SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…es in very humble conditions with his family. He said he was glad we had visited him and was looking forward to our return in November.” After our recording session with ‘Mata’ we will head to Nabirere and the Bigwala Group, which is led by a frail but jovial old man called Lugolole. He is the only surviving member of the original Bigwara Group which featured the ‘Olwendo’, a trumpet made from a hollowed gourd. Lugolole still plays but nowadays wi…
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 Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…annels for more critical aid And this is our emerging insight. Perhaps the best proxy for sustainable aid to a village is to follow the music. Where there’s a strong, vibrant and young musical group, you’ll find, in most cases, the necessary structures, through which you can funnel aid. You’ll find a village that is still telling its stories, still encouraging rites of passage, still bringing young and old together to celebrate life through the pa…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…very fascinated with your project and looking at what you have on your website is very exciting!” Andrea Dyck, Curator of Contemporary Cultures & Immigration, The Manitoba Museum “I found a lot of helpful information on the Singing Wells website and it helped a great deal in being able to hear what the instruments sound like when played and to see pictures of how they are held, etc. It sounds like you have a wonderful project. I would welcome any…
The New Singing Wells website News
…you can easily find the information you’re looking for. And finally… Please get in touch with us via Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you think of the new site! Our thanks go to Wes Burden and the team at Nebulo Strata who worked tirelessly on the site. …
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…d 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 Group page from our Musical Map of East Africa….
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…hile to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the musicians, to their villages, to their homes and record them with their families. We would record them singing their songs to their children, three generations dancing together in their village. Andy Patterson, who helped design the mobile studio, noted, ‘I’m a sound engineer and used to recording in professional studios, but I must say,…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…re Wa Konde to come in and work on the verses. 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…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…ration. Every village had a group of young musicians and dancers. Some the best percussionists were 12-15 years old. Most of the best dancers were teenagers. You felt the next generation is passionate about the music and it is not just ‘a thing your grandparents did.’ This is really important. The key is that the traditional songs are taught to the children in the villages and then that the traditional music permiates into popular music. Northern…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…groups and groups to sites and sites to days. We average about 20 songs a site and just over 1.5 sites per day. Just getting the right spelling on to a clapper board of a song and getting that recorded elsewhere against a take list takes time to master. Third, we then need to very quickly produce 3 camera videos. So during our car rides, we’re linking a group and song to the ‘bounce’ (final audio) and the three videos used in that take. Time sign…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…Kabahenda group danced for their Member of Parliament during the time he visited his constituency. Furthermore, the Kanyabukungu group entertained for the Prime Minister of Uganda while Birara group entertained the Ford Foundation Director from New York and FF Nairobi team when they visited UOBDU. Mikingo and Kanyabukungu groups also entertained visitors during the Women’s day celebrations in Kisoro. Through formation of the Batwa dancing groups h…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
A day of two halves, with one of our best village visits combined with a long, nightmare journey to Kampala. The Macedonia Band We met the leader of the Macedonia Band at the Soroti Hotel and he led us to his village, Obuell-Lira, a 30 minute drive down rich clay roads. On the way, Joshua told us about the history of the group, which was founded in 1982. The group and its song Uganda Land of Freedom is legendary in the Teso region (the name for t…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…e 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 village….
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…pportunity 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 they are given the c…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…we arrive in our location, we liaise with the local 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…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…contradictory. However, the beauty of the map (as with search engines and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia), it is Open Source and so people from all around the world can add information to make the map a very useful source of information. By creating the basics, as we have, the broad tribal and musical structure of East Africa is there, now we can only add to it! There was also the difficulty of classification. There are hundreds of differ…