Support Singing Wells Page
…e will also bring you a unique gift back from the field visit – a traditional, hand made musical instrument typical of the region. Donate £3000 and Sponsor a Recording Day CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW * Please note: donations are made to the Abubilla Music Foundation, our registered charity which funds the Singing Wells project Other Ways to Donate Download an album Recorded for Singing Wells via our Bandcamp page. Your purchase of one of our albums,…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…e look at how to shape these trees to create and tune each note on the Xylophone. From Embaire to Entongooli: Part 2 In this video, we continue to learn about the process of building the Embaire, also known as the xylophone, to help educate our young music scholars about music, melody and instrument building. We are shown how they finish off their Embaire and then talk to some young students about what they have learned. What is clear from our tri…
FAQ’s Page
…ebsite and other digital media which is free to access. Any money received from the sale or commercial use of Singing Wells recorded material will be donated back to the project via The Abubilla Music Foundation and wherever possible royalties will be paid to the original performers. New Influences material is jointly owned by Ketebul Music and Abubilla Music. Profits arising from the sale of Influences material will be used to support the artists…
Day Two: January 19, 2019 From Tarime to Buturi to Bariadi Story
…iranganya ni mburungo: a song about what happens when the river overflows. All the things from the river and along the edges of the river spreads through the village and around all the land Mahenne Gayo: A song about the importance of always telling the truth Mahenne Gayo: We repeated song 5 with ‘freestyle recording’ – what we mean here is we allow our three camera operators to ‘roam’ and to ‘release the band’ to dance. We are trying to overcome…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…Think driving. And then think a lot more about driving. From Mwanza to Nzali, from Nzali to Nairobi. But we don’t need to waste blog posts on driving, although we did meet every kind and wonderful Tanzanian police officer on the route. They wanted to know about our safety equipment, our battery covers, our insurance, our plates, and at times, they just wanted to know what we were thinking. So lovely. So many stops. But we digress. From the Dod…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…ations and rituals (such as weddings, burials, etc.), as well as at political rallies and events by the County government. According to him, the style of music they play is known as tindikti. Because of his wish to reach a larger audience, Namatete performs most of his original compositions in Kiswahili. His band is composed of the following instruments: LITUNGU – a 7-string traditional lyre; ISIRILI – a one-string fiddle; LUENGELE– a percussive i…
Here for Research? Page
…ion and any related content we have about them on the site. Group Map The groups we have met, presented on a map so you can see each region that the group is from. A brilliant resource and great for comparing musical styles amongst groups that are local to each other. “Our goal is to record, archive and share the traditional music of East Africa for two important reasons – to sustain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the r…
Ekhunjwe Musical Group Group
…emina Oduor, this is a very organized group of twenty eight (28) members coming from the different administrative areas of Samia district. Ekhunjwe ya Abasamiawas formed in April 2008 with common focus on using music as a tool for community development. The group promotes traditional African values and acts in both education and local economy. Members also engage in traditional crafts like basket weaving and jewellery making for exhibition and sal…
Ayub Ogada Group
…d it up later in his career and studied from a player/teacher at the national cultural centre of Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting by himself. It was equally interesting to hear his theory of the name nyatiti, which he translated from the Luo word nyar as queen and titi, making it “the queen of the clan”. The most interesting points Ayub had…
Twone Mbee Group
…discourages other prospective candidates from attempting the position because it is already taken by the one they are praising. ‘Nzembanie na ivinda’: (Chasing After Time). This song talks about the President’s call to stop corruption. The call to chase after time comes from the society that won’t condone these malpractices….
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…respect to traditional ways Basigazi Fura Emyende: A song about overcoming all of life’s challenges by working together Mwije Tuzane: We filmed this freestyle, where the group encourages the audience to get up and dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRmP_vEbiMI&feature=youtu.be Group 2: Kidedeya: From Kagera, this group was formed in 2005 or 2009, and performs in the Omusingero style. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums) and Nyimba (Shakers). …
Camera Group
…Camera, who has been performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE….
Baseki Group
…ing where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe to the beat. Throughout Tanzania, we saw school kids walking to/from school with their hoes, where they often tend to small plots at the school. Serengeti: We are near the national park and this is a song in celebration to Tanzanian parks and wild…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…Meme had wild animals in her womb so that after the gazelle had broken out all animals followed from her womb. Man was the last to come out. The first human beings are said to have been twins: Arube and O’duu. Arube was a boy while O’duu was a girl. These twins, unlike their parents Gboro-Gboro and Meme, were believed to have been ordinary human beings and tradition asserts that they were born in the ordinary way. Meme died immediately after givin…
Albums Introduction Page
…ey that we took through the music of the area we were recording in. Each album also contains a number of extra tracks that weren’t strictly part of the archiving recordings we were making. These recordings are of ‘Influences’ sessions – where a popular musical artist has joined us on our trip to collaborate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…regularly performs in Kakamega town but his popularity goes beyond the Western Kenya region and is frequently invited for shows in Nairobi city. Other members of the Super Phoenix band are Henry Khavuchi (percussions), Catherine Khavayi (vocals), Justice Akumali (vocals) and Bernard Liseche (guitar). Julius is married to Joyna Khamayi and the couple reside with their six children in Chesere village in Kakamega County. During this live show, they w…