Before They Pass Away News
…ling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these last remaining tribes continue their lives amid a changing world. But rather than charge in and start pointing his camera at these people, Nelson had to get to know them and to gain their trust. When he met the Chukchi people, the e…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…mbe 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 invited them to play but no longer does. They have great songs, they have a great history but to…
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…he hotel. We had a quick dinner and a few free drinks (we had charmed some flight attendants on the plane to contribute to Singing Wells with a few whiskeys). Most of us then went to bed for the night, deciding to have one final evening free of our London friends. Patrick, however, woke up in time to be a ‘greeting party’ to the London arrivals. Message from Abubilla Music Foundation Team Representing the AMF are Jimmy Allen (Founder), sound engin…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…when you start bringing these musicians to the studio. If you only have a minute (and by this time you’re probably out of minutes) skip to the middle of these songs to see interesting things start happening: 71 Hours to Monday A silly little song that gets hi-jacked in the third verse and taken lord knows where… Missing A song about Spain that switches to Africa and ends with the Batwa song lamenting the loss of their homelands… That’s it. There…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…the culture and history of the recording. From East Africa, they have a 60 minute episode on Kenya – you can listen to recordings of the singer Suzanna Owiyo in Nairobi, the rain songs in the north of the country which frequently suffers from terrible drought and the Massai who sing of the dangers of cattle raiding – and two others on Uganda; one featuring the Bugandan Royal Court Music and the second is about the Busoga Kingdom. Unfortunately the…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…r Colmore. We are getting all the genres of Kenyan music. I would like the book to be done by types of music. It needs to involve DJ’s, musicians, writers, etc… We have almost all the material. It is now about making a big impression. My dream is we launch this book during the Smithsonian conference next year in Washington DC. In terms of artists, Winyo is doing very well. Benga Blues is sold out. He’s been to China, where he met Jackie Chan, and…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…ve benefited from the presence of our partners on this trip, but we were a last minute addition to the program. I got there late on Tuesday night and got to the arena early on Wednesday morning to set up the stand ahead of the trade fair opening This was our stand after setup (note the obvious mistake in the nomenclature….): Conferences Attended I attended a few of the conferences arranged by the organisers. Revenue streams in the digital enviro…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ace to stay on our first night being just minutes from the airport (the BA flight from London arrives at 22.40). We have stayed at the Guesthouse before and Jan Willem, George and the rest of the Gorilla Tours team have always been excellent hosts. On our final day of the Uganda 2012 trip we had an very special afternoon in the garden recording the wonderful Watmon Group with our ‘Influences’ artist Akello. We are very grateful to Gorilla Tours fo…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…our visit to Kisoro we have been in regular contact with the local NGO the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Their latest report to us included the following information about the Birara group: “This is one of the communities that is still cherishing music and dance as the Batwa culture it is still leading and very creative. The community members also share the knowledge on culture and pass on the knowledge to the young…
The Batwa Community Story
…their communities and help them reclaim their traditional way of life. The United Organisation for Bawta Development (UOBDU) was founded in 2000 to address land problems and develop sustainable livelihoods. UOBDU has identified four key areas of support: land & housing; education and adult literacy; income generation and forest access & benefit-sharing. By way of example, the Batwa Cultural Trail is a recent initiative launched by the Uganda Wildl…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…and I decided to reach out. We are producing a documentary film called The Last Hunger Season about 4 Kenyan farmers who are growing their own way out of poverty. The film (in advanced post-production) accompanies a book by award winning journalist Roger Thurow and is designed to amplify his ongoing world hunger activism. We are in need of great music that compliments the project and would love to open a dialogue with you about it. I really love t…
Fiona’s story Story
…Fiona has been able to attend junior school through the sponsorship of the United Organization for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU), an NGO based in Kisoro. She is a wonderful role model for the Batwa community and is proving that, with the right opportunity, Batwa children can achieve the same educational goals as any other child in the district. Everyone is hoping that Fiona will be able to continue being sponsored through her senior school y…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…e recorded Okumu K’Orengo, one of the world’s greatest Nyatit players. His last song for us was a funeral march. His village thanked us because they noted that this great player, a legend across East Africa, had never been properly recorded. He died two weeks later. Here was the last song we recorded… 4. Singing Wells is about bringing the tribal music of East Africa to the latest generation of singer-songwriters, like Winyo: However important it…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…ts We have a final session on our learnings, positive and negative. On the last topic, here are our reflections on our management of things (elsewhere we will talk about the music, as we did with Tabu yesterday), where we drew 5 main lessons on this trip: Agree the ‘must do’ instruments/song styles at the beginning of trip planning and then make sure we have a group (and a back up group for each). On this trip we came close to missing a couple sty…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…in every village, hide-covered shields aren’t even wood, they are made of plastic. Beautiful ostrich feathers have been replaced by chicken feathers. Traditional axesa are now cheap wooden replicas. This is not the performers fault – the traditional costumes are expensive and hard to access sustainably. This requires government intervention and while we say committed performers it is clear they are struggling. On the positive side, I was incredibl…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…oject to record the music of the Batwa in Kisoro, Uganda in December 2011. United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) Narrative Report on the Promotion of Batwa Cultural Music Since April 2012, UOBDU started implementing a project responsible for promotion of Batwa cultural heritage, supporting the performance of music and drama to local audience and to allow UOBDU to monitor and update the performance of the groups visited by The…