Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…a: I would like to say something but I am afraid Umpati Ng’o: You’re never going to get them Magic Moment 1 Utalikologa Utalinywa: If you mix it, you’ll drink it. Tueheze Zembwela (local dialect) Bonanza Nataka Kusema: Includes a song with Leo, which is ‘I want to say’ Utalikologa Utalinywa: If you mix it, you will drink it. Kiingereza (English) This is Leo’s song from his album, Bangili (bangles) This was a wonderful day of recording for three re…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…lend of new and old that fancies us at the time, that inspires our artists to go in new directions. So, there will be chaos. We simply want to enjoy music and the cultural collisions we create are part of the fun. We also try to tell a single story on these visits. For this trip we are retracing the drums of Mzee Morris. We will tell his story as we go. So, we’ll tell you about these missions in these field reports, trying our best to record accur…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…teach our boys 100 songs.’ I told Shaban, ‘you must learn every part and every song.’ And that is how we ended up on this road. We filmed the drums yesterday and today we are going to see the Bigwala and discuss more lessons learned. Tomorrow, we are going to find out how much more there is to do.”…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…p was a very noisy dance floor, where we’ve added a wedge and hammer. He’s going to each stitch of the leather string and tightening through four or five movements, and between each he points the drum to hear the tone. Quite a dance. He then explains tuning further: “Never buy a drum that has been tuned in the sun, or when the drum is too dry or too hot from the sun. This drum will always be too low – because as the skin cools it will lower in pit…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…in. You don’t go for the popular musicians doing the big things. You have to go to the real groups in the rural villages. And they are out there. And it gets much deeper. Our view of development is hardware – give folks roads, modernise them. But Singing Wells has discovered in fact – the best sustainable development is to keep folks rooted in their villages and the best villages are those with a vibrant musical community. This puts the soul, the…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…g’ Kabaselleh, a Luo pop artist who occasionally teamed up with Laban Juma Toto, formerly of the Hodi Boys band, to produce some of the best rumba melodies sang in the Luo language. Kabaselleh’s love for rumba saw him adopt the name of Congo’s celebrated pioneer musician, Joseph Kabaselleh ‘Le Grand Kalle.’ Some of Ochieng’s sons like Babu Kabaselleh and Reggie Kabaselleh are now well-known musicians in their own right, same to his siblings who ma…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…. I Love You Kanini Mukabi This is the son of the great omutibo player George Mukabi; we recorded 5 songs with him all of which were his father’s: Mutoto Si Nguo Ram Lus Tunga Kweli Nougo Om ulanga Wa Muka Kunywa Kidogo …
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…o wait for men to provide for everything, nowadays, they wake up early and go to work. Olugend’olw’ebukakkata: He went to visit a village called Bukakkata. He found a girl who was seeing two men who didn’t know each other. She was still in her parents’ home so she was not allowed to be seeing men. One day, the parents found a man peeping through the window and canned him because he was trying to disturb his daughter. The second boyfriend was also…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…ances, there was a lot of picture taking, hugs and farewells. We also said goodbye to a wonderful hotel filled with amazing hostesses that treated us very well. We then drove straight back to Kampala and even passed the President’s car on the way (it was unclear if the car held the President). We returned to the Kampala Imperial Hotel and some of us were delighted to find a English football match on the TV (Arsenal vs. Southampton). And we were gr…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…gourds in the right shape – so he has a standing order throughout the area to buy any gourd that can be shaped into the horns (he is also trying to start a gourd revolution so people start using them again to store liquids and stop using plastic) The coordinator and lead female vocalist in the group is Irene Nabirye. The group is made up of 6-7 Bigwala players and drummers, plus dancers and singers. They performed four songs and then we did a magi…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…tended and now most of the material is made available for anyone to listen to, where copyright permits. Although a fantastic resource, its interface is quite dated; read Peter Cooke’s profile to hear his suggestions for updating the system, where his work is archived. 4. Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is a not for profit record label, set up by the Smithsonian Institute, the world largest museum and research complex in America. Incopo…
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. …
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…y say, ‘Wow. That is so good.’ And they come and ask for help. I tell them to go back to their village and learn their songs, discover their musical styles and instruments and then come back to me and I’d be happy to help them. And some do. Both Winyo and Makadem started out doing more R&B and lots of covers. But they have re-discovered the music and styles of their tribes – it was in them all along but they did not listen. Now they listen and gue…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…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 environment was the first of these and looked at different examples from differen…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…ommunities live a long way from town and have to make this arduous journey to buy provisions two or three times a week. The Birara Community live on a small plot of borrowed land at the top of a steep hill. We parked on the track a the bottom of the hill and carried all the recording equipment up a narrow path to the top. It was hard work- and we needed the help of one of our Batwa host to carry the generator – but the view, and the warm welcome f…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…st Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) We can also combine the two recording units into one to increase the number of inputs, while still working off battery power. The laptops use Avid ProTools recording software – an industry standard for recording and music production. The microphones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selec…