Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…The final day – we record the Original Chuka Drummers and then head back to Nairobi, concluding our field visit to Central and Eastern Kenya….
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
…ls and that we hope will be useful to others setting up a similar project. Today we focus on roles/responsibilities of the core team. On arrival at the site, we divide into three teams: Interview Team This team is typically Tabu Osusa, who acts as the on-site Singing Wells representative, formally meeting the band and handling all their questions about the project and their role in it. Tabu is typically joined by our local music expert, in this ca…
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….
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…ad written song inspired from her time with us about hearing the sounds of African music. Last night, she and Andy played together, with Andy working out a guitar part. So first, we recorded the two of 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 worke…
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…
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
…teresting near collisions. Throughout our recording and driving in Kampala today we were surrounded by limping groups of marathoners in bright yellow shirts. The Recording Site We packed and drove east, just outside Kampala to the Kyambogo University, where James teaches. It was a beautiful gated campus, very quiet, big trees, lovely red dirt paths – it seemed to be a preserve for the lovely Ugandan greens and reds we’ve grown to love. Students wa…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…he only festival since 2005. Many people are performing around the country today due to those festivals. The group is very literate in music and we had a clear vision from 1990 of what we wanted to do. We are not doing badly and have a comfortable life from the performances. Some musicians who didn’t even have a bicycle not have houses. We are showing you can have a musical career. We are growing our knowledge and getting better at representing th…
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…
Discussions with Peter Cooke: ethnomusicologist and Ugandan music expert News
…es at Kyambogo to implement our entenga restoration scheme to preserve and promote this traditional instrument for future generations. Students practice entenga drum-chime at Kyambogo in 1968 (Musisi is furthest from the camera) Peter’s research into African music is extensive. “It all began in 1964, a few weeks before travelling out to begin teaching in Kampala, Uganda,” says Peter. “On the stage of the Prince’s Theatre, London, I received my fir…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…casional monkey. The staff has been warm and helpful and offered the hotel today as our recording studio. We have been able to set up the computers in the kitchen of one of our cottage rooms and have the groups either perform on our dining patio or our porch. We had three groups today and the drivers were sent out to round them up from the surrounding areas. The Bigwala Cultural Group One of this group’s primary purposes is to restore the Bigwala,…
Before They Pass Away News
…only do we want to sustain the musical heritage of East Africa, we want to promote it in today’s world. With this in mind, we’ve been following the work of British photographer Jimmy Nelson with interest, who spent four years travelling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these…
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…
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…