Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…h Anyaka Lim Pee. The last song is essentially a lament that a male suitor doesn’t have enough money for the woman’s bridal dowry. Watmon is pictured above with a plastic flute (traditionally it’s made of bamboo – but he said these are hard to come by) which he played during the last song. We then shut down and said goodbye to the band. We then had a very sad farewell first with Akello who headed back to Kampala, then our drivers William and Emman…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…generally perform music in the style of Acholi, as Watmon is originally from Kitikum, not far from Gulu up in Northern Uganda, and moved down to Kampala during the war. We love the instrument they played, the Nanga (below) so much we asked if they would join us in Entebbe to record more songs with Akello. We asked them to come with us to our next stop: our hotel in Entebbe, purely because we were desperate to have more time with the stunning music…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…ill drive our success. If we can get into the right routines, we can learn more and more from each trip and get better and better. For the March Pilot in 2011, simply getting audio equipment to work in the field was the most important routine. Don’t underestimate the learning required to set up 8 mic recording session in the dirt, surrounded by cows. By Kisoro and the recording of the Batwa, audio was fully sorted and the team could set up and bre…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…also I play the Chapuo, this is the small drum and the Upatsu (cymbol). I don’t feel ashamed to play this music. I don’t feel ashamed that I have an amazing teacher, my grandfather. He’s taught everyone, including Kaboge Chagalla (a famous Nairobi percussionist) and Mwatela Kamanza (pictured in the far right of the group, Sengenya, we recorded in March 2011 near Mombassa ). We recorded three songs with the band at Ketebul studios tonight. These a…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…n carried a thumb piano or a drum and all claimed they were members of Macedonia. The Macedonia band and the song Uganda, Land of Freedom was known by everyone and served dozens of times to spare someone a fast execution as a collaborator. We then arrived at Joshua’s village. It was the most beautiful we’ve seen with four-five small thatched huts, each painted with patterns. There was a large clay oven in the middle of the village and the whole gr…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ant is sold somewhere in one of these three types of stores. But all is random. Don’t expect Omo at the Omo stores or a mobile at the Orange store. And Lord knows what you’ll find at the drug store but it will rarely be medicine. But this collection of Lego stores is just a backdrop, 50 feet from the road. In front of these shops is the real action. Every tenth person has a chicken to sell you and the poor creature is swung around by its feet for…
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…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…o fly out of the darkness at different points of the circle? So, we vow to do more nighttime recording. Maybe with mosquito netting. Cieng Dwong Tonight’s group was fantastic, especially given the full day of travel. They had about 15 bul (drums) and 2 drummers and a smallish ndara (xylophone). Their lead male singer was about 6 foot five and commanded the whole group and the growing audience with a loud voice, great dance and fun drumming. They s…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…om Troupe We set up amongst the ‘five layered’ thatched roof huts, settled down around the cows, goats and a really music loving chicken and recorded one single band, The Alur Kingdom Troupe, with every instrument imaginable: The Flute (yep, a flute) The Ndara (the amazing Ugandan xylophone) The Rigi-Rigi (similar to the Kenyan orutu) The Agwara (trumpets) The Adungu (the harp we’ve encountered every day now) The group was formed in 1993 and is pr…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…y sang so softly and it was such a big crowd. But we gave her a lapel microphone and put a microphone directly on the Adungu and recorded. Afterwards, when we turned her up in the mix a magical voice and sound emerged – the ancient lady sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village, surrounded by 100’s had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice. Incredible. She sang: Two Man Dong Lakee Cok Mon Alwak Munu Keya Here’s Two Man Dong: https://…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…cal musicians to find the best space to record. If possible we will record more than one of groups in each location, as it reduces the setup and breakdown time and maximizes the time for recording. We decide on two or three different ‘backdrops’ for the performances and park vehicles in the centre so that we can easily rotate the setup while leaving the back end of the audio equipment setup in place. We have two mobile recording units, each capabl…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…a Lareku (a war dance celebrating the tribal chief), Talebero Koda Akoda, Odokomi Dek Owic, Lar Wodo Dwok Cen. Here’s a selection: Ribbe Ber Dancers Our second group was Ribbe Ber, another female dancing group. They had beautiful feather head-dresses. Their songs included: Lolo Lok La Moi Omako Kwot Kicinge Lakwat Dyangi Pe Kotacwer Lokakura Bor. https://youtu.be/4Jt5-pqpOWw https://youtu.be/Aw2Nj1GNpGo https://youtu.be/5SLa0biLa54 Ribbe Ber Drumm…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…s the road. Our drives to the music are always the most dangerous thing we do. The road to Gulu was a revelation, however. Generally good, paved roads, with a painted lines down the center and plenty of space for bikes, cows and children to wander on the shoulder. The big horrible trucks that have haunted us in trips past were rare and passing was generally safe. Still, each of the cars counted about 5 ‘brushes with death’, any one of which would…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…and so long as a man has enough wealth in terms of cows to offer, marrying more than one wife is common. This seems contradictory as women are of primary importance in running a home. Deep in the roots of cultural tradition is the practice of female circumcision. It is regarded as part of a woman’s rite of passage before marriage, and functions as a method of preventing a married woman from committing adultery. 1% of Ugandan women undergo the proc…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and t…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…. We always found this song amazing – the group is deadly serious in their thank you to the manager. But in many ways, we kept thinking it is sad that they find it so rare for someone to essentially do his job that they need to write a song. Johnnie, Bishop and Eddie all joined in to support them in the studio with Winyo and Nina working on back up vocals. They were a huge amount of fun, smiling throughout it all. Other than recording, we continue…