The New Singing Wells website News
…e our recordings of East African Traditional Music. Here are some of the added features of the new site: Stories Most of what we do is story-telling, in the music that we record, the pictures we take, the people that we meet and the journeys that we make – so we have split our stories into easy to read and find sections. Find them via the menu bar. Podcasts Our podcasts are now displayed with the full track lineup and listen, watch and group links…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…er Jan Willem and the other guests, we set up a recording studio in the garden. You can join us on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/singingwells and on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/singingwells – if you do tweet any links, please use the hashtags – #gotm and #singingwells We’ll update this page with any new items we add to the site over the course of the month. Check out the featured content links below to find the Watmon Cultural G…
Kampala traffic jam Story
…hs to plan the itinerary for our field recording trips so that we make the best use of the limited time we have. Steve K from Ketebul Music is our Africa Project Manager and he does an amazing job in the weeks prior to the trip, contacting music groups, booking local accommodation and arranging vehicles and drivers to transport us to some very remote destinations. But even Steve’s meticulous planning could not help us avoid the infamous Kampala tr…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows where we have travelled with the Singing Wells project and features audio tracks and videos of the songs and dances that we have recorded along the way. Two final words: influences and origins. When we first set out the aims fo…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…es. We asked them to find their best love song that fits the beat and recorded them. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduce a whole new melody over Stanley’s song and deliver it as Bishop reported with pitch/timing perfect. By this time Nyerere Wa Konde wrote a new part requiring a different bass and guitar for part of the song. They rushed into the control booth to offer something (remember, the leader is someone we discov…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…asn’t heard the story. The man will be forced to pay whatever sum of money demanded by the offended husband and will even be expected to give up his shamba – the small plot of land upon which his family depends. As late as the 70’s, the other consequence is the offending husband would kill the adulterer. Whenever the song is sung today in the villages, some audience believes the song is pointing at them, accusing them… Kirori: This is the band lea…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…lebrations in Kisoro. Through formation of the Batwa dancing groups have made other developmental ideas to the including saving groups. These groups have gone ahead to improve their economic situations by carrying out other activities such as working as a group on people’s gardens as well as entertaining people at a fee when invited. Some group members are improving their standard of living through purchase of house hold items such as bed sheets a…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…chens closed. Given that we forgo lunch as a rule we find ourselves highly dependent upon night time eating. Just over the sounds of speeding trucks and crashing bikes on the shoulders, you can begin to hear the faint rumblings of our tummies. Two lane nice road ended. Terror returns. Rumbling tummies and thoughts of food recede as desire to live takes over. Our driver has reported we have crossed the Nile. Let us try to explain what that felt lik…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…ered. For three years, the ‘village band’ played for the rebels and were visited by all the leaders. They refused, however, to play rebel songs or support the rebel side. They said over and over again the music was neutral and only had alligience to Uganda not to one side or the other in the war. There were lots of scary moments when rebels would try to force them to declare alligence or die. But by miracle the rebel leaders let them live and play…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…isoro there was an opportunity for some Batwa who had exposure to the outside life when they visited Nairobi and were able to interact with the Ford Foundation. During this trip the Batwa benefitted from some materials such as clothes, shoes and money which improved on their social status by dressing like dominant tribes here. This gave them confidence and changed their behaviour. Today the non-Batwa believe and agree that Batwa can look smart if…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…uces 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 capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…t). We landed in a field, pock marked with cement block buildings. Not the best site. But in the middle of the field was the most stunning tree that cast a hundred diameter shadow. We set up under its branches. As we did, from all directions, came a team of children and a team of performers – 6 groups with 20 members in each – and another 100 children. By the end, these two teams were joined by another group of 100 adults from the surrounding vill…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…tyles or instruments, anyone can relate to a map of the world. Fipa Tribe identified – embedded information shown How did you make Worldmap work for Singing Wells? As Worldmap is open source we were able to use a map of the distribution of tribes in Africa created by a Harvard professor named Suzanne Blier. By using her research we could create a map of only the tribal borders of East Africa, from a layer she had created. Once we had a map that on…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ither to make him immune against the charms of his audience or to keep him dependent upon his master. The instrument has a solo character, while it is now often played as an ensemble of instruments (as shown in the videos above), previously a harpist would sit silently during public functions where an ensemble is playing, and then once the orchestra was finished, would strike up and sing his solo, accompanying himself on the harp. The two tallest…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…bul music, where we can work on our Influence Series. Read more about that here. Watch out for our Field Report of the trip and we will keep updating the Singing Wells website with news and information!…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…ets, and anklets.’ (p. 360). The Lango symbol is Amuka (Rhino). Amuka is independent, strong, and peaceful unless disturbed. References Curley, Richard T. (1973). Elders, Shades, and Women: Ceremonial Change in Longo, Uganda. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Otiso, Kefa M. (2006). Culture and Customs of Uganda. Ohio: Greenwood Press. (Lango at everculture – 2012) Lango – http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/L…