Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…ing around then usual and the 150 kids around us had a great time. We then took the time to solo each instrument given the quality of the musicians. The started with the Rigi Rigi, where Owach Tartizio sang Obimo. We then featured the Adungu, with Okumu Jolly playing Lwangni. And finally, we recorded the Ndara with Omiya Charles playing Mbeta. We loved these musicians the fun of the traditional dances. You got mad at the stubborn girl, you got sca…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…ing us. Once we arrive in our location, we liaise with the local musicians to find the best space to record. If possible we will record more than one of groups in each location, as it reduces the setup and breakdown time and maximizes the time for recording. We decide on two or three different ‘backdrops’ for the performances and park vehicles in the centre so that we can easily rotate the setup while leaving the back end of the audio equipment se…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drum…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…us stages of manufacturer (either drying or firing), pyramids of potatoes, tomatoes on patches of blankets under trees, tiny goats tethered near the road side to pick at a fresh patch of grass, bike rider riding with small loads or walking their bikes with large loads (this trips winner was a large door, but fails miserably to our Rift Valley coffin), bed frames in all shapes and sizes gathered in front of workshops, big steel gates leaning agains…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ng the Singing Wells community. Rosie has made some ‘how-to’ guides on how to add to a map yourself which you can access easily on our website too, in a few steps, ‘Housekeeping’, ‘The Map Outline’, ‘Prepare Your Data’. I met with Rosie to talk about her experience using the map for the benefit of Singing Wells. How did you discover the mapping software? I am currently reading medicine at UCL, but during my gap year I spend time doing work experie…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…r essential supplies (alcohol, sunglasses, papers) and then took the train to C57, where we boarded our flight and left pretty much on time. Jimmy sat next to Andrew who lives in Kampala and married to a Uganda woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all s…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…cused our recording time on Mr Manager, their quite sincere thank you song to a factory manager that came to their factory and actually did a good job. We always found this song amazing – the group is deadly serious in their thank you to the manager. But in many ways, we kept thinking it is sad that they find it so rare for someone to essentially do his job that they need to write a song. Johnnie, Bishop and Eddie all joined in to support them in…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…about how he can’t live without her and he will travel as far as he needs to find her. ‘Chesaina’ : this is a person who can hold the hind leg of a donkey. This is highly unusual because a donkey kicks so hard, no one could hold his hind leg. ‘Arap Oloo’ : about a wife who thinks her husband is lost. She wants to look for him because she can’t be responsible for all her children and animals without him. ‘Chang’komen’ : about a woman who is marrie…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…steep hill sides. Every few acres there was a beautiful homestead, similar to where we recorded yesterday. Each had a round house with thatched roof, each had several chicken coops and pens for goats. Every twenty had an additional rectangular house with pitched roof balcony. There were no other buildings or dwellings for 10 kms of travel and then a little market would pop up which would be filled with thirty or so stalls. Then more empty roads an…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…aperwo, Chemining Tie, Chepo Chepkai, Kimnakiy Mitinge, Kisech. Click here to go to Song Translations Everything Else Everything else from today can be divided into three key events. First, we survived the drive. There were a few scary moments, the first being driving to the village for the shoot – straight up a very steep hill. This was not a hill for most humans and certainly wasn’t a hill for cars and certainly not cars filled with Ketebul folk…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…sted in first class audio equipment and can record using 8 mics directly into Pro Tools. But during the March Pilot programme, we realised that the visual experience was as important as the audio. So for our November trip we invested in two more digital cameras and worked out our new Camera 1-3 approach. Camera 1 is static group shot. Camera 2 focuses on instruments. Camera 3 is context. This worked extremely well but created a separate issue – lo…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…walk to Uganda and back and die. Masirtarit Finally, we recorded the ill-fated Masirtarit, a wonderful female folk choir with great songs. They had waited all day for their turn only to find the rain arrived to join them. We did record one wonderful take which will be part of Singing Wells, but they deserved far more. …
Singing Wells – Origins News
…e were astounded by the quality of the tribal music, but equally surprised to find how hard it was to access the music back in Britain. As the founder of Abubilla Music, I set out to find partners in East Africa who were committed to preserving the music. Through a series of e-mails that travelled the world, Tabu and I were brought together by Joyce Nyairo, then of the Ford Foundation, East Africa office. After several long e-mail exchanges and a…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…d news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little thunder storms and the normal fun with roadworks and trucks. Nice chicken grill in Nakuru for lunch with full team. Fun fact, Nakuru is the birthplace of Nakumatt, the most successful retail chain in Kenya. It started as Nakuru Mattresses, hence ‘Nakumatt’. We arr…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
…music documentary. He teamed up with Andy Patterson while he was here and together they conducted a number of interviews with Kenyan musicians who are now based in the UK. They also had the chance to visit Kenya House in Stratford as a guest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Where+the+world+got+real+flavour+of+Kenya+in+London/-/1248928/1480860/-/…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…mazing music and had the time of their lives.” Tabu puts a lot of effort into finding the true traditional music. He feels politics and tourism have affected the music we usually hear from the tribes. He wants to hear how they really are at their most natural, where their roots are. Sometimes it is difficult to convince the tribes that this is what we really want to hear. The tribes often think we want to hear gospel, rap or songs performed for to…