Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…esse on piano at the Ketebul Music studios This track is also on our album Best of Singing Wells 2011 Jovah – Ye Warararaye by singingwells We asked Pato whether he always knew he would be involved in music. “No, but from high school I knew I was going to be working on videos. And music is my life. I started listening to Joseph Kamaru when I was growing up in the Ngara Estate, another part of Nairobi. He was the biggest Kikuyu artist around and wo…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…inents. Tabu Osusa founded Ketebul Music in 2007 with a goal to record and promote traditional East African music. Tabu laments the fact that the music heritage of the region is being eroded. He says, ‘For reasons I can’t fully explain, contemporary East African music has lost touch with its tribal roots. Our most popular musicians find far more inspiration in western music than they do with East African music. I worry about this. As a people, we…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…odd gifts. In the end I gave everything to Alice, asking her to decide how best to distribute things, suggesting one of the schools in Kisoro perhaps. Our session with the Birara had extended longer than we anticipated so when we arrived at the next community we were too late to start recording. Instead, we headed back to the Traveller’s Rest for a late afternoon recording session with Francis and the Birara lead vocalists who had joined us on the…
Day 2: Focus on the Nyatiti, Orutu and DRUMS! Story
…e here to focus on the Nyatiti, the core Luo instrument – as played by the best players it is a bass, drum and rhythm guitar combined. And we saw some of the best players. We want to remind you first of what a Nyatiti looks like and also of it’s beautifully haunting sound, played by the most famous Nyatiti players of all time, Ayub Ogado; here he is with Kothbiro: The Music Groups We saw three groups: two Nyatiti groups sandwiching…
How to Map 1: Housekeeping News
…sed to be following and it loses the data. It’s remediable, but a pain, so best to avoid doing that. The point of all this is: keep your GIS folders and files obsessively well organised, and keep them all on the C: drive. When this is applicable later I’ll mention it so you remember. A note about shapefiles I just mentioned shapefiles and seeing as they’re what we’ll be using for the whole of this process, I think I should explain myself. Initiall…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…Michele’. Age: 26 months. Favourite food: chips (they all loved chips the best). Favourite game: Chasing her brother down the hill. Last Memory: Seeing her Mother hacked to death. Cause of Death: Smashed against a wall. There are about two dozen cubicles. Two dozen Micheles. Each story as horrible as the one before. As you can imagine, we boarded our flight to Nairobi somberly. We reflected on all the people we met on the long drives through Rwan…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…w leave for Nairobi again and then, on Sunday, travel to Western Kenya for the next series of villages and more music. All the best The Singing Wells Team…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…ted, and ready to call it a day. Just in time to be shocked by the world’s best bassist.. We opened the ‘Hotel Studio’ for the Kisoro Hill Community who started with wonderful dance and song. But then, they switched gears and set up a smaller group of ‘bass’ and guitar and absolutely blew us away… They started as wonderful large group moving through a set of songs, including ‘Imparake Yagahinga’, the National Park song, which is a staple of the Ba…
Christine Kamau – “The Jazzist” News
…ge of support from Afro-Jazz trumpeter and composer, Christine Kamau….. Hello Victoria! Thanks for getting in touch! I have checked out you project…it’s great that you are dedicated to keeping indigenous music alive..#very best wishes and I hope we can keep in touch. Christine BBC Africa Beats: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17831507 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thejazzist Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/christi…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…s’ sessions with her. Until the music is ready, with think this village is best described through pictures: We arrived, greeted by lots of men and boys going back and forth to market, including this chap (later we’ll write on a blog on all the things folks carried on their head and bikes). And there’s always the wonderful backdrop of the Virunga Mountains. And the inevitable narrow path leading up to the village…. And after a relatively short cl…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…ble to take the studio to them, working in their environment to capture as best we can the music and dance of their community. It is important to note that these sessions are incredibly important to these communities. It is no exaggeration to say that most of them live to dance, live to sing. When we come to record them, we come to honour them, to listen to them as they tell their stories. But that is not enough. We said when we started this proje…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…e there will be a Cultural Pavilion which will contain a backdrop of graphic representations of all the countries that have had a role to play in the Queen’s reign. On the Kenya stand there will be Singing Wells DVDs freely available for guests. The DVD is from our ‘Best of Singing Wells 2011‘ and features music videos from our field trips to the Coastal Region and Nyanza Province. We are grateful to our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board and Hill…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…Abubilla also have different technical background. They have access to the best equipment and don’t compromise. This matters to us. Abubilla challenges us to do things differently. And I think we challenge them. AP: Yes it is relevant and it is working. We’re a good team and like working together (sometimes even without Tuskers). Ketebul knows the music, has a feel for the artists, has full access to people that know the best communities to work w…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…in Uganda and their traditional music and dance which we hope will help to promote their standing in the community in Kisoro and beyond. Zaninka Penninah from UOBDU sent us this message: Dear Victoria, Greetings Batwa community members. Please find the attached photos taken while the Batwa are viewing photos from the Albums. The Batwa were so happy – I think you can even see it from those photos. The field visits is about to end while showing the…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…ul with mostly farm land, small villages and quite hilly. I feel I had the best job on the trip because I got to interview all the groups about where they were from, what their clothing and adornment meant, what songs they sang and what they meant. I took advice from Victoria and spent quite a bit of time getting to know the people in the groups as well as the people in the Singing Wells group. A few things struck me about the groups I interviewed…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…s all about the music and the concert that Tabu organised to celebrate the best in East African Music. This was the concert (actually Tabu called it a ‘meeting’ to celebrate the partnership of Ketebul and Abubilla): Kothbiro: Ayub Ogado. This is the song everyone remembers from the Constant Gardner. Written by the legendary Ayub Ogado. He opened the ‘meeting’ and this was his final song. The instrument you hear is the nyatiti (a lyre-like stringed…