Music of Northern Uganda News
…Odwar in 2005, transforming a former colonial golf club to a place for training and exchange and to promote and celebrate local cultural achievements. Joyce and David aim to engage people in post-conflict Northern Uganda in the creative arts; resuscitate local arts, crafts and arts education and recover, heal and develop local cultural traditions. With Joyce Laker Director TAKS Centre in Gulu Although Steve and Patrick were not able to meet a…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…The story of how Singing Wells started…. After two years of planning, the Singing Wells project was launched in March 2011 with our first field visit to Malindi to record the music of the Mijikenda. So, how did Tabu Osusa, one of Kenya’s most successful record producers end up in a remote Kenyan village, teamed with me, an American businessman, and a sound engineer from Gateshead? The Singing Wells project is a result of a chance meeting between t…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…s 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, passing on information and entertainment. Music is always present when there is a birth, a death, a wedding or other ceremony. Each tribe will have unique stories to tell of their history, of war, of famine etc…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…s an interesting one, for different reasons. We took another route back, joining the main road between Kampala and Kisoro. The road is a good one under normal conditions but was currently being resurfaced. In many places it had been completely dug up and was a mix of loose stones and soil. And it was raining heavily again. Water and mud was gushing at speed down the hillside onto the road. At times we were negotiating a small, fast flowing river….
How To (Arc)Map News
…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 with it, so anyone with access to it can understand and follow al…
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
…‘Influences’ sessions. A word on what we mean. We have multiple goals at Singing Wells. The first is to preserve the vast musical heritage of East Africa, capturing the diversity of music and dance throughout the region. Most of the music is ‘trapped’ in remote villages – everyday in 100’s of villages across East Africa wonderful performances occur as the community celebrates, mourns and remembers through music. But few peopele are there to liste…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…Studio. Winyo then added a third verse, changing the song from a Londoner pining for Spain, to a Kenyan longing to return to Africa. The full Singing Wells team was in the studio. It is worth re-introducing everyone again, as we will be discussing them throughout the trip: From Ketebul Music Tabu Osusa, Founder Steve, Project Manger Jesse, Chief Sound Engineer Willie, Sound Engineer Patrick, Chief Video Engineer Nick, Trainee Engineer Winyo, K…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
We used the long ride back to interview Tabu, Steve and Andy about the Singing Wells project. Worth a read… We’ve finished our trip and had our long ride back from Mombasa. We used the opportunity to interview some of the team about the Singing Wells Project. Jimmy to Steve Kivutia (Singing Wells Project Manager): Q: So, first tell us about your self and one thing surprising SK: I was born in Nairobi. I am one of four, the youngest. Both my broth…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…ime getting to know the people in the groups as well as the people in the Singing Wells group. A few things struck me about the groups I interviewed. First they were for the most part not professional groups. They usually came from one village and the songs they sang came from everyday village life. Music is used as a form of communication and entertainment. The songs are used in various ceremonies such as weddings, births, funerals, harvesting an…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 continued…. Story
…alindi and gradually went back on the road to Mombasa to record in the morning in an other rural village. But now, we were much closer to Mombasa in a densely populated town, Junda. We drove into this very densely back ‘village’ going deeper and deeper into the urban jungle on very potted roads, packed with pedestrians, bikes and frankly, a lot of suspicious folks somewhat unwelcoming of our two big trucks. None of us could imagine setting up reco…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…ngo (broken glass moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones) Mwenzele-Nyerere wa Konde Music Club Lungo (Bowl) and Ndema (rings) Zaire Ndindingwa The group is led by Fundi bin Kalale in the ndindingwa style. Wonderful percussionist using two shakers and a whistle (filimbi). https://youtu.be/cvpcFBTaoTo https://youtu.be/3bvGrAulYP4 The Fusion: In this first village we really confirmed the mission of Singi…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…arranged at Sippers. The music was fantastic and brought to life what the Singing Wells Project is all about. Let’s focus on the music. After all, it is all about the music and the concert that Tabu organised to celebrate the best in East African Music. This was the concert (actually Tabu called it a ‘meeting’ to celebrate the partnership of Ketebul and Abubilla): Kothbiro: Ayub Ogado. This is the song everyone remembers from the Constant Gardner….
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
…of these 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 se…
Matthew Morin News
…and Tanzania during 2010 and 2011. He currently lives in Japan and is continuing research on music and civil society from a global perspective. Matt has been following the progress of the Singing Wells project since March 2011 when he met the team in Nairobi. He has praised the project for its ‘value to academic fields like musicology and anthropology in addition to the broader benefit of providing an open sourced educational resource, internatio…