James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…People from the government always want to help me. I tell them simply: the best way to help me is to stay out of my way. Let the musicians talk to their audiences. Let them play. We don’t need a big government program on culture, we need to give the artist the stage and a microphone and an audience. Let people rediscover their culture through great artists doing great things. You don’t rediscover you heritage with a government policy. James: Exact…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…t would be of benefit to the recce. This later turned out to be one of the best leads and contacts I got for someone knowledgeable in Ugandan tribal music……The person Teshome wanted me to meet was James Isabirye, the Selam co-ordinator in Uganda and, more importantly, the secretary of a cultural organisation called National Council of Folklorists of Uganda – NACOFU. James turned out to be very resourceful on the music and culture of Uganda and org…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…annels for more critical aid And this is our emerging insight. Perhaps the best proxy for sustainable aid to a village is to follow the music. Where there’s a strong, vibrant and young musical group, you’ll find, in most cases, the necessary structures, through which you can funnel aid. You’ll find a village that is still telling its stories, still encouraging rites of passage, still bringing young and old together to celebrate life through the pa…
Kampala traffic jam Story
…hs to plan the itinerary for our field recording trips so that we make the best use of the limited time we have. Steve K from Ketebul Music is our Africa Project Manager and he does an amazing job in the weeks prior to the trip, contacting music groups, booking local accommodation and arranging vehicles and drivers to transport us to some very remote destinations. But even Steve’s meticulous planning could not help us avoid the infamous Kampala tr…
What people say about Singing Wells News
……it’s great that you are dedicated to keeping indigenous music alive. Very best wishes and I hope we can keep in touch.” Scott Mathews, Music Producer, California: “…what you are doing as a non-profit is very special and soulful. I firstly want to congratulate you on your efforts and achievements and secondly let you know I am here in California wondering if there is anything I can do to help out…? If the timing wasn’t so tight, I’d love to join y…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…inents. Tabu Osusa founded Ketebul Music in 2007 with a goal to record and promote traditional East African music. Tabu laments the fact that the music heritage of the region is being eroded. He says, ‘For reasons I can’t fully explain, contemporary East African music has lost touch with its tribal roots. Our most popular musicians find far more inspiration in western music than they do with East African music. I worry about this. As a people, we…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…re Wa Konde to come in and work on the verses. We asked them to find their best love song that fits the beat and recorded them. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduce a whole new melody over Stanley’s song and deliver it as Bishop reported with pitch/timing perfect. By this time Nyerere Wa Konde wrote a new part requiring a different bass and guitar for part of the song. They rushed into the control booth to offer something…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…ration. Every village had a group of young musicians and dancers. Some the best percussionists were 12-15 years old. Most of the best dancers were teenagers. You felt the next generation is passionate about the music and it is not just ‘a thing your grandparents did.’ This is really important. The key is that the traditional songs are taught to the children in the villages and then that the traditional music permiates into popular music. Northern…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…ome time. We’re 50% of the way there we think. Better than we were but the best is still to come. As we write this in pitch black we’ve turned on to the Kenya road that links Nairobi to Kampala. We turned right toward Kampala and now are in bumper to bumper traffic. Strangely this is comforting as we know legions of cars ahead of us have pushed the scary things in the shadows further and further onto the shoulder. The only negative is when our dri…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
A day of two halves, with one of our best village visits combined with a long, nightmare journey to Kampala. The Macedonia Band We met the leader of the Macedonia Band at the Soroti Hotel and he led us to his village, Obuell-Lira, a 30 minute drive down rich clay roads. On the way, Joshua told us about the history of the group, which was founded in 1982. The group and its song Uganda Land of Freedom is legendary in the Teso region (the name for t…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…sits the staff would offer facilitation and would advise the groups on the best way of managing their groups. It is the same committee which usually selects the Batwa who are to perform to different occasions. All in all the staff performed to their expectations, thanks to them for their seriousness and dedication. 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…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…d wonderful female dancers and two ladies in particular were stunning. The best our Singing Wells team have seen. In Acholi dance it’s all about the head, hips and feet. The second theme was percussion. Most of the groups were supported by: Bul (drums), Gara (ankle shakers) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the U…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…. This gave them confidence and changed their behaviour. Today the non-Batwa believe and agree that Batwa can look smart if they are given the chance to compete with others in many different fields. All the best, Henry. For a full report of the Singing Wells Batwa music recordings please click here: SWP report from Kisoro, Uganda Mperwa Dancers perform for the Singing Wells project …
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…we arrive in our location, we liaise with the local musicians to find the best space to record. If possible we will record more than one of groups in each location, as it reduces the setup and breakdown time and maximizes the time for recording. We decide on two or three different ‘backdrops’ for the performances and park vehicles in the centre so that we can easily rotate the setup while leaving the back end of the audio equipment setup in place…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…s free and open source which means any researcher can work with the source code to extend and improve its functionality, so it is constantly developing and improving. It’s also web-based so it’s easy to access and share, which is exactly what we want in order to carry on building the Singing Wells community. Rosie has made some ‘how-to’ guides on how to add to a map yourself which you can access easily on our website too, in a few steps, ‘Housekee…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…nal Instruments’ of the Uganda People’ (2012), Face Music, Available: http://www.face-music.ch/ ‘EgpytSearch Forums’, Wysinger, M. (2008), REAL Ancient Egyptian Music and Dance , Available: http://www.egyptsearch.com …