ATTA is following Singing Wells News
Our friends at Hills Balfour and the Kenya Tourist Board continue to be wonderful ambassadors of Singing Wells, introducing us to interesting and interested people who we can talk to about the project. Earlier this month I was their 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 fie…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…have two mobile recording units, each capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the systems we have chosen is that they can run off the battery power of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) We…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…wn to about 6 inches. For this band, the ‘bass’ Likembe is played directly onto an over turned ‘tub’ so it resonates the low bass notes (later, with the Macedonia band, the bass Likembe was huge and stood on its own). The bass player is joined by a percussionist who will also pound the tub for the kick drum and then use a little metal brush as a tom. There are then lots of men with big sticks with metal on them which sound like a snare. All the me…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drum…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…on that I spent some time working with the GIS department at Harvard in Boston specifically learning how to use the mapping software, and I also attended GIS classes given at Harvard. I then brought the idea to Singing Wells when I began work in the summer of 2012. The Virtue Foundation – Ghana – Yellow Fever Immunisation Why do you think it is the best way to display data? When displaying data it’s no secret that people often understand it better…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…All the time, the high rises of Kampala were in view but it felt like an altogether not very nice place. The harsh divide between wealth and poverty is alarmingly clear, and the architecture spells it out. Ultimately we all made it to super-market where we loaded up with money, mobile phone cards and other sundries and headed out. The William car stopped to pick up Akello, a lovely Ugandan singer/songwriter, who is joining the group as our Influen…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…ed Kewamoi Women Dancers from the same area. These women have been singing together since 1982 and sing in a lot of events in the area. They focus on traditional songs. They wear white blouses with blue patterned sarongs, decorated with golden designs and lines, looking like trees and fruits. Hunter felt the costumes represented the landscape. Eddie did three Influences sessions – two with the first group playing guitar on ‘Ribwege’, a song about…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…woman to marry him. One singer carries a horn used to call people to come together, if there’s an attack or a meeting of the tribe. The women wore small gourds around their necks that would contain oil used to smear on people after circumcision. They also wear beads crossing their chest which are given to them after female circumcision. Their belts are decorated with cowry shells and are used to drape over a woman’s abdomen when she is giving bir…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…gs: Anya Kar, Chepo Laleiyo, Kirap, Kiter, Kiyuar, Asoiyen, Adong’o and Montonyo. The women were dressed in white, carrying sticks and the men carried spears and their portable chairs/sleeping pillows. Kalomoywa We recorded 8 songs with them and a magic moment of wonderful chorus. The songs were: Kinyakar, Kamatakar, Chepo Nandi, Kamitoi, Kaperwo, Chemining Tie, Chepo Chepkai, Kimnakiy Mitinge, Kisech. Click here to go to Song Translations Everyth…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…this and decied ‘what would be great is if we could write the name of the song on a sheet and then make a sound that linked all cameras to audio.’ Someone pointed out that what we needed was a clapperboard – something the film industry had discovered 100 years ago and the solutions to all our problems! We were chastened. We asked Nick to be in charge of ‘the clapperboard’ and he got very good at shouting out takes, despite a lot of abuse from the…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…ough a series of e-mails that travelled the world, Tabu and I were brought together by Joyce Nyairo, then of the Ford Foundation, East Africa office. After several long e-mail exchanges and a few Skype calls, we agreed to start the Singing Wells project. We both knew we wanted to do something to preserve the music but it took us a while to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the music…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…. (Pictured in the photo with Willie and Eddie). Interview with Patrick ‘Pato’ Ondiek We used the car ride to interview Pato about his background and his work with Ketebul Music. Pato is from the Luo tribe, from the village of Bondo (450 Km from Nairobi) , although he and his father were both born and raised in Nairobi. He is one of 6 children – he has one older sister and two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. He lives with his thre…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
…music documentary. He teamed up with Andy Patterson while he was here and together they conducted a number of interviews with Kenyan musicians who are now based in the UK. They also had the chance to visit Kenya House in Stratford as a guest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Where+the+world+got+real+flavour+of+Kenya+in+London/-/1248928/1480860/-/…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…drive to Kapenguira to record the Pokot. After that we go to Eldoret then onto Iten and Kapsowar to record the Marakwet and Keiyo. The last day to go to L Baringo to record the Tugen. Tabu is not sure what to expect of the tribal music in the villages we are visiting but he is always surprised by the quality of music we discover with Singing Wells. “I didn’t really know what to expect of the Batwa of Uganda, and was blown away by the musicianship…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…l. Now we can start using the real functions of ArcMap to display information on the map so you have a visual representation of your data. First of all, a recap of what we’re going to do: Prepare our data: ArcMap can be tricksy if your data isn’t properly organised and formatted so it’s worth sorting that out first. Import the data into ArcMap. Join the data to the country outline shapefile. Export the joined data and shapefile as a new shapefile….
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…aced. In many places it had been completely dug up and was a mix of loose stones and soil. And it was raining heavily again. Water and mud was gushing at speed down the hillside onto the road. At times we were negotiating a small, fast flowing river. And the rain made visibility out front pretty poor too. Luckily, I was deep in conversation with Henry who was telling me a bit more about the plight of the Bawta. Consequently, I was largely distract…