Day 0: Retracing the Lost Drums of Mzee Morris Story
…Over the next week we will be “Retracing the Lost Drums of Mzee Morris,”, the theme of our newest “Field Visit.” We will be travelling from Dar Es Salaam to Bagamoya, from the Snake Dance to the DCC Mlimani Park Orchestra. Enjoy….
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
We are sad to say that a special talent, and a dear friend of Singing Wells, Matthew Watmon is currently in a critical condition in hospital. We are urgently trying to raise funds to support him and his family in this difficult time, and we hope that some of our followers may be able to help us. If you are based in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). I…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…ul Music have just launched Episode 2 of their online series Shades of Benga Online, to go alongside their book ‘Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and ho…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…ad rich musical lives, to become artists, to use the palace as a stepping stone to develop their art further. They were brought into these palaces as young boys, and all they did was play music. In most cases they received no other education and in most cases they played until they could play no more and their ‘retirement pension’ was the salaries of the sons or grandsons they were able to train and bring into the palaces. Their musical lives were…
Musisi’s Story, Part 1: The Fall of the Buganda Kingdom Story
…ig truck would come into the palace on Wednesdays and workers would unload tons of bananas and other food to distribute to all those that worked in the palace. That truck would spend the week going to all the villages in the Buganda Kingdom and collect food to give to the palace. And when the King was in town, we played every morning at 3AM, followed by the trumpets and each of the groups throughout the day. Why 3AM? Because the King loved our dru…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…trunk of a banana tree; it says that the trunk can’t be climbed by boys. Mutongoi: This is a song sung to a political leader in the area. The song praises the politician and asks the people to vote for him – he’s Kyonekana na nengwe. His name means, “if seen give it to him”. Kolleji or College: This is sung in the Itheke genre. The song praises a local politician (Major Mutina Muluvi) who takes graduate students to work at Equity Bank and high sch…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…, 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 about our journey a…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…ring our work discovering, recording, archiving and celebrating the traditional music of East Africa on this channel and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support. Our YouTube channe l features videos from our trips across Kenya and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern Uganda, our work to share the music of the Batwa community and the Luo community. We’ve told the story of repatriating Kenya’s music he…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
As part of our drive to promote the traditional music of East Africa I’ve been spending some time meeting the urban community in Nairobi. I’ve been talking to people about their music interests, whether the idea of Singing Wells appeals to them and what more we can do to ensure this musical culture is not lost. On a visit to iHub this week – a communal working space for tach-savvy Nairobi entrepreneurs – I got chatting to Edwin Maganjo about the…
From African Twist to Benga News
…rs of Benga, the African Twist, Luhyia ‘Omutibo’ and the ‘Yoddeling’ sound adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We dedicated six days of studio time at Ketebul Music in Nairobi to record this set of legendary musical artistes, all of whom are now in their 60s and 70s and are critical to Kenyan music history. We are very proud of this unique album and hope you enjoy listening to the ‘old masters’. Our recordings are particularly poignant as…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…e Batwa: Providing a Soundtrack to the Costs of ‘Simple Solutions’ The Batwa are a forest people living in the dense forests along the base of the Virunga Volcanoes. They were evicted from the forest to make way for the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park near Kisoro Uganda, which was established to protect the Mountain Gorillas that habitate in the park (travelling back and forth across the Uganda-Rwanda border). The Batwa are a marginalised people, l…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…continent on the West, here is a sample of the World Route programme in Equatorial Guinea. 6. Putumayo Putumayo is a World Music record label that was established in 1993 in order ‘to introduce people to the music of the world’s cultures.’ The man behind it all is Dan Storper, who like so many others who now work to solve this problem, found there was a lack of world music available in the US, and not just in stores; even if you wanted to stock it…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…to go with his 1500 sound records. After his missionary work, he became Curator of the Uganda Museum and while there collected many musical instruments. He received a grant from the British Government in 1949 – demonstrating that even Government authorities began to realise how essential documenting traditional African music was – which enabled him to record these 1500 recordings with the help of a sound engineer, who was responsible for the fanta…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…ells project may be interested in the future – mobile phones and ring back tones as a method of delivery for music. Mike and I also attended the African music networking session which became the launch for a new initiative by the Cape Verde government. It has been calculated that music is their biggest export and so has set up the African Music Forum to make it easier for musicians to make a living – from visas and flights to financial support. It…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…rd work- and we needed the help of one of our Batwa host to carry the generator – but the view, and the warm welcome from the whole community when we got to the top made the climb well worth it. The community music group is called the Birara Dancers and they are led by Francis Sembagare. There are three principal female vocalists in the group, Jolly Naiti, Paskazia Nyirakarombo and Vastina Ayinkamiye. Here they are….. The group performed seven s…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…I prattled on. So, I came home, woke early and decided to tell the stories again but this time with music. I do hope you enjoy. The good news is you can ‘turn me off’ if you need to get on with your life. My poor friend never had that chance… Forgive me, but here are 10 things I would like to say about Singing Wells…. 1. Singing Wells is all About Ensuring that others can hear about the Macedonia Band: We’ll provide background later, but let’s sto…