A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…have two mobile recording units, each capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the systems we have chosen is that they can run off the battery power of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) We…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…utes or so after our target time. We pulled into the Acholi Inn, unloaded all the equipment to our rooms and quickly feel into a dinner of Nile Specials and Chicken, Pork or Fish in various sauces, accompanied by various carbs, including Posho (the Ugandan version of Ugali)… Then to bed. We’ve arrived. Tomorrow is music. Jimmy (Gulu)…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…omeland has been taken away. This is particularly prevalent in the documentary ‘War Dance’, which I recommend to any interested. WorldMap has benefitted Singing Wells greatly even leading us to create our own Music Map which archives our own raw data from our field trips. You can access this on the ‘Discover the Music’ part of the website….
Singing Wells – Origins News
…roject which aims to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. Jimmy Allen, Founder Abubilla Music and Trustee of the Abubilla Music Foundation …
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
Bill Odidi travelled to London in August as part of Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya @ 50’ music documentary. He teamed up with Andy Patterson while he was here and together they conducted a number of interviews with Kenyan musicians who are now based in the UK. They also had the chance to visit Kenya House in Stratford as a guest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyaf…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…re out a smart way of getting those names out of ArcMap and into Excel, so usually I just copy them out. Luckily for you wondermonkeys, if you’re going to be using the UK unicorn distribution data I’ve cooked up or even just the UK for your country, I’ve already done that for you! Click here to get the data. As I mentioned, ArcMap can be tricksy if your data isn’t properly formatted and so on. The Unicorn Distribution data set we’re using is fairl…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…ans that more people will now know about the Batwa, their story and their music. He tells us that the communities were all very appreciative of our support and they could hardly believe how much money they had received for their performances. It was going to make a big difference to their lives. He asks us to not to forget our time with the Batwa. He asks us to tell others about what we have experienced. As I said, there’s a power cut and it’s pre…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…ase, GBR_adm.zip. Open it up and take a look. What you will see is a crazy number of files, none of which your computer seems to really recognise. Don’t panic. What you’re seeing is just a few shapefiles (remember shapefiles? No? Let me jog your memory). As we’re looking at the shapefiles in the C: drive rather than in ArcMap itself, you can see the six individual files which make up the one shapefile. In fact, in this case you’re looking at 18 fi…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…sion with Winyo. Here, they put down their track. Not at all phased by the use of headphones and mics, they take everything in there stride, performing a number of takes as the song develops. We start by giving them a simple click to follow the beat but quickly realised that their tempos are far more subtle than this. Francis comes back to set the rhythm with their natural clapping and it suddenly all came together again. Once we have the female v…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…he villagers to working with him. They felt he completely respected their music. We used a lot of the car ride to build a big to do list of things we could do better. But it was important to also discuss the future. Q: So is this worth it guys? [This is a pretty relevant question 470 kilometres into a 800 kilometre journey back from the coast to Nairobi] TO: We have no choice. We have to do something and I don’t see anyone else doing what we’re do…
Why “Singing Wells”? News
…ls illustrate the importance of traditional songs in the life of the Samburu tribes people. We think that ‘Singing Wells’ is a very good name for our project which aims to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. More on Kenya’s singing wells BBC World Service video on how the singing wells in the village of Daaba have changed the life of the local community: …
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…ad just arrived after taking the night bus from Nairobi to Malindi, joined us in car number 02. First stop was Watamu at the fuel station to fill up the cars and Jenny, our beloved and reliable generator, and also to pick up our man on the ground, otherwise known as The Fixer, Deche. He had been on the ground in Malindi, Kilifi, Kaloleni and Kwale, a week earlier, liaising with the groups we were going to record in the villages. We then proceeded…