Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…saliza Ki?” (What do I do that you envy) Katonda Kyakulaga Nekikwita (God Shows You What Will Kill You) James Isabirye says, “He is THE philosopher of Basoga music. When I hear him, I get goose pimples. When we were young, we played these songs every evening in the village. My mother would clap to us as my brothers and sisters competed to please our mother, dancing and singing these songs. He is at the top and we need to translate their songs. If…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
Report from Womex 2013 News
…rys Matthews at the fantastic Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performances from Matthews herself, The Welsh Ballet and The Treorchy Male voice choir. I heard a bit of a day showcase from the Emily Portman trio on the daycase stage at the Motorpoint arena. Louise joined our trade fair neighbours from New Zealand at the Daycase stage to hear a showcase of Maori music. We also manag…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…ing with us: 2 Apple MacBook Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones 2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera Thin…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…Adungu Cultural Group singing Awinyo… 6. Singing Wells is about capturing how cool, how relevant this music is through Magic Moments: Listen to the Nyatiti for the first time with your eyes closed. It is a kick drum. It is a snare drum. It is a bass. It is guitar. Listen: Watch a real drummer. Watch someone that drums through their souls. And ask yourself whether East African Music is relevant. 7. Singing Wells is about bringing you groups and so…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…ls YouTube channel……73,603 views and still counting! It’s not a meaningful number in itself (like a nice round 100,000 – our next target) but it does mean more and more people are finding us and enjoying what we are all about – bringing the more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi…
A new type of city Story
…hat the capital would be like; this image speaks a lot about the city. The number of ‘proper’ buildings were few and in only the small centre. It was hilly and most of the roads were not built for vehicles. The shops were small shacks mostly and at night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconvent…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…y invited them to listen to a playback of one of the songs through his headphones and this particular boy overcame his shyness to have give it a try. We could see how hard life is for the Batwa, living on small pieces of borrowed land on the fringes of society but the performance of the Mperwa Dancers did not portray this – it was full of pride and happiness. Once again, we witnessed how important the songs and dances are to the whole Batwa comm…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…deo engineer, Patrick Ondiek, adds, ‘I love producing the final videos and getting phone calls from my friends asking me ‘how did you find these musicians?’ I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…a chance to interview Tabu about the Uganda trip: Q: What did you want to get out of the trip?. A: In each of our trips I’m trying to focus on the one or two things the region is know for. In the coastal regions of Kenya, I wanted to make sure we recorded their shakers, the Kayamba (hand shaken idiophones with dried seeds inside), the Lungo (broken glass moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones). In the Rift…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ocal stores on big speakers). We listened to a few different tracks on his phone, and I narrowed my favourite Ugandan pop tracks down to ‘Apple’ by Bigtym and ‘Guns & Bomb’ by Bebecool.. Odika Constantine, son of Watmon, is in his 30s. He was abducted by the LRA from his home in Kitgum District when he was just 17. He was held as a soldier in the bush for 6 months until he managed to escape. He described the day it happened: the rebels arrived to…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…Uganda, despite the destruction caused by the war. The name translates to ‘how much is left’ referring to how the war hasn’t taken everything in the North, they still have happiness. The next song was called ‘Yom Chunya‘ is of a similar style, and it means ‘my heart is happy’. They then sang a song in part English and part Swahili, called ‘Pearl of Africa‘. This was actually written by Jimmy Adokwun around five years ago, but it uses traditional s…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…is it always better to cross the Nile than to be ‘in denial’ (In The Nile, get it?). In fairness, how often can you use that joke? It is 20:37 and we just passed a police road check. He asked how the road was. We explained it was very dark and very scary and too many things were happening on the shoulder and we didn’t like all the trucks coming at us in our lane and we wished the road stopped chewing up our tires and we felt like it was a long way…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…layed by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. How have you managed to do this? A: To get the young people involved I decided to go to schools and teach music. I compose new material with my students and come up with something they like. I watch how they dance and whether they feel the rhythms and I try to teach them what I’m doing, but I also adapt to how they feel the music. I let them take the music where they want t…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…ond half of the day was, well, not so good. We needed to leave at 13:00 to get to Kampala before nightfall. No night driving is a Singing Wells rule given how scary the roads are. We actually left at 12:45 and got about 20 minutes outside of Soroti only to have a car breakdown. So we had to turn around and get back to Soriti for a quick welding (by a guy on the street in flip flops..). We didn’t leave Soroti until about 15:30, knowing we now faced…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…7 ladies selling pyramids of potatoes, green oranges, etc… The fruit and vegetables complement the plethora of cows, sheep, goats and chickens found along the road, somehow connected and protected by a distant owner. And then there are the bikes, generally falling into two categories. There’s the rideable load, where the bike is carrying simple things like doors, coffins, gates or water bottles and the bike rider is still able to pedal. Then there…