Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…rge of the technical aspects of the recordings. Shunkyz was assisted 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 befo…
Day Two: January 19, 2019 From Tarime to Buturi to Bariadi Story
…freestyle recording’ – what we mean here is we allow our three camera operators to ‘roam’ and to ‘release the band’ to dance. We are trying to overcome the somewhat artificial nature of ‘archiving’ where the band is constrained into a single shot. Magic Moment: We loved the percussion and wanted to capture this as magic moment. https://youtu.be/u7xcXahAlzI Group 2: Upendo Jazz: The group is from the Murangi Village in the Mara Region and their c…
Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…Balogi, where wizardry is perceived as a negative thing, evoking witch doctors and snake oil salesmen. Simiyu: A song for praise for the region. Bahuni ba ng’wanza: A song referring to local women of questionable virtues Balimi: A song about farming where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe t…
Albums Introduction Page
…borate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will also include these recordings. The albums are available to download through our Bandcamp store in your choice of formats. The proceeds from the sale of our albums will be fed back to the musicians involved in the recordings, wherever possible. CDs may also be available in the future. Join the mailing li…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…truments. These instruments were: ENGARABE – a long one-skin drum with molitor lizard skin (resembles the famous Luo ohangladrum); ENDONYI – a medium sized two-skin drum played with wooden sticks; EBESI – larger two-skin drum (bass); EFURIMBI – a whistle; OLWIKA – antelope horn; MANYANGA – shakers made out of a metal tin filled with seeds. We recorded ten (10) songs, presented in groups according to the occasion they are normally played in, notabl…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
The next morning we drove about an hour to Kisesa (A) to record two groups: Group 1: Mchele Mchele Sanaa Group: This group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). We recorded five performances: Ntale Atabihyala: ‘The boss, who is always wrong, wants to be al…
Day Three: February 18, 2020 (Stonetown, Mpendae, Maungani) Story
We drove back to Stone Town and the DCMA to record our first group. After we finished there we drove to Mpendae, about 20 mins from Stone Town to record the second group. From there we drove for another half an hour to Maungani to record the third group: Tarajazz – This group was formed by the director, Suleiman Makame, who studied classical piano and music. He became interested in Jazz and created an African fusion of Taarab and Jazz about tw…
Biluli Dutwa Group
…Balogi, where wizardry is perceived as a negative thing, evoking witch doctors and snake oil salesmen. Simiyu: A song for praise for the region. Bahuni ba ng’wanza: A song referring to local women of questionable virtues Balimi: A song about farming where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe t…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
Act One Artiste: Johnstone Mukabi and Omutibo Stars Genre: Omutibo Location: Small Matters Park – Shikangania Field Notes: After an early breakfast the following morning we drove from Ilesi to Mukumu Girls’ High School, situated along the Kakamega-Kisumu road. Our first recording of the day was to be with Johnstone Mukabi, son of the legendary guitarist George Mukabi. The senior Mukabi is regarded by all as the pioneer of omutibo, arguably the mo…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…de a quick stop at Kiboswa ‘city’ on our way to the Lakeside city. This historic center, inhabited by the Luo, Luhya and the Kalenjin tribes of Kenya, is home to Paul Kelemba (or Maddo, as the cartoonist is popularly known). After taking a few photos to prove to the award-winning cartoonist that we actually visited his ancestral home, we continued with our journey. Our location for recording that day was Dunga Hill Camp, right by the shores of Lak…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…ve been hollowed out and the skins have been formed. One of the early milestones was finding a tree out of which to craft the largest of the drums, no trivial task given the size and type of tree required. Here is our first video, James Isabirye talking about the tree and introducing the project: https://youtu.be/bZUxKhTGmCA The lead drum maker is called Muhamudu Kaziba (in the left of the video above). He comes from a famous family of drum makers…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…rtunities for our people to believe in themselves and their values. Our history has weakened our minds and what is left is for man to eat man. No values! No identity! No humans! Just creatures moving the path of God’s gift called life and breathing the air meant for humans.” Below are excepts from Peter Cooke’s recordings of the drums that James talks about: http://www.singingwells.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peter-Cooke-naizungwe-recording-1.m…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…Kidude and Unyago style. Throughout this trip we will encounter multiple stories about ‘women for women’ songs. In this case, the women in the village have a special dance that is performed by women only for women. It is all about teaching young girls to prepare for womanhood, be it how to behave in the village, how to behave as a wife, and how to be a mother. The women invited Sophie into one of the huts to watch their dance in private. In Ugand…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…vel in the field, doing our best to record traditional groups, songs, and stories. All groups and songs mentioned here will eventually turn up on YouTube (see our current video collection here), as we prepare each of the videos. We will go back to these reports and provide hot links to all of these, but that will take a couple months or so, so please be patient. This is our first trip to Tanzania. For those of you that have followed Singing Wells,…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…Shades of Benga Online, to go alongside their book ‘Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba wa…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…Right: Musisi (one of the last remaining Royal Drummers) Here is James’s story about how we ended up recording the Royal Drums of the Buganda Kingdom: “Let’s first just consider the state of our traditional music. From a government perspective, it is the music you roll out for foreigners, like the Pope, or on some special occasion. But otherwise you ignore it and don’t value it. We don’t support it and we are losing the myths, the dances, and the…