Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
This day is mostly about the Ameru, or Meru, and their dance troupes. We recorded 32 separate songs across 5 performers in four separate locations. On the way, we learned a lot of detail of the boys’ rite of passage through circumcision. After breakfast (each of us coming at separate times), we travelled an hour to Mariene, to record our first group on the grounds of the New Apostolic Church. This was our route: It was a lovely location, deep in…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…A trip down and up the hill to record three lovely women groups. We were also introduced to Ndaiga Muchiri, the mad Karingaringa player. We’ll hear more from him tomorrow….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…A wonderful day at the Kiongwe Market recording four women groups from Kiogwe Village. Lots of Ileve (Tin Shakers) and Vilingi (Whistles)…
Tanzania 2017, Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo News
…We’ve just returned from our latest field trip discovering the music which took us to the eastern side of Tanzania. We witnessed an amazingly rich offering of music and met some extremely talented musicians. Read our field reports here to learn about our experiences with a snake dance, an amazing performance of a female initiation ceremony ,and recording members of the extraordinary Zawose family….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 0 – London/Nairobi Story
…Day 0 is always a day of prep and planes. The Ketebul and Abubilla Music teams, with assorted guests, assemble in Nairobi to launch the first of our 2014 Field Recordings; this time focused on Central and Eastern Kenya. Here’s our team….
A Tanzanian Effort to Salvage the Music of the Past News
…it just about Tanzania; Benson also has a bigger point to prove about East African music. “Many people think that the only place where you can find really good African music is in West Africa”, he says. “We can say to people, hey, it’s not all about Kilimanjaro and the national parks. We also have cool music.” We wish them all the best, and hope one day to take a trip to Tanzania for a few recording sessions of our own! Check out the Tanzania Heri…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…them. Then, we decided that if she was writing about hearing the sounds of African music, she should hear the sounds. So James worked with Jovah on a beautiful line, where she sang about the Batwa people being driven from the parks. Then Passy worked on a separate melody line followed by James. So Andy started, Jovah then sang her line for a while and Passy joined followed by James. And then Jacinta started her part of the song about hearing the s…
Kenya’s Amazing Musical Instruments News
…d most important instrument in Luo music (though we also encountered it in central Kenya, where it’s called the Wandindi). When well-played, it takes on the role of the “fiddle” found in Irish or American country music. The Orutu is a one-string instrument played with a bow, whose notes are created by finger pressure against the central stick, producing the effect of ‘fretting’ notes. Watch here as the Aloka Ohangla Group plays “Nyar Karapul” (the…
Central Uganda: Day 6: Kampala to Entebbe Story
…two beautiful Kampala Locations, two great bands: we started at Kyamboed University to record the Bukaala Twesitule Troupe and then travelled to the Ugandan Musuem to record the Buganda Music Ensemble led by Albert Bisaso Ssempeke Jr…
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…Why is the group called Ndoto Afrika? We represent a dream. A dream every African youth aspires to achieve. We represent the African Dream. Ndoto means ‘dream’ in Swahili, a local African language and Afrika is the Swahili way of spelling Africa. Why are you interested in branching from purely urban music to a traditional/ urban mix? The love for our motherland. There is a popular saying that ‘others call it the ‘Dark Continent’ but to us it’s ju…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…Before racing back to Kampala, we had a wonderful morning at the Gately Hotel recording the Nile Beat Artists……
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…We stayed in the wonderful Gately Hotel on the Nile in Jinja to record three groups: The Bigwala Cultural Group, Adagha Nalya Drama Group and The Bakuseka Majja Matta Group. We shall refer to this day as “Two Legends and a Lot of Big Horns”…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…Cooke, a retired ethnomusicologist and Research Associate at the School of African Studies, London. We’ve referenced Peter many times in our field reports and blog posts: in our history of recording East African music summary, in our post about music archives across the world, when reflecting on the importance of archiving traditional music and, most recently, in our posts about our journey to discover and record the Royal Drums. It was James Isab…
Central Uganda: Day 3 – From Mbale to Iganga to Jinja Story
…rted with an Influences Song with Jacinta – they performed the traditional African song, Malaika. American Farewell: After this they performed American Farewell (originally called “Wimoweh” and popularised as “A lion sleeps tonight”). Altawale. This was a great combination of heavy brass, traditional drums, marching band drums and a good old fashioned American Marching Band Twirler, straight from Music Man. Here’s their music: We loved what Julius…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…chorus. This didn’t mean the vocals weren’t good, but to say they were not central to the performance. At the center, were the group’s stories, their actors and drama. James Isabirye said of the Busolwe Post Test Club , “They are a meeting point between formal education and village music. Although they perform traditional music, they also will also work in different formats, and are more formally trained. They act as music judges and help to ident…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…you’ve been bringing in the year by listening to lots of traditional East African music. Before we start posting exciting news about the upcoming year, here’s a quick recap of what we got up to in 2015: 1. We went discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms In Nov/ Dec 2015 we travelled between Kampala and Jinja in Uganda in search of the lost music and musicians of the royal palaces. We posted regular updates about our journey and the inc…