 Samuel Namatete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkGVQFNoPw&list=PL6jxUA468Mq-RUCpUdIrKZrrZyRF216Mz Pius Wafula https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUa3LzYZ8G8&list=PL6jxUA468Mq-JL9a_FMhl3js2eQdqUBVn Shem Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cewr4zGeAXo&list=PL6jxUA468Mq_qagUS8lrS4ItNX84ceQc_ Peter Awkabi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Super Phoenix Band Group
…leader Julius Intenya. The musical style is Mutibu. They played roughly 8-10 songs, including several goes with our influences artist. These songs included: Shapeless: A song about a women who lost her shape, lost her curves. Alusiola: A song about a neighbour that gave his cow to someone else. But the receipient then took care of the care and it had calves. The original owner than seized by the cow and all its calves with no warning. Alusiola is…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting by himself. It was equally interesting to hear his theory of the name nyatiti, which he translated from the Luo word nyar as queen and titi, making it “the queen of the clan”. The most interesting points Ayub had made were on the difference between playing at home, in an informal or traditional setting and p…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…enya, who partnered up with dancer Collo Skyzan to showcase their talents alongside the amazing Joginda Boys. You can follow Mkostii Beats at @mkostiibeats and Collo Skyzan at @colloskyzan410 STEFANO SITE NNE X ALOKA OHANGLA We really enjoyed this submission from Kenyan artist, Stefano Sita Nne. This track is entitled Bunde. and uses a sample by Aloka Ohangla. “This features the drum solo by Aloka Ohangla Group. My initial thought when I heard the…
Day 3 – Monday 3rd July 2017 Story
…afene, maembe, ondero, mugombra) as he said he could basically use any “as long as it’s strong and the right size”. Another interesting piece of information gathered during this interview was Sewa’s description of the small pointy decoration on the bottom of the resonator we had previously referred to as ‘the nipple’. According to him, this is in fact the umbilical cord of the instrument (in vernacular pende thum), which makes the resonator strong…
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 2 – Sunday 2nd July 2017 Story
…age, 3 tunes on his nyatiti. The tunes were recorded as follows: Koblo gi long maratong’ Owino Konjwang’ Ojung’ Kogera The recording of songs was followed by a short interview. Probably the most interesting finding of this session was the fact that younger traditional players do not (or only exceptionally) compose new tunes, but replicate existing old ones. Within the nyatiti tradition, tunes remain the same, whereas the lyrics can change, evolve…
Ayub Ogada Group
…Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting by himself. It was equally interesting to hear his theory of the name nyatiti, which he translated from the Luo word nyar as queen and titi, making it “the queen of the clan”. The most interesting points Ayub had made were on the difference between playing at home, in an informal or traditional setting and p…
Privacy Policy Page
…e to ask you, but sites like http://www.bbc.co.uk do – and you will notice them asking you about it. The ruling was passed a few years back, and they gave a grace period which expires on the 26th May 2012- hence we’ve waited as long as we can before adding this info. Any Questions? If you have any questions on the policy then please email us at info (@) abubillamusic.com Thanks!…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…ew offices at the GoDown Arts Centre on Kayahwe Road off Dennis Pritt by 9:00am. It took us an hour to load the van with the equipment and our personal effects. On our team was Tobias Odhiambo (or Shunkyz as he is known in the music circles) as soundman in charge of the technical aspects of the recordings. Shunkyz was assisted by Fiston Lusambo, a Briton of Congolese origin and guitarist with the London-based Afriquoi Musical group. The video sect…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…at he has become, gave an exemplary performance without any re-takes. By 7:00pm his session was completed and he was on his way back to Kisii County. The next group was Otacho Young Stars who began their performance at 8:00pm. Otacho Young Stars were also no strangers since we recorded them in 2011 as part of the Singing Wells project. These musicians are now in their 30s and no longer answer to the name Young Stars and are appropriately simply kn…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…smoothly with Johnstone Mukabi and the Omutibo Stars coming on stage at 11:00am. Accompanied by Francis Massanga on vocals, they were joined by guest musicians, Fiston Lusambo on guitar and Ben Mukabwa (a college tutor whose other calling happens to be music), on guitar and percussion. On shakers was Ben’s elder brother, Fredrick Mukabwa, while veteran musician and producer Gido Kibukosya (formerly of the groups Musically Speaking and Zanaziki) wa…
Hunter Allen Staff Profile
…ntary, which told the story of our repatriation project in 2014. The project involved the returning of recordings by Hugh Tracy to the Kalenjin and Luo communities from which he recorded in the 1950s. Hunter graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2015 and aspires to continue a long and fruitful relationship with Singing Wells. Most recently he joined the rest of the team in filming Singing Wells’ second Lost Songbooks documentary on the jou…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…small, medium and small sizes. We decided to make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate le…