Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…nitiative to afford them a stake in the conservation and management of the National Park which was once their home. The Batwa love to sing and dance, and often do so spontaneously. The Batwa in these photos are from the Nyakabande region near Kisoro, Uganda. The photos were taken in July, 2011 by Dina Buck for the United Organsation for Batwa Development in Uganda. Rationale for taking the Singing Wells project to Kisoro, Uganda The…
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…. The reaction of the groups and villagers confirmed that it is far better to ‘go to the music’ then try to bring all these talented musicians 900 kms to Nairobi. In addition, we confirmed that Ketebul absolutely has the right set of sound and video engineers to lead these sessions in the future – they have all now been fully trained and have already begun to record sessions on their own. They will be leading the November sessions. If you are inte…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…traditional costumes, arts and crafts, dances and music to each other and to visitors. Combined with the stunning geographical characteristics and the very limited general knowledge on the Lake Turkana region, the presentation of the cultural traditions makes the Festival a unique and fascinating experience for everyone involved.’ Steve’s objective is to record the music of all 10 performing groups. All the material will be taken back to the Kete…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…m mid last century and offer them in easy to read, listen and view mediums to today’s audiences, young and old, we were trying to fulfill our dreams of preserving our music heritage for prosterity. We have so far produced two packages and are currently working on three others simultaneously. Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…20 people applauding their every move..When we finally managed to get them to stop, they insisted on doing one last number for us to join them in dance. I was dragged into the dance and forced to expose my two left feet. Tabu and Winyo gave a good account of themselves with the shoulder shaking dance (which I must point out though is very similar to the dance style of the Lake Victoria region where both Tabu and Winyo hail from). Jimmy gave it his…
Testing the mobile recording equipment News
…in November. Tabu Osusa is putting together the itinerary and the plan is to travel to the coast, near Mombasa, to record the music of the Mijikenda – a Bantu tribe made up of 9 sub-tribes, the most well known being the Giriama and Digo. Music is prolific in these communities and features superb drumming and athletic dancing. Katana Bin Kalama is a contemporary Giriama musician and his song ‘Nilipata Mzungu’ is featured on Ketebul Music’s Spotlig…
SWP Launch Day News
…So a big thank you to the High Commission, particularly to Wanja Michuki, Principal Counsellor for Trade and Economic Affairs who was delightful to meet and very supportive of our project. And thanks also to Hills Balfour and the Kenya Tourist Board for taking me as their guest. Looking forward to updating you with more news as the Singing Wells project gets underway. Victoria Denison….