Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…and Otacho Young Stars and we’ll going to take it further this weekend in Nairobi. We think if we can master these while following the ‘rule book’ we will succeed and you will benefit (assuming we survive this road journey. Yes, we are gradually building up a Singing Wells set of “non-negotiables”. Here is the current set… Leave every site cleaner than when we arrived and honor our hosts Back up the day before you sleep. If you are on video, wake…
How music archives can help communities News
…or of World and Traditional Music at the British Library points out in the book ‘Ethnomusicology of East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond’. In her chapter entitled ‘Connecting with Communities: Building Sustainable Models for Audiovisual Archiving into the Future’, Janet gives us some inspiring examples of how archived recordings have helped communities, one of which centres on the Batwa people of south west Uganda – the community we re…
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…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…rywhere, mostly on the side of the road with someone lying beneath them repairing something. In Uganda,, on most of the roads we travelled, there wasn’t a huge problem with ‘passing’ because the roads were not that crowded. Then there are night roads. These are horrible things that will kill you. They are pitch black. They are filled with deep holes that swallow you. They are lined with bikes and motorcycles that fall from the shoulder in front of…
Singing Wells – The Story So Far News
…ging Wells project and buy a copy! You can buy a copy of the Singing Wells book at the Blurb Bookstore – just click this link: Singing Wells – The Story So Far The profits we receive from the sale of each book go directly to our UK charity The Abubilla Music Foundation which supports the Singing Wells project. Your donation will help give much needed financial support to tribal music groups in East Africa. By supporting these artists, we can help…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…ity for some Batwa who had exposure to the outside life when they visited Nairobi and were able to interact with the Ford Foundation. During this trip the Batwa benefitted from some materials such as clothes, shoes and money which improved on their social status by dressing like dominant tribes here. 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 t…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…alier omni-directional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones2 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 ThinkTank sun screens (for the laptops) Various Canon zoom and fixed lenses Plus at least 9 Sandisk memory cards and 15 portable back-up drives and a…
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…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…Foundation – Ghana – Yellow Fever Immunisation Why do you think it is the best way to display data? When displaying data it’s no secret that people often understand it better when it’s interesting visually; this is why we often use charts and diagrams rather than bodies of text nowadays. Most people’s brains aren’t able to see patterns in data easily, especially when the data set is huge, so representing it in this manner means you can understand…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…etebul gang (Tabu, Nick, Pato, Stevo) woke up very early to get to Nairobi Airport and get approval to export/import all the recording equipment. The AMF team woke up at a more humane time of 8AM for breakfast and a little time with Simba the Locust Killer (rotweiler we previously met at the Travellers Rest in Uganda last year) It was a beautiful morning at the Airport Guest House in Entebbe with pretty flowers and strange guinea fowl pottering ab…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…Singing Wells team were also lucky enough to enjoy the sound of one of the best nyatiti players in the world, Ayub Ogada during their field visit in March, where Tabu organised a ‘Hall of fame concert’. He opened the concert with the famous “Kothbiro”, which featured in the film ‘The Constant Gardiner’. Here it is: There’s a wonderful story about Andy’s recommendation to Gary Barlow’s production team to have Ogada play in a track called ‘Sing’, re…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…dship, food and alcoholic drinks are served during this ceremony. Only the best dancers will get partners, so there is a lot of competition during the dancing. Now it is performed during weddings and learnt at school: 4. We will then record a group performing the Dingidingi, usually performed by the young girls of the Acholi, and their movements are meant to imitate birds. The girls dance to attract the young boys, so the dance is usually held on…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…a more fundamental breakdown wakes up in Nakuru facing a morning of car repairs and an afternoon drive home to Nairobi. The Jeep group spent the morning on blogs, the afternoon with sponsors and the evening working on the Singing Wells Strategy through 2014. In discussions with sponsors, one of the major themes was how to ensure the music we discover and capture from the field is truly relevant to new generations. We discussed in detail the twin m…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…cross again to arrange rescue and then again went crossed to head back to Nairobi. That brings to six the total Singing Wells Equator crossings in the last 12 weeks. Arrival We arrived in Nairobi safe and sound at about 10pm, having survived the wonderful horrors of the road. We actually breezed through a traffic free Nairobi, although Tabu was at war with the GPS and decided to go his own way. The GPS, which had served us well for 1,000Kms, was n…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…y spoke to them about their dress and its significance. The white paint in lines and crosses on the men’s arms represents the River Nile and where the tribe originated from. They came from Israel to Egypt along the Nile to the Sudan. This occurred in the 18th century. The women have white dots on their arms and faces representing the soil and harvest. The white paint comes from a special kind of soil and only one person in the tribe keeps this soi…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…hat is the power of music. We will try to put together a video clip of her best moments. Lomuke Group We recorded 9 songs: Anya Kar, Chepo Laleiyo, Kirap, Kiter, Kiyuar, Asoiyen, Adong’o and Montonyo. The women were dressed in white, carrying sticks and the men carried spears and their portable chairs/sleeping pillows. Kalomoywa We recorded 8 songs with them and a magic moment of wonderful chorus. The songs were: Kinyakar, Kamatakar, Chepo Nandi,…