Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…chorus. This didn’t mean the vocals weren’t good, but to say they were not central to the performance. At the center, were the group’s stories, their actors and drama. James Isabirye said of the Busolwe Post Test Club , “They are a meeting point between formal education and village music. Although they perform traditional music, they also will also work in different formats, and are more formally trained. They act as music judges and help to ident…
Central Uganda: Day 1 – From Entebbe to Kidinda Story
…y but no longer does. They have great songs, they have a great history but today they are silent. No one asks to listen to them. This is so sad. How do we revive demand for what was one of the sixth great ensemble bands commission by the king to play exclusively in the palace?” The Kika Boys Cultural Troupe The singers from the Kika Boys (and Girls) Cultural Troupe joined the Amadinda players for the final songs, featuring Passy Nassonko on lead v…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…cross Kenya and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern Uganda, our work to share the music of the Batwa community and the Luo community. We’ve told the story of repatriating Kenya’s music heritage after 50 years and celebrated magic moments – where we’ve found an extra-special artist on our journeys and recorded their work. To celebrate our 500,000th YouTube hit, we’ve put together a selection of our most po…
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…The teams from Ketebul Music and Abubilla Music Foundation meet at the Airport Guesthouse Hotel and prepare for their musical exploration of central Uganda…
Rediscovering Afropop and its influences News
…r music as ‘Afropop’, a contemporary music genre that combines traditional African music and Western popular music. Afropop influences The Sauti Sol band members have named a musician that influences them as Daudi Kabaka. Kabaka was a popular Kenyan artist whose songs include African Twist.The traditional Benga sound is about 60 years old with its formative years occurring between the late 1950s and the 1960s. Its roots run deep in age-old Luo mus…
Discussions on music and culture with a young Kenyan News
…y modern, western-influenced music. Do you listen to much traditional East African music? I have heard it before, I might come home and my dad would be playing it on the radio for instance… but I don’t like it. Put yourself in my shoes — imagine your parents playing old-school church songs, chances are you’re not going to like it. It’s not really popular with young people generally. Why do you think that is? Well, we’re adverse and stubborn. We ru…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…rtant? Singing Wells is important because we’re trying to capture our East African heritage. Many of the musicians we record from remote tribes are old and we run the risk of the traditional music in Kenya dying out, we don’t want to see that happen. Further, most recording studios are in the city: Nairobi. It’s not possible for those living in the villages to come here, so if we don’t go to them to record, these guys may never be heard and the mu…
From African Twist to Benga News
…c of their villages and modern music. They were the founders of Benga, the African Twist, Luhyia ‘Omutibo’ and the ‘Yoddeling’ sound adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We dedicated six days of studio time at Ketebul Music in Nairobi to record this set of legendary musical artistes, all of whom are now in their 60s and 70s and are critical to Kenyan music history. We are very proud of this unique album and hope you enjoy listening to the…
The repatriation of Kenya’s music heritage News
…50s by English ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey. The repatriation of these recordings began in August, during a two-week pilot project in Kenya’s Rift Valley led by Prof Diane Thram, Director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in South Africa and the team from Ketebul Music, supported and funded by The Abubilla Music Foundation as part of the Singing Wells project. Read Bill Odidi’s article about the August project here….
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
…e’s now a new way for audiences to discover and listen to traditional East African musicians and music groups recorded by Singing Wells. Head over to our Bozza page here. About Bozza “Bozza is a plug & play solution for musicians, poets, photographers & film makers to promote and sell their digital products to their fans throughout Africa. The platform is available to emerging and established artists from around the continent and can be easily acc…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…: Travelling around Africa you always pray a little to the gods above that Africans would enjoy the benefits of a few more responsible folks with power, in power. And then we ran into the Otacho Young Stars, one of the hippest and happenin’ Luo bands around (who we discovered and brought back the studios to record). Here is the most simple, but to me, one of the most profound African songs ever written. It is a simple song, a tribute to the local…
Current Leading Figures News
…e found on his About Page at Ketebul Music and his thoughts on some of the central issues surrounding East African music are here in his interview with James, with more to be published on Singing Wells soon. He also gives insightful commentary on the artists that we record, in our field reports. Wolimbwa Julius Julius founded the Elgon Ngoma Troupe in 2009 and, shortly after, the Elgon Hero Brass Band. We at Singing Wells were lucky enough to meet…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…arrive, you can listen to a few select recordings on their soundcloud… 7. African Music Archives The founder of the African Music Archives (AMA) was Wolfgang Bender, a German who spent his childhood in West Africa,, became an English teacher in Nigeria during the 170s and, inspired by the culture, a record collector. When he returned to Germany, he became a lecturer at the Bayreuth University and continued to enlarge his record collection. Finall…
Archiving Guidelines News
…ation for smaller would-be archives, such as those wishing to archive East African music, concerning both the digitisation of audio or the online storage of the data. It cites two viable options for open repository software, which are basically softwares that allow organisations to give access to their data. The first is DSpace, “very popular and widely adopted repository within the higher education and research sectors, although knowledge of its…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…an out of funding. He became a broadcaster, utilising every opportunity to promote African music. However, he could not stay away from Africa long, and in 1946 realised someone needed to fully dedicate their time to “appraising the social value” of traditional African music, otherwise it would disappear. Tracey would have to step up and be that someone, especially at a time when African radios wanted to broadcast in their own regional vernaculars…
Tracey Instrument Collection News
The International Library of African Music (ILAM) has very kindly shared with us their instrument collection, enabling us to give you a wider insight into the traditional instruments used in Ugandan folk music. Here at Singing Wells, we have already began building up our own collection, purchasing and bringing them back to our studio in England whenever we can, and have been providing profiles for those we come across on our travels on the Instru…