Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…Sophie into one of the huts to watch their dance in private. In Uganda and Kenya we have a lot of recordings of rites of passage, mostly around male and female circumcision rituals – happily the songs survive but not the rituals in the places we visited! But we have far less on the theme of ‘women for women’ songs of instruction, or the rites of passages of women preparing for adulthood. We encountered these in three separate villages and all the…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…inging Wells, you will know that we’ve been working for seven years now in Kenya and Uganda. We thought we would have covered more countries by now, but we have been blown away by the richness of the traditional music in these two countries, so we kept going back. We are very excited now to start our work in Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo on this trip but also recognize this is tip of the iceberg. We think we will be spending next 3-4 years coming bac…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…re at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sou…
Singing Wells Youtube Channel hits 2.5Million views News
…med back in 2011, on the very first day of the Singing Wells pilot trip to Kenya. Seeing the generations of Nyerere’s family performing together was a special moment (his son Mr Bado is also a musician). We captured a great fusion of old and new https://youtu.be/-MU13FLg_io You also need to check out the Elgon Ngoma Troupe, performing a traditional circumcision ritual dance. Please keep following our channel – with new videos going up there’s alw…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…ic Foundation, but why it is that you guys needed to step in to make this happen? I’m grateful, but where were we? Why isn’t this our problem? I am concerned that the Kenyans aren’t doing it for themselves. Without AMF, we wouldn’t be able to do it. How do we turn that equation around that we as a people would find the resources to do this for ourselves? The problem is simple: things are focused on other matters that have nothing to do with the so…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…venties were the era in which Oluoch Kanindo, a former technician with the Kenya News Agency and the Voice of Kenya (KBC) grew into a massive music production guru whose dominance and supreme authority over Benga generated many controversies. One of the first big benga bands of that decade, Victoria Kings, was Kanindo’s brainchild and it grew into a key pillar of the Kanindo stable. Victoria Kings eventually split into sub groups, most of them wit…
Latest Field Trip – Kenya 2018 News
…We’ve returned from our latest field trip, this time to western Kenya. Field reports coming soon….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11: Ketebul Studios, Nairobi Story
…cal artists – all of them in their late 60’s-70’s, all of them critical to Kenyan music history. These artists were: Ochieng’ Nelly Mengo Ochieng’ Nelly was born Nelson Ochieng Orwa in 1943 in South Nyanza. The guitar came to Kenya after WWII and inspired a lot of young men who were steeped in village music. One of these was Ocheieng’ Nelly who got his first guitar in 1961 and his playing was shaped by the Luo Nyatiti and a new musical style being…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 4 – Nkubu to Mukuuni to Nairobi Story
…an education in order to be at par with the prospective spouse. We then wrapped up and took lots of final pictures, including of three children, practically our only children from the trip! We packed for a final time and departed for Nairobi. We made pretty good time to Ketebul music, where we unloaded our gear. Then we headed for the Fairview, a 20 minute drive that took about 90 minutes due to traffic! We all crashed early knowing we had almost…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…to keep performances around 4 minutes in length. Song Start Finally, ‘Mr Clapperboard’s’ job (Nick’s) is to ensure that all audio and video instruments are running and then he announces the song/take and claps the clapperboard. He must brief the group to allow him to get off camera before they start this song. We have tried multiple briefings on this and find the best is to simply ask them to wait for Nick to say he’s ‘off camera’ before they begi…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…single team. Song Recording The interview team then gives the gives ‘Mr Clapperboard’ the song list and introduce the group to the audio/video team. Mr Clapperboard then confirms each song with the group leader, writes down all group/song/take information, and kicks of song. In order, audio, then Video 1, 2 and 3 confirm they are ‘speeding’. Mr Clapperboard then announces song/take and ‘claps’ us all in. We keep audio/video rolling for entire tak…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…equipment is the most extensive. Also assigned to the audio team is “Mr. Clapperboard” (Audio 3, in this case, Nick) who handles the clapperboard and therefore controls song/take information. Video Team This team consists of three videographers, each of which have specific roles. Video 1 is in charge of the basic shot – a static camera framed to capture the full performance. Video 2 is a zoom camera, focusing on the key vocal and instrumental perf…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 0 – London/Nairobi Story
…Kivutia (Audio 2), Patrick Ondiek (Video 1) and Nick Abonyo (Audio 3, Mr Clapperboard). We are joined on this trip by: Gregg Twenda (Interview 2), who is from the Kamba ethnic community and will be helping interview the groups (e mail: gregtendwa@gmail.com) Lewis Koome (Video 3), who is from the Meru ethnic community and has been our primary contact person to support this trip (e mail: lkoome2000@yahoo.com) Raphael Sipalla (Audio 4) our ‘Influence…
Central Uganda: Day 7 – A Magic Day in Entebbe Story
…I am no better than the other Batwa so I thank you for choosing me. I am happy 1000 times over. My message represents the rest of the Batwa people. I listened to the recording of my song – it was so nice, so sweet.’ But we had one last special treat of music. We then played for Jovah an influences session with Eddie Grey, where he produced Inyange. We played it back to her and she danced with her new baby, Gerald, for the full song. She said that…
Kenya’s Amazing Musical Instruments News
…ng) banging on the bottom of the Nyatiti. The rest of the band joined in clapping, dancing and providing wonderful backing vocals: Orutu After the Nyatiti, the Orutu is the second most important instrument in Luo music (though we also encountered it in central Kenya, where it’s called the Wandindi). When well-played, it takes on the role of the “fiddle” found in Irish or American country music. The Orutu is a one-string instrument played with a bo…
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…o Afrika – what’s your story? They say stories live forever and one famous Kenyan writer keeps saying that a story is good, until another is told. We are here to share with the world how wonderful it is to be born and raised in Africa. Sadly, the urban African youths are so consumed with the modern technology that they no longer are willing to sit by the evening fire and listen to stories. So we will have to transmit these stories to their iPhones…