Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
Today is the final day of the full team working on the Kalenjin Field visit. Of course, all of us will continue in London and Nairobi to produce songs and videos of the trip. In addition to writing blogs, organising strategy through 2014, sorting through about 10,000 receipts of expenses (we run a very tight shop, thanks to Steve’s leadership), we welcome Ben into the studio to record. The Otacho Young Stars stayed the morning as well. We had a f…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
The group is split today. The Jeep Group, having suffered only a flat tire in the field, has made it home to Nairobi. The Van Group, having suffered 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 m…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…The Music Elimu Cultural Promoters Our first group was the Elimu Cultural Promoters from the Tugan tribe. They are a collection of women from little villages scattered around the Kabarnet area and they want to promote good values of culture and education. They were all dressed in brown, almost terracotta, outfits looking like the red clay we love so much. They make all their own costumes and sew on all their own beadwork. They wear a belt of 5 ro…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…tion to generation. The younger generation also sing but they did not come today. They mainly have older members in their group. The group have never been recorded before today and they were very excited about others hearing their traditional music. Kathy 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 t…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…Click here to go to Song Translations Everything Else Everything else from today can be divided into three key events. First, we survived the drive. There were a few scary moments, the first being driving to the village for the shoot – straight up a very steep hill. This was not a hill for most humans and certainly wasn’t a hill for cars and certainly not cars filled with Ketebul folks and all our equipment. We got up and down, but we imagine ther…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…lls in Kisumu, Lake Victoria) were amazing and more modern than most music today. The Clapperboard Today was the first day we used the ‘clapperboard’. First a little background to this…… Singing Wells has always been about the music so our initial focus was on audio recording. We invested in first class audio equipment and can record using 8 mics directly into Pro Tools. But during the March Pilot programme, we realised that the visual experience…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…ang a song called ‘Kiseete’ on the album. (Interestingly, our second group today, Chebonet, played Kiseete, which is clearly a communal song of this community). Ben recorded 8 tracks with us, including a fantastic Influences track with Eddie Grey, a musician who joined Ketebul Music in 2011. https://youtu.be/ot3xNHqm7pU https://youtu.be/MPPFeuH1vF4 Please click here to read the meaning behind Ben’s songs: Song Translations of Ben Kisinja Chebonet…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
Today we drove from Nairobi to Kitale, passing through Nakuru and Eldoret on the way. Last night, we agreed a late fee of 1,000 bob a minute for anyone arriving at the studio after 9 am. Money talks and the whole crew were there by 09.00. Everyone. That‘s the good news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…ng location. This time we are on the site of a UN refugee camp, thankfully free of refugees. The group from the adjacent Batwa community are assembled at the top of a small hill and, as we get out of the vans and head towards the ‘stage’, they begin a rousing welcome song. Once again, I have the Canon 60D in hand and concentrate on the ‘behind the scenes’ footage. We are soon surrounded by an audience of women and children. Many are reluctant to h…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…al data at http://www.diva-gis.org/. To get your spatial data you click on Free Spatial Data in the top-right corner. On the Free Spatial Data page click on country level data. On the Download Data by Country page, select the country you need and make sure the Subject is Administrative areas. There is other data available for free download from this page, such as elevation and population density, but for our purposes we’re only interested in admin…
How To (Arc)Map News
…t more here. You can also check out their non-profit organisations’ scheme, which allows registered charities access to software for free. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FIRST POST…
Day 3: Homa Bay and the Kochia Dancers Story
…under the bar and the dancers ready to do their stuff… The Kochia Dancers Today is all about dances, so our videos will be much better than still photographs. Let us introduce you to the dancers; here in full glory are the Kochia Dancers who dance in the Ramogi style of dance (ref: for a great article on the Ramogi dance of the Luo, by Helen Odwar, click here): https://youtu.be/_qVuMFLJ9-M https://youtu.be/pwVlHnpw8Io https://youtu.be/B_M_OFRzDoU…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…are based in Kisumu, at the Nyanza Club, deep into Luo-land tribal music. Today we are focusing on some of the best Nyatiti and Oruti players around. And we discovered the Keith Moon of Luo drumming. Woke up at the Nyanza Club, outside Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is the view of Lake Victoria we face in the morning before we set out to the next village, Saiya: As we will do six times on this trip, we pass the equator. We can’t hel…
Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
…look at a map and think of Lake Victoria as a clock face, the village for today’s recording is at 1PM – it is the Rang’ala Village, home of the legendary Luo singer Ogoya Nengo. We’re about 90 minutes northeast of Kisumu, our ‘base’ for two days. We are here to record the Sega Sega Band (Benga Style) and the Do Do Band (Do Do), both Luo musical styles; the Luo are Kenya’s third largest tribe, making up about 13% of the population. The Sega Sega B…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…ntre stage. For us, he symbolised the essence of how life is for the Batwa today – a very hard life, but a life full of spirited song and dance… and this lady is their wonderful lead vocalist… https://youtu.be/pZzgr2PXZ3s https://youtu.be/gt4_CaZNN2c Then the guitar and bass took to the stage….if you are wondering where the bass is, the plastic bag turn out to be significant. We were bemused by this magic plastic bag, but it turns out it was cov…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…AY 5: Welcome to the most beautiful setting for a music recording session. Today we visit the Mperwa Community. The second day of recording – beautiful sunshine in morning and there’s a patten emerging. Morning sunshine, afternoon rain, then the power goes out. Then the locusts attack. But let’s focus on the morning. This morning we recorded the Mperwa Dancers – the lead singer had a beautiful voice and we did an ‘Influences’ sessions with her. Un…