Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…ferent from traditionally trained harmonies. When the missionaries came to East Africa they changed the ways people sang to fit with the traditional Western hymns. The children learn to sing from their elders and naturally join in when others are singing. There isn’t any formal training in tribal music. It is mother to child.” Tabu goes on to describe the role of tribal music,” Their music is a ‘way of life’. They use music for communication, pass…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…oubles are over – for good. We board the flight to Nairobi and, for me at least, there is an overwhelming sense of an ending. I say goodbye to the Ketebul team at the airport. My week in Africa has come and gone all too quickly. This trip has been important for me in so many ways. Firstly, it’s never a bad thing to be taken out of your ‘comfort zone’ and be shown life from a completely different angle. It puts a new perspective on your own life. H…
How To (Arc)Map News
The Singing Wells team are currently hard at work on a musical map of East Africa, using an piece of software by Esri called ArcMap 10. Singing Wells is intended to be a pilot project, demonstrating to other groups how traditional music can be recorded and archived, so we want to make sure anyone can understand what we’re doing and replicate it. To that end, Singing Wells will be blogging about how to use ArcMap 10 and what exactly we’re doing wi…
Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga News
Legendary East African music and friend of Abubilla Music and The Singing Wells project, Samba Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga are touring the UK later this month, in support of Samba’s new album Maisha Ni Matamu (Life Is Sweet) on Virunga Records. We first met Samba in Kenya, on a recording trip as part of The Singing Wells project. He sang as part of a ‘Welcome’ concert put together by our friends at Ketebul, along with Winyo and Ayub Ogada. We…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…ith his music, which is why he is such an inspiration: But too many (most) East African musicians want to sound like 50 Cent or Justin Timberlake and too many East African radio stations sound like they are competing on Los Angeles air waves. So the second major goal of Singing Wells is to inspire current artists to pick up on the traditions of these tribal artists. One way we do this is to record ‘Influences’ sessions, where Winyo and other artis…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…put required from each village visit is: Audio and video recordings of at least 3 performances per tribal group (CD/DVD quality) Full interviews with tribal leader, group leader and key members of the community (on camera) Stills and video of the village and community One ‘Influences’ session. To remind, an ‘Influences’ session is when a Ketebul or Abubilla artist works directly with the local group on a song, either one he/she has been working on…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…is generation was actively participating. There’s a complete disconnect in East Africa between traditional music and new music. And this is going to kill our traditions. In South Africa and West Africa, the best modern artists are completely rooted in the heritage of their country. Their music is fresh and relevant, but the traditions are completely built into the song. You can hear the instruments, the rhythms, the harmonies, the melodies. Our yo…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…e and at ease. It would also be useful to have a debrief afterwards to see how they felt it went and if they have any comments. I hope to go back to other areas of East Africa to hear their stories and music but especially to meet the people. Kathy Allen March 2012…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…s, we realised all our fears were misplaced … another wonderful village of East Africa, simply loving their music. Supaki Kalazi Our first group was Supaki Kalazi led by Katana bin Kalama playing in the Mwenzele style. Wonderful dancing, costumes and percussion… Katana bin Kalama, with beautiful costume of shells… The Group prepares for their performance… Sengenya The most energetic group by far, brought the house down, with wonderful dancing. L…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…elevant to today’s artists. Part of that mission then is to help create an East African musical identity to rival the South and West African successes. We had a taste of what this could be on March 29th in Sati, when Winyo joined Bado and his father, Nyerere wa Konde, to do a new song. Bado participates in his dad’s group, but separately records his own music. Bado’s music is great, propelled by his wonderful voice, but it’s American-sounding and…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…e said he was humbled by the extraordinary talent in the room. 50 years of East African music, the hand-off of one generation to the next. Massive respect for each others talent and an amazing evening that only Tabu could pull off. Amazing voice: We recorded video and used the mobile recording studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post this later. In the meantime, a couple of pictures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary…
Mufu Ndosi-Luvai – Crave Music News
…“I’m glad I came across Singing Wells. The production team goes all out to unearth East African traditional music, giving account of the people’s past and present through music. The recordings are a valuable treasure, since a lot of traditional African music often goes un-notated. Singing Wells is the much needed portal for ethnomusicology research in East Africa.” Publisher, Crave [music] Magazine. …
Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…hese performances to YouTube (so far). Every performance was unique and special – we loved them all – so picking just 10 songs for a ‘Best of’ album was not easy. Here are our final choices….it’s just a small reflection of what was an extraordinary year of recording music in East Africa. We hope you enjoy listening. Please get in touch and let us know what you think. Just send us an email – we’d love to hear from you. Email Victoria You can see an…
Matthew Morin News
…for its ‘value to academic fields like musicology and anthropology in addition to the broader benefit of providing an open sourced educational resource, internationally as well as to East Africans‘. Here is Matt’s full evaluation of the Singing Wells project: Matt Morin on Singing Wells …
Why “Singing Wells”? News
…s in the life of the Samburu tribes people. We think that ‘Singing Wells’ is a very good name for our project which aims to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. More on Kenya’s singing wells BBC World Service video on how the singing wells in the village of Daaba have changed the life of the local community: …
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…ll field recordings (up to 8 microphones and 3 digital cameras) throughout East Africa. PROJECT BENEFITS TO EAST AFRICA : We are on a journey. When we started, we knew the critical importance of capturing the cultural legacy of East Africa with tribal music, before it was lost to all of us forever. We were reminded of the importance of this in December, when one of the most extraordinary musicians we’ve recorded, Okumu K’Orengo, died only weeks af…