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
…d news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little thunder storms and the normal fun with roadworks and trucks. Nice chicken grill in Nakuru for lunch with full team. Fun fact, Nakuru is the birthplace of Nakumatt, the most successful retail chain in Kenya. It started as Nakuru Mattresses, hence ‘Nakumatt’. We arr…
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
…hour. Preparations at Ketebul Music studio We came to Ketebul this morning to get ready for our trip tomorrow. Ketebul is buzzing with people getting everything packed up. Steve, project manager, was cracking the whip. Pato, head of Video, was quickly learning how to use the new lighting kit (SW 4), but he was constantly distracted by the new Singing Wells Flip Camera. Nick focused on learning the Clapperboard. And Willie joined Jimmy in the studi…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…n just the UK for your country, I’ve already done that for you! Click here to get the data. As I mentioned, ArcMap can be tricksy if your data isn’t properly formatted and so on. The Unicorn Distribution data set we’re using is fairly simple so not all of these points will be applicable, but here are some things you need to think about when preparing your data: The title of each column must not exceed 14 characters. The shorter the better. E.g. in…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…To Map 1, so the address where it is saved is C:\How To Map\How to Map 1. To get our country outline into ArcMap we need to Add Data. To do this either click File > Add Data > Add Data or select the Add Data icon. This will open a box; click this icon till you reach ‘Home – Documents/ArcGIS’: From here click on Folder Connections. This is where you will connect folders from elsewhere on your computer to ArcMap. Click on this icon: and select the…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…wa communities we visited. The Batwa have very little of any material value but they have their songs and dance which give them strong spiritual values. Their music binds them together. It gives them an identity and allows them to keep something of the forest they have lost. Victoria November 2011 …
Return of the Batwa @ Ketebul Music Studios Story
…asoda Yohanadj Mbirikimu Mbarushimana – “Challenger” The magic bass player (beat boxes into a pot) with Tiny Moses. Great backing vocals as well. Mbirikimu Mbarushimana Gaudancia (and baby Stella) A wonderful singer from the group ‘Togetherness’ who we recorded in the empty (good news) refugee camp outside of Kisoro. She sang with each of the groups over the weekend. Gaudancia Kampire And here were the results of our efforts! The Singing Wells T…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
…on: Once the equipment was loaded, the Ketebul guys got the big truck… In terms of the trip to Kisumu, a picture is worth a thousand words… we will say no more on the topic: Tomorrow we get back to recording. That is a very good thing. The Singing Wells Team 27 November 2011…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
…ssions with Francis, but we love this one, with Jessie and Francis singing together in the gardens of the Traveller’s Rest hotel in Kisoro. Please listen before reading the blog: https://youtu.be/c1XBVlNQL6E We also recorded a beautiful version of Amahoro with Jessie, Francis and the ladies. Francis and the ladies are happy to pose for a series of formal photos (each woman with her baby either cradled or on her back). Tabu and one of our hosts f…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
….be/h_mVjup7_6s https://youtu.be/1zjh68iNClw Jessie leads the first Influences session and Winyo accompanies the lead singer and drummer on another…… …and then serenades one of the women outside her hut! The children like to get involved in what we are doing. These young boys enjoy exclusive access to the sound recording area, keeping a close eye on Andy and Willie and enjoying listening to the live performance through their headphones……
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…s the green hills – here’s one that we effectively drove completely around to get to the village. This is one of the many views of Lake Chou – 15 of our 23 kilometre drive which took us around the whole lake. Our second introduction to ‘Batwa Fitness’ was on arrival at the village. The road stopped and we were told we’d need to take our equipment ‘up the hill’ another 1,500 metres to the top. It was at least 500 metre rise in elevation. We told yo…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…: 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 with. We have none of that. But we bring different musical backgrounds and that helps. TO: Yes it works. And we’ve got a lot to do to prepare for the next phase! Good team. Diverse team. But a shared passion for mus…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…traditional costumes, arts and crafts, dances and music to each other and to visitors. Combined with the stunning geographical characteristics and the very limited general knowledge on the Lake Turkana region, the presentation of the cultural traditions makes the Festival a unique and fascinating experience for everyone involved.’ Steve’s objective is to record the music of all 10 performing groups. All the material will be taken back to the Kete…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…m mid last century and offer them in easy to read, listen and view mediums to today’s audiences, young and old, we were trying to fulfill our dreams of preserving our music heritage for prosterity. We have so far produced two packages and are currently working on three others simultaneously. Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…of us. My guess is finally the hunger had kicked in, and he couldn’t wait to get to Malindi and some food. We made it to Malindi around 9.30pm. No one knew the exact location of Paradise Hotel and The Leader and The Guide’s GPS couldn’t help us either. Luckily for us, while we were refueling car number 02 at Watamu, a friend of Pato’s who lives in Malindi just happened to come by the station for fuel too. He took us to Paradise Hotel (which turne…