Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…hows at the venue. By 9:30pm we concluded the recordings with Otacho Stars and formally ended Travel to Stream! DAY 4: Thursday, 10 March 2022 Act One: Ontitri Bikundo Genre : Obukano Location: Treat House Resort – Rongo Profile: Ontiri Bikundo Ronald Ontiri Onchuru Bikundo is a versatile obukano player who was born in 1974 in Kisii. Ontiri started playing music in 1985 and recorded his first song ‘Bikundo Obaba mbono’ in 1994 and from then on he…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…up, of which 100 are performers. They are roughly divided between the two bands. For income, they do performances and also work four acres of land to feed themselves. Many of the members also do arts and crafts or a skilled trade – Julius’s dream is to open up a hair and beauty studio so they can support the bride with her beauty and music. He hopes the troupe will give them opportunities to travel away from their homes, but also to preserve the t…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…village in Asere to continue running his late father’s carpentry business and performing music on special occasions. On this live show, Olith Ratego was accompanied by Ben Mukabwa on bass, Fiston Lusambo on guitar with Brian Nyamanga and Thelma Lukachia of the Loko band on percussions and shakers, respectively. Day 3: Wednesday, 09 March 2022 Act Three Artiste: Asego Ensemble Genre: Ohangla Location: Dunga Camp Hill – Kisumu city Profile: Asego E…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…usical style with three main influences: Taarab, Unyago and Rumba. Dumba stands for a large drum. So Kidumba is a smaller, bongo style drum. Adding Ki to the beginning of the word makes it small. Mohamed Othman had no musicians in his family. He became interested in Kidumbak style music at 16 and taught himself the violin and bass. He went to Egypt off and on for six years on a scholarship from the DCMA to study violin and the oud starting in 2000…
Support Singing Wells Page
…n one day and your donation will mean that every music group is able to perform and their songs and dance will be recorded by our field team. Funds will be used to provide for two field-recording engineers from Ketebul Music, a non profit organisation in Nairobi and our project partners. Your donation will also provide for gratuity payments to the individual music groups, which they can use to help them continue practicing and performing in the fu…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…gle with spellings of songs and instruments as these can differ by village and by band. We fully recognize that there are multiple spellings out there, but we defer to the band leader in almost all cases. During a recording session, we will also capture alternative takes; these are called: ‘Freestyle’: We work hard to give our groups the space and freedom to sing and dance as they would during a village performance, but there are constraints. Typi…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…rument in the hopes of continuing it’s legacy. Below you will find footage and information about the Entongooli and how the project is working to restore this instrument back to it’s former glory. Skip ahead to your preferred section… A Musical Education Finding the Materials Simple but Effective Tools Getting things Dung! Meet the Students From Embaire to Entongooli Part 1 From Embaire to Entongooli Part 2 Creating the Base Part 1 Creating the…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…were ‘secret songs’ and filled with metaphors that would explain about sex and love and all the wonderful and difficult parts of marriage. As this music moved from the secret rites to more public performance, you find the audience laughing at all the double meanings. To be more specific, the women are laughing and the men are scratching their heads. As we tried to identify the meanings of the lyrics of these songs, the women often laughed with…
Recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa Page
…head this way to see more of our detailed field reports, group biographies and in-depth information regarding the various different instruments and styles of music we have encountered on our field trips. Here for the Music? Click here! Want to just enjoy some beautiful East African music and revel in some jaw-dropping performances? Head this way to see more videos of the inspiring performances we have captured on our field trips, incredible photog…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…era Bukoba and part of the Wahaya Community, this group was formed in 2000 and performs in the Akasimbo style. Their instruments are: Kangote (Drums), Akafotho (hand whistling), Enganja: Clapper – two wooden ‘bricks’ struck together, and they wear Ebisheshe (grasses). We recorded four performances: Wachumba Walya: A song about someone who is too mean-spirited to support his community even though he has lots of money, it is about a man “who eats al…
Here for Research? Page
…nts that they are playing. Alongside this, expect interviews, historical information and first hand accounts of the way East African music has developed and grown. Instruments In depth information and photography of the different musical instruments used in East Africa. This database is constantly evolving as we discover and record more instruments. The instruments are tagged by their ethnicity, their recording location and the type (simply broken…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…or the completion of this project, we did not have time to conduct a recce and for that reason we came to realize rather late that some of the venues chosen for the recordings had no main power outlets. Fortunately and for a nominal fee, good neighbors always came to our rescue by allowing us to tap into their main power supply lines with our snake cable. When all the issues were sorted out, the rest of the recording went smoothly with Johnstone M…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…ultural Troupe – 111BPM The Adungu Cultural troupe are based in Kampala, Uganda and the main focus of their music is (you guessed it) the Adungu. You can find out more about the band here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop Aloka Ohangla Drum Solo – 146BPM Aloka Ohangla are based in East Alego, Kenya. What you need to know as you listen is the drummer was drumming witho…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…ndfathers and is located in Dodoma. They are from the Wanyamwezi Community and performed in the Ngoma Style. Their instruments include: Ngoma (drums) and Njuga ( bells). We recorded four performances: Muhala Wane: a love song Kauwowa Naye: a song urging the youth to be brave in facing the challenges in everyday life Mwanana: a song in praise of one’s friend. Lyuwa Laloka: it is sunset and time to conclude whatever business and return home to you…
Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
…thara – This group was formed by Rajab Suleiman. They have played together for 20 years and all live in the same neighborhood. They play for weddings and festivals in a traditional Taarab style. It was good to see them again on the grounds of the Ngalawa hotel. Performers: Rajab Suleiman (qanun and director), Mohammed Hassan (accordian), Fum Faki (bongo and tabla), Tatu Khamis Haji (singer) Songs: Chungu – means Pot, composed by Said Ali 10 years…
Imachina Group
…s and peoples that don’t carry out these rituals and ‘are afraid of the knife.’ Nuli Musata: This is a song that is encouraging the young men to be brave and go forward. Magic Moment: We then did a magic moment isolating the percussion….