Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…essie Bukindu. We recorded 5 tracks with the group in the field – one of which was ‘Charles Manager’ sung in English -about the arrival of a new manager to a sugar plantation. The irony being that they are thanking him, just for doing his job properly. This was one of the songs the group re-recorded at Ketebul studios – re-named Mr Manager and available on YouTube here: You can find links to the field reports below – along with a link to the group…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…we plan for our next trip to Kampala this Autumn, we can’t wait to publish new songs, new dances and new stories from East African music. But, we always recognized that there was a hierarchy of needs in East Africa. No matter how threatened the culture of music was, we understood that East Africa was facing ‘bigger problems’ – be it famine, disease, tribal conflicts, etc… Music was important, but the threat to music stood at the end of a long list…
The New Singing Wells website News
…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 where they are available. Click here to listen. Featured Content…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
We are pleased to announce a new project at the Singing Wells. Group of the Month sees us take one of the 50 groups we have recorded in the field since the beginning of the Singing Wells project, and feature recordings, stories, videos, interviews, and other content we have gathered in East Africa. Our first group of the month is the Watmon Cultural Group. We have videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at…
A new type of city Story
…ht stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconventional type of city,I loved it. There was certainly a lot going on and during the week Akello told us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of…
The Beat of Kenya News
…Museum Andrea Dyck received her Master’s Degree in History from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, where her research focused on immigration and ethno-religious history. Andrea is responsible for research, collections, and exhibit development related to newcomers to Manitoba from the post-World War II period to the present. In particular, her interests are focused on the relationship that forms between immigrants and their…
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…, and village) sang with his father on one of the son’s tracks. This was a new concept for the group. Bado had always sung in the family music group – and in doing this had sung the songs of his family and heritage, but now they were collaborating on one of Bado’s songs. Bado sang the main line of the song ‘Love Is’ and his father sang between the lines, and the rhythm began to take hold. I also at this point learnt my forth Swahili word (Asante,…
The Influences Series from Singing Wells News
…ll refresh the origins of East African music and make it discoverable to a new generation of music fans. Newly released Influences song – Missing March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, fe…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…airo, 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 musicians, to their villages, to their homes and record them with their families. We would record th…
Returning to Uganda in Autumn 2013 Story
…e, youth and energy The inspiration A performance or two for each of these… 1. The Individual Voices: Who can forget Francis, the lead of the Batwa musical community, singing with Jessie in the grounds of our hotel. Everyone stopped to listen and it remains one of our most inspiring tracks… Or the leader singer of the Rubanga Kingom Awach boys of Northern Uganda, Wokorach Walter. Have you ever heard anything like this? 2. The Collective Voices: We…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…leave enough time for file management. So, we have established two new ‘non-negotiables’: a) no driving at night, and b) all travel plans must assume an average speed of 50 kph. It is simply impossible for two vans and 10 people to travel faster. Keep a running table of groups, songs and audio takes and camera times. This worked very well this trip and by circulating the table to everyone we could keep making corrections to everything as we went….
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…em. 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 discovered in the coast and recorded for the first time in March 2011 and now he is re-…
Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…ur first song, ‘Welo Obino’ is sung to welcome visitors, a celebration for new comers in the village. That is why we sang it for you first. We then sang ‘Dug Gang’ which is to celebrate the end of war, to call the people over to tell them we are in peace. ‘Alocaloca’ was our final song: it is all about change. It is mainly sung to mark the end of a dispute or a war. These songs now mean more to us as the hardship in Northern Uganda is slowly comin…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…d 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 Uganda is doing a great…
‘Missing’ – Singing Wells fundraising song for 2013 News
…March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, featuring musicians from Kenya, Uganda and the UK collaborating in this a unique song to celebrate and support Singing Wells….
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…s a young girl in her junior school leading in school musicals. Later on at 13 years she began participating in church, where she sang during conferences, believers’ gatherings and conventions. As her passion for music grew, she has later shared stages with such greats as Uganda’s own Susan Kerunen in a girls group called “Anyira” a luo word meaning “the girls”, led by Miss Susan Kerunen herself. After she then emerged as a professional backup sin…