Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…e’ll mic this this differently. Influences: We often conduct a field visit with an influences artists, a leading commercial artist that we hope to inspire by the music of their region. When the ‘spirit moves’ we will do a song with our influences artist and the group. Our ‘output’ for a field visit is a set of videos that we post on our website, Facebook and Youtube that reflects the performances. When we initially publish our field reports, these…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…in their ‘secret garden’ especially when our recording sessions overlapped with lunch. We greeted many hotel guests with a surprise recording session, which we hoped they enjoyed. The two groups were: Mohamed Othman Kidumbak Group – This group is led by Mohamed Othman Faki who teaches music in the DCMA. Kidumbak is a musical style with three main influences: Taarab, Unyago and Rumba. Dumba stands for a large drum. So Kidumba is a smaller, bo…
Mariene Traditional Dancers Group
…umcision; they are calling out to all that can hear that they boys are ready. Wikiri Mariri: Song is about herding… He asks a woman for thin porridge which is kept in the gourd during long trips away. He meets someone else that wants the gourd and dies with it. In the song he calls for those who will really listen to what he has to say (this is the wonderful refrain at outset) Magic Moment: Simon doing gospel interpretation of Mariri. Magic moment…
Upendo Jazz Group
…al African drums, but set up Western Style on a steel rack and they leaned one large bass drum against the rack. The drummer then built a separate wooden kick pedal, so he could play all the drums with his hands and kick with his feet. We had not seen this before and it meant the group has a very traditional sound but a very modern feel, with contemporary beats….
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…ple reside with their six children in Chesere village in Kakamega County. During this live show, they were joined by Fiston Lusambo on guitar, with Ben Mukabwa interchanging with Gido Kibukosya on bass….
Pius Wafula Group
…with a famous local group called “Webuye Jua Kali” up to 2009, when he founded his own group. Today the group counts 5 members who play the following instruments: LITUNGU – a 7-string traditional lyre; ISIRILI – a one-string fiddle; LUENGELE– a percussive idiophone, they use a wooden stool struck with wooden sticks; ENG’OMA – a generic term for drums, they use a plastic water container also struck with wooden sticks; CHISASI – shakers made out of…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…c genre from the region. Ontiri has performed in most entertainment venues within Kenya and is among the few Kenyan musicians with a huge fan base in the US and Canada, where he has also toured extensively. Ontitri has been invited to perform in South Korea and Germany, not mention that he was one of the leading performers at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2014. Ontiri on the obukano and vocals was backed by Leonidah Basbori on tumba and voc…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…his culture. The Kadodi is made up of a big bass drum, a solo drum played with a stick, a rhythm drum played with hands, a smaller high pitched drum and a shaker. From two members of his group, they became a band of 12 players. They named themselves the Elgon (the local mountain) Ngoma (generic term for drums) Troupe and starting in 2009 played all sorts of functions that would bring money in to support the band members, all of which live on the…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…ing onward to the New Dodoma Hotel. That evening we had a private meeting with Dr. Harrison G. Mwakyembe (MP), Minister, Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, The United Republic of Tanzania. Dr. Harrison G. Mwakyembe (MP) We also met with Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda. He was the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, from 2008-2015. He is now a Patron of the Cultural Yamnyausi Foundation. That evening both Ministers ho…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…s’ with the Nyatiti and percussion with his leg ‘snares’ and the kick drum with his big toe (with a metal ring on it) banging on the bottom of the Nyatiti. The rest of the band added claps, dancing and wonderful backing vocals. You can learn more about the group here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop singingwells · SW Samples – Joginda Boys 116BPM singingwells · SW Sa…
Mr Bado Group
…ve styles such as Taarab which are fading on the modern music scene. To do this, he performs at cultural events with his father and brothers, as the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club. We filmed a great session with Mr Bado and Mzee Nyerere wa Konde, in a collaboration with Benga fusion artist Winyo, in their village in the coastal region. Mr Bado with his father Nyerere Wa Konde and Winyo…
Day One: February 16, 2020 (Ngawala Hotel) Story
…strong African influence. The main leader, Amina Abdalla, studied and sang with Madam Bi Kidudi, a legendary singer in Unyago style (a chain-smoking rebel!). She followed Siti Binti Saad as a major Taarab vocalist and was considered queen of Taarab and Unyago music and died at 103 in 2013. Amina Abdalla still performs in her house, which is called Raha Leo. Folks go to see her there from all over. The other members included: Fatima Juma (dancer an…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…id it end up?” Magic Moment on a song Ndono. They then did a lot of dances with ‘modern’ music on speakers. https://youtu.be/uRfFn7ZgUrU Group 2: Camera: 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 t…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video documenting the progress of the drums thus far. https://you…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…ing for three reasons: We had the whole day so were able to record a large number of songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a professional musician, Leo also teaches music to school children so he is a natural with kids. On all the songs that he did, he had the whole village singing and laughing…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…uences Artists’ with us on each trip and this is why our nights are filled with ‘hotel’ recordings where our ‘Influences Artists’ are reworking songs with the more traditional artists we discover in the villages. In Mission 2, we are ‘fusionists’, trying any old blend of new and old that fancies us at the time, that inspires our artists to go in new directions. So, there will be chaos. We simply want to enjoy music and the cultural collisions we c…