Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…c… In this context, the knife is cutting away his old life and forcing him into a new life. Ruuji rukuru, led by John Gitoriga, means ‘old water’ and is a song to prepare a boy for manhood. Water is a cleanser so the water cleanses the boy and moves him from childhood to a new life. The boy is taken to one of the old rivers and hot mushrooming spring. Hence ‘old water.’ Remember that in all cases the boys are led to a river, covered in mud, and th…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…iga Muchiri was a founding member of Kangema Mwomboko Dancers. He started singing in 1943 and loves to entertain. He is a Kikuyu and plays Mwomboko wa 40’s style. Mwomboko: a traditional song where he plays the Karing’aring’a (the ring) We then lugged our equipment up the hill. We were extremely embarrassed to find ourselves chatting in the field at the foot of the hill, only to see that two of the older women were hauling our generator up to the…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…stled below a lovely hill of green, which stood 500 meters above us, stuck into the blue skies. We were here to record 4 separate women groups of the Kamba ethnic community, from the same villiage of Kiongwe, each of which would do 3-4 performances. Most of the groups performed with a Ileve (tin shaker) and Vilingi (tin whistle). The final group also introduced us to the Kilumi (drums). The Music Groups Twone Mbee The group is led by Christine Kis…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…to keep the food away from the lazy wife and the lazy wife would go complaining to the husband. The message in the song is to not wait for everything to be done for you. Paolo Wawanyera: This is someone’s name, meaning Paul, son of Wawanyera. Paul was a chief. He visited certain places and found they had made him party with lots of food and drink. He actually visited his brother in law who was jealous of him as a chief. So he decided to poison hi…
Our top Singing Wells songs for April News
…nta Njoki. They sing in the Gitiro style, referring to the dowry payment upon marriage in their music. What are your favourite Singing Wells songs? Tweet us….
Current Leading Figures News
…why, with his emotionally-fuelled words, he works so hard to breathe life into Ugandan folk music for the current generation. He is especially concerned with teaching Ugandans values, and allowing them to value themselves, through music; music teaches people “values, patriotism, humanism, love, hope, faith, hard work, discipline, science, leadership…. teach them all. The best place to preserve values, and music does this, is in the hearts of peop…
Archiving Guidelines News
…knowledge is needed – but this guide is most definitely a great help for gaining understanding of all the issues needed be considered when setting up an online music archive. Storage of Audio Materials Guidance for the care, handling and storage of audio visual materials can be found on the Library of Congress website. The guidelines for storage aim to preserve the life of the grooved discs and cylinders, optical discs, and magnetic tape, which ha…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…no-musicologist, sound recordist, archivist, performer, dynamic and entertaining lecturer, record producer, photographer and author.’ As he was so broadly accomplished, he was involved in every aspect of the recording and archiving process of his music, which he gathered from across the world; beginning in the Middle East in 1966 and spreading through North and East African from 1969 till 1975. He later went on to record across the Pacific Ocean f…
Tracey Instrument Collection News
…th us their instrument collection, enabling us to give you a wider insight into the traditional instruments used in Ugandan folk music. Here at Singing Wells, we have already began building up our own collection, purchasing and bringing them back to our studio in England whenever we can, and have been providing profiles for those we come across on our travels on the Instrument section of our website. ILAM houses the extensive instrument collection…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…d on the CD): “The mysterious singer and dancer Chemirocha has been turned into a local god Pan — a faun — half man, half antelope. He is urged by the girls to do the leaping dance, familiar to all Kipsigis, so energetically that he will jump clear out of his clothes… Who could resist such an offer?” Tracey concludes. The charm of the spoken introductions is they make each record like a radio show with real educational value.“ So, thank goodness f…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…proceeded straight to the headquarters of Elgon Ngoma Troupe. As we drove into the centre’s compound, we were surprised to find a large group of teenagers playing an assortment of brass instruments and drums in a marching band format! Elgon Ngoma Troupe is an interesting group led by a very charismatic director called Wolimbwa Julius. Most of them are former street kids and, apart from learning music and performance at the centre, they also live…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…everything you need for a fully functioning, professional recording studio into the back of a small utility vehicle. Here’s a quick summary of what’s in all those bags…… We 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…
Kampala traffic jam Story
…the infamous Kampala traffic jam! …
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
We are pleased to announce a new project at the Singing Wells. Group of the Month sees us take one of the 50 groups we have recorded in the field since the beginning of the Singing Wells project, and feature recordings, stories, videos, interviews, and other content we have gathered in East Africa. Our first group of the month is the Watmon Cultural Group. We have videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…village. But they went to the village and the village elder came out, explaining that he was a member of the Macedonia band, and proceeded to lead the village men in singing Uganda Land of Freedom, some of them playing the Likembe. The government forces in frustration spared the extended band and went to the next village. Again, the elder led the village men in a rendition of Uganda Land of Freedom. They went to village after village and everyone…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…rt requiring a different bass and guitar for part of the song. They rushed into the control booth to offer something (remember, the leader is someone we discovered in the coast and recorded for the first time in March 2011 and now he is re-writing bass and guitar lines in Pro Tools). Their words are mainly about love so strong that they are willing to give her anything. They see her and want to give her the clothes offer her back. Macadem was then…