Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…roup – 153BPM Ekhunjwe ya Abasamia was 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 sale. You can learn more about the group here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by…
Recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa Page
…sustain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences. As a group of sound and video engineers, producers and musicians, we set out on this mission not to become ‘fossil collectors’ and store the recordings in inaccessible archives. We work with musicians to make sure their music traditions continue to be practiced, can be shared amongst the widest audienc…
Imachina Group
…row to match the procession. We asked them to pick their favourite processions and then play a couple songs within these. They played: The Shirembe procession, which is a special funeral for a very big local hero, where you might even stage a bullfight on the grave. The songs included: Kutaywa: Literally means a ‘cock’ and is to let you know that this is a great man, who ‘rules the roost’ so to be speak. The singer mourns that a great man is lost…
Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
…Instrumental – traditional old song of the community. Taksim – Improvisation on the Qanun by Rajab Suleiman, magic moment This group performed very well together. Rajab Suleiman played the Qanun to a very high level and Fum Faki got an amazing amount of different sounds out of the bongos and tabla. The singer sang in a lovely melodic, haunting way. Tarajazz and Kirundo Fusion – we had seen these two bands earlier in the week and they came togeth…
Day Two: 8 March 2022 (Ilesi) Story
…ccasions, as with this live recording, the siblings were joined by Simon Omuse on the harmonica. Fiston played guitar while Ben and Gido were on percussions and bass respectively. The Obasie Palnyang band is very popular among the Iteso people and their neighboring communities in western Kenya and the eastern parts of Uganda. The group holds regular shows at Amurai center and can, on occasion, be seen performing in the neighboring towns of Busia a…
Day Three: February 18, 2020 (Stonetown, Mpendae, Maungani) Story
…ical piano and music. He became interested in Jazz and created an African fusion of Taarab and Jazz about two years ago. The name of his band changed from Mansule to Tarajazz. He combined African rhythms such as Msewe and Kyaso (both from Zanzibar) with Singeli (a new tribal rhythm). Taarab came from early 1800’s as Egyptian music. In Zanzibar the Mother of Taarab, Siti Binti Saad, made Taarab more popular in the 1920’s to 1950’s. We spoke to Hass…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…ed by Fiston Lusambo, a Briton of Congolese origin and guitarist with the London-based Afriquoi Musical group. The video section was manned by Patrick (Sapat) Ondiek assisted by Drix Muyeshi and Cliffe Munyasa. Nick Abonyo was the tour’s coordinator and Spade was our driver. The drive was slow and uninterrupted with only one stop for lunch in Nakuru. We reached Kisumu City just before dusk and settled down for dinner at Kalongolongo restaurant, ru…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…yed 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 premises. Shortly after, a friend of Julius’s donated some brass instru…
Day One: February 16, 2020 (Ngawala Hotel) Story
…Asha Khamisi Amur (violin and background vocals), Tatu Hamisi Amur (accordion and backing vocals), Ummy Suleiman Alli (violin and background vocals), Mtuswma Makame Seheli (percussion), Zainabu Wazari (tablah drum), Zainabu Mdiliko (accordion) and Fatima Yuma (bongos). The group has been together since 2009 and play traditional Taarab. All songs are about love (love lost and gained) and all secular They usually perform in Kisawandui. They played f…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…known as the Madi, their current name perhaps came to be used after the intrusion of the Khartoum Arab slaves in the second half of the 19th century. Their origins are described in relation to their belief in mythology: with God’s creation of Meme and the universe. The first two human beings Gboro-Gboro (male) and Meme (female) are said to have been superhuman. Some traditions only speak of Meme, whose womb God filled with the living things in the…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
…sticks, Said Ame Othman on shakers, Aikazija Abdala Ame -dancer, Mirianaharus Juma Hamis – dancer. All sang but Mohamed Othman Faki was lead singer. Sanduku , the bass, was a homemade bass made of a large box with a small hole cut out in the front. It had a large stick which the player held perpendicular to the box with a string going from the top of the stick to the top of the box. He changed notes by holding the string less or more taut as wel…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…alties accrued from the song could not sustain him in the city and a disillusioned Olith Ratego went back to his village in Siaya County. He came back to Nairobi two years later and signed up with Ketebul Music where he released the album osuga in 2003. Olith Ratego has performed in many European cities and collaborated with internationally acclaimed musicians such as the German composer Sven Kacirek and Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa. Olith Ratego…
FAQ’s Page
…we also benefit from the voluntary help of the Abubilla Music Foundation trustees and UK Project Managers. How long have you been working on the project? We made our first field recording on the Kenyan coast in March 2011. The Abubilla Music Foundation was granted charitable status in June 2011.We are currently preparing for our 10 year anniversary, and are doing a countdown of our Top 20 Singing Wells moments here. How do you discover the music…
Royal Entenga Drummers Group
…band, they built a new set of Royal Drums, recruited a team of passionate drummers to learn how to play the drums, learned to tune the drums and ultimately learned to play new music….
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…Tabu flew with Jimmy and Hunter to Kisumu (Jimmy and Hunter arrived from London on the 17th. We all met at the Kenya/Nairobi border and after two hours, cleared the border and drove to Tarime, where we met Jackline Odhiambo Aringo (Jackie Akinyi), a Tanzanian musician who helped organize our trip (see our interview with Jackie here). We arrived at the Kifa Hotel late in the evening, ordered our ‘dried fish’ and crashed. This, our second major fie…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…nd drove…and drove…and ended up back in Nairobi. Some of us stayed for an important Singing Wells trip to Zanzibar. And the London crew sadly flew home….