Room with a view…but where is it? Story
…4127m at the peak, its an extinct volcano at the easternmost end of the Virunga range. On the right is smaller Mount Gahinga (3474m). During the Singing Wells field visit to record the Music of the Batwa, we stayed at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro and this was the view which greeted us each morning. It was a wonderful place to stay and the staff were incredibly helpful and let us set up a recording studio under the verandah in the garden,…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…- Ebigwala, bigwara , amagwara, magwara, amagwala etc. for the Soga gourd trumpets,’ that make searching on the British Archive, regarding East African music, often a tricky task. In addition, sometimes it is difficult to know, for those who are not experts, exactly how the East African words are spelt: Cooke suggests that ‘a “fuzzy” keyword search facility seems very necessary.’ Moreover, the British Library online archive is difficult to use for…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…illage music. We listen to the likembe music in Uganda and here the steel drums of Calypso music. We listen to Benga blues and here the music of Cuba, demanding that we look further into the circles travelled between musicians between the Congo and Cuba, and we listen to Samba drumming and particularly the tambourin only to be reminded of the Watmon Cultural Group’s use of the Calabash. Our heads appropriately spin and we’re happy about that. The…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…a word but she would be so proud and tell the village that I was learning English. That was so important to her. I was praised for aspiring to be an English man, not a Ugandan. She only wanted what is best for me, but this is part of a larger problem we have today. I’ve taught for 20 years now and my concern is that our entire system is training us to be like a white person from England or America, not to be Ugandan. The English and Americans don…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…our heart, such as Uganda. An article on the website of the Ugandan daily newspaper, New Vision, warns about the need to preserve ‘Bigwala’, the royal music of the Busoga region. Bigwala music is performed at ceremonies such as coronations, funerals and, recently, other social events. It is the music of gourd trumpets and is accompanied by a specific dance. UNESCO cites Bigwala music as playing ‘a significant role in contributing to unity among t…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…a lot of new friends – as that was the point of our being there. We were spreading the word of the project and its aims and objectives, with listening stations for passers by to listen to the music we had recorded. We had a few instruments from our collection on display, and some even got played by some of our fellow Womexians as this photo from Louise shows: I gave an interview for Icelandic radio about the project. And around 150 people entered…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ised to find a large group of teenagers playing an assortment of brass instruments and drums in a marching band format! Elgon Ngoma Troupe is an interesting group led by a very charismatic director called Wolimbwa Julius. Most of them are former street kids and, apart from learning music and performance at the centre, they also live there and till a modest garden, producing crops for their food and also for trading in exchange for other food items…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…Singing Wells project is to make traditional East Africa music relevant to today’s artists and audiences. We want to celebrate and promote the music heritage of East Africa in a contemporary context. We are doing this with ‘Influences’. We were staying at The Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro and the staff kindly allowed us to set up the studio under the verandah and it was there that we recorded our first ‘Influences’ session – a fusion of Batwa m…
Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…s with the group in the field – one of which was ‘Charles Manager’ sung in English -about the arrival of a new manager to a sugar plantation. The irony being that they are thanking him, just for doing his job properly. This was one of the songs the group re-recorded at Ketebul studios – re-named Mr Manager and available on YouTube here: You can find links to the field reports below – along with a link to the group page for the Otacho Young Stars….
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…high susceptibility to degradation. This tends to encourage migration from rural areas to the cities. However, in the world’s cities, more than one billion people live without facilities for garbage disposal or water drainage, and breathe polluted air. 2 There are Healthy Cities policies and programmes aimed at addressing these problems. At times, it seems to be assumed that eventually everyone will move to the cities. MK Rajakumar, the great fami…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…icrophones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selected so it can easily fit into a few holdalls and four rugged peli-cases which protect everything while in transit, whether it be on a plane from Nairobi or in the back of the van on a bumpy track to one of the remote villages we are heading for. We are adding to our e…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…rt videos on travelling and action sport, in various landscapes around the world. I’m also the music editor for our films and now while searching for tracks for our Ugandan film. I’ve found your website – lots of respect for this work!” Josh Courter, Director, The Last Hunger Season “Hi Victoria, a friend, of a friend, of a friend, brought the Singing Wells project to my attention and I decided to reach out. We are producing a documentary film cal…
The New Singing Wells website News
…ted posts so if you find something you are interested in then it’s easy to read more about it. Instruments Library We have been collecting East African instruments since our first trip to the Kenya coast in 2011. Click here to read about the traditional East African instruments we have recorded being played. Responsiveness We recognise that a lot of our visitors may be viewing the device on iPads, iPhones, tablets, netbooks, Samsung phones etc, so…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…seems to have taken a photograph of almost everyone he met, including the ruling politicians of the era. The archive also contains some interesting artefacts from Independence in Kenya – including an invite to the ceremony of the handover of instruments at Independence. Colmore bequeathed the contents of his archive to his friend, Oxford academic Professor Richard Greenfield. Sadly, Professor Greenfield died before the contents reached the UK – a…
The Beat of Kenya News
…l their instruments to foreigners in attendance. The donor purchased 5 instruments in this way: two drums, one from the Luo tribe, the other from the Luhya tribe), one nyatiti (Luo), one orutu (Luo), and a fifth instrument called the litungu (Luo). Click here to go to Andrea’s blog : The Beat of Kenya Andrea Dyck, Curator of Contemporary Cultures, The Manitoba Museum Andrea Dyck received her Master’s Degree in History from the University of Winnip…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…ten to the Nyatiti for the first time with your eyes closed. It is a kick drum. It is a snare drum. It is a bass. It is guitar. Listen: Watch a real drummer. Watch someone that drums through their souls. And ask yourself whether East African Music is relevant. 7. Singing Wells is about bringing you groups and sounds that are ready for prime time – someone just needed to give them a microphone. Here are the Otacho Young Stars…. Why aren’t they the…