Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…at about 1845. At 1930, the same van has the back left tire go. We are now off and running again at 2000, with about three hours to go. Frightfully, this encourages passing… Back to repeatable models (this would be a lot more linear if our typing wasn’t disturbed frequently by Mac Trucks filling our windscreens and then dashing off to the right at the last second!). As we now describe our repeatable models now as follows: The ‘recce’: this is the…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…with his father’s group and then he founded this group in 2007. They use a number of styles, most notably Sengenya, which we covered fully in our March 2011 field recordings in Malindi. We interviewed Swalhe Mwatela Massai and his grandson, Ali Tungwa : Q to the grandfather: In contrast to Uganda, we have seen many villages in Kenya where the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. Ho…
How music archives can help communities News
…were recently found by Chris Kidd, a Ph.D. student who was working for the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Chris took the recordings back to Uganda and re-introduced them to the Batwa people who had since become a poor, landless and disempowered community following their eviction from the forests due to the gorilla conservation project in the mountainous south west region of the country. In particular, Chris played a r…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…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’s the un-rideable bike. Here the owner is more aggressive and the bike might be carrying a bed, a large gate, 3 bags of charcoal, etc.. and the rider must simply haul his load; the bike acts as a wagon or wheelbarrow. After about 1,000 photos of various loads, we give up realizing that we c…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…ind this the case and it shouldn’t be surprising. Most good musicians play off the band and if you ask them to play the song just with their part find it all a bit strange. So too for African village groups. They don’t go into studios and ‘lay down their track’ in some great over-dubbing session. They perform with a troupe, and they feed off of and help drive the dancing and the other instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff an…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It se…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…formance. We are careful that each take has its unique and concurrent take number on the off chance that audio files become separated from their record location. This way we can always work out exactly where each audio file has been recorded and when. At the end of the day it is important to backup the files. Each night, back at our accommodation, we backup the audio and video data to multiple mobile hard disks so we can re-use the memory cards ag…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…ked into a breakfast of fruit, bread, potatoes and sausage and then headed off to Gulu (via a trip to pick up a generator, a bunch of electric cables and Big Jimmy our Acet Coordinator, below). It was a beautiful day with stunning blue skies and we drove for about 80 kilometers in glorious sunshine through village after village until we reached Acet, where we will meet Acholi musicians (hundreds, in fact). We landed in a field, pock marked with ce…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…frica, meaning that within the huge range of instruments there were also a number of different names for them. This became very interesting to discover however, and over time that information could gather on the map, making it more comprehensive. What did you find most interesting about the data you collected? What stood out for me was the huge range of instruments used, and the huge range of percussion instruments available, which you don’t reall…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…manuel car headed into Kampala to pick up our press badges. We then headed off to Gulu at around 2PM (yes, we tend to spend a lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km drive to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda. Within minutes we were deeply immersed in the ‘classic’ East African road scene: big tall white bags of coal, with grass helmets, bricks in various stages of manufacturer (either drying or firing), pyramids of p…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…Charles and Simba (the Rottweiler who feast on Kisoro locusts during our locust attack). They ran a lovely hotel and greeted us warmly with Nile Specials! We handed off a pile of Batwa DVD’s for them to take back to the Traveller’s Rest and hit the sack. Jimmy (Entebbe)…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…the bottom of our step, with a canyon still to the right going down another 700 meters or so. Having arrived at the lowest point, marked by a small stream we immediately climbed back up the other side. The second car bites the dust From Karabaret, we travelled to Nakuru and then half of us travelled on in the pitch black to Nairobi. The Nakuru crew, in the white van, was stopped cold by a broken alternator belt. The other car was able to flag down…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…que to the place and foreign runners feel like some of the magic might rub off on them.” Because the Olympics were approaching the place was filled with runners and documentary makers, all telling the story of this beautiful place. In fact, we were confused for a CNN crew! You can read more about Iten and its famous athletes here: Running with the Kenyans From Iten there is a beautiful tarmac road that leads to Nokuru travelling down the Rift Vall…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…cused on their extraordinary ‘pogo’ style dancing, jumping up to 20 inches off the dirt floor in the homestead. Throughout the recordings, a lovely woman of about 70 could not keep from dancing. We loved it, although the owner of the homestead kept trying to have her sit down. She would start by sitting with the group and moving her arms to the beat. Then she would begin to sing, and then she would stand and sway, and then she would begin to dance…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
First off, we had a great opportunity to interview Steve, the Singing Wells Project Manager, on the way to our first session. Interview with Steve Kivutia Steve was born in 1982 in Nairobi but his ‘home’ is the village of Kakamenga; his father moved villages to Moi’s Bridge (names after Kenyan President at the time). He was born in Mata Hospital and sent to Maseno Highschool, graduating in 2000. During school he loved Alpha Blondy, a reggae artis…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…s for the whole group to perform, singing and dancing in front of ten microphones and three digital cameras.’ Video 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.’ We have developed a three year plan to record a wide selection of important…