Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…ominal fee, good neighbors always came to our rescue by allowing us to tap into their main power supply lines with our snake cable. When all the issues were sorted out, the rest of the recording went smoothly with Johnstone Mukabi and the Omutibo Stars coming on stage at 11:00am. Accompanied by Francis Massanga on vocals, they were joined by guest musicians, Fiston Lusambo on guitar and Ben Mukabwa (a college tutor whose other calling happens to b…
Camera Group
…Camera, who has been performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE….
Kika Boys Cultural Troupe Group
…e Mbidde (bananas) Zitandikwe: this means the bananas are now to be buried into a hole dug in the group so they can ripen Siwa Siwa: This talks about grinding the millet on a stone while other people bring gourds in which the local brew will be poured and served Mbereju: This is the name of the drunkard who drinks excessively. He starts to abuse people and pee himself. Sivve Wano: This song is sung by the town drunk and it means, “I will not leave…
Baseki Group
…he 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 to the beat. Throughout Tanzania, we saw school kids walking to/from school with their hoes, where they often tend to small plots at the school. Serengeti: We are near the national park and this is a song in celebration to Tanzanian parks and wild life. Frees…
Tarajazz Group
…ho loved Pakistan when she visited Kasha – Kenyan Taarab love song. A man singing about his “chest being opened and empty” In typical Taarab style this has sexual inuendo Hijjaz Solo – Jazz solo without the singer Ashikibaya – name of a city. Magic Moment of Christopher Weston on Cajon and High Hat Magic Moment of singer Regina singing Kasha Magic Moment of singer Regina and Hassan on Sax performing Kasha. We really enjoyed this group. The drummer…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…a soldier though this was not a permanent duty. Language: They are divided into many mutually intelligible dialects, but mainly they speak their own Lugbara language. Origins: The came into Uganda at the end of the 16th century. They were originally 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 be…
Albums Introduction Page
One of the main aims of The Singing Wells project is to record and share the music we record in East Africa and one of the ways in which we can share this music is through our albums series. For each project we undertake, we curate an album of the resulting recordings. In most cases, this will include at least one recording from each group recorded. Where it works artistically, we’ll arrange the tracks on the album in chronological order of the r…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…He was the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, from 2008-2015. He is now a Patron of the Cultural Yamnyausi Foundation. That evening both Ministers hosted a fund raiser for the Foundation and invited Singing Wells members as special guests. We were greatly honoured to be part of such an important evening and enjoyed the entertainment and the MC’s skill as a fundraiser! Meeting with Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda….
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…We decided to make many because we would like to have enough drums for training a new generation of players. However, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video docum…
Day 7: Friday, February 24th, 2017 Story
…he Director of the Tanzanian Heritage Project. This project is similar to Singing Wells, but as she said, the ‘preservation role’ is more physical – she is working to preserve all the physical recordings of Tanzania musicians, many of which are rotting away on dusty reel to reel recordings. And that is it. We then rushed to the airport to depart to Nairobi for a weekend of recording at Ketebul Studios. And thus ends our first Field Visit to Tanzan…
Day 6: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 Story
…out being quiet because a performance is starting Magic Moment 3: Francis singing ‘Alelewani’ solo. Alelewani with full group Mikocheni Makongwe Malowe Magic Moment 4: Daudi Fernando Joseph plays the drums in style of Mzee Morris We then interviewed Daudi about Mzee Morris: “I met Mzee Morris when I was younger and saw him play. I loved his style from the first moment I heard it. I also listened to him on the Tanzania Broadcast Corporation, beca…
Day 5: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 Story
…pper’ We then packed up for a drive to Dar es Salaam and a return to the Mediterraneo hotel. After a brief rest we headed to Alliance Francaise, Dar es Salaam to watch Leo’s concert. Elliot and Sophie were a warm up act, singing ‘You Ask’ and ‘Madeline’. Then Leo played to a large audience of his supporters. A dance troupe danced in the Segere style for many of the songs. This is a Tanzanian style from the south. Here’s Leo performing:…
Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
…session for a further five. Here’s the full group including Henry, Rajab, Tomato and Leo: Here’s Tabu: Here’s Ndahani: Here’s Grace: Part one: We recorded with Chibite players only: Muheme (the tree to make the best drums). Interestingly, we later had a long conversation with Leo about wooden drums. He said that most drums are now steel, because it takes a whole tree to make one drum and you can’t afford to keep cutting down trees in villages. He…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…rse twice a week and play in wedding and other ceremonies. We are also training young kids in our style but we are very worried that the traditional music is dying.” Just as we were blown away by the Snake Dance in the Morris Compound, we were fascinated by Mama Ni Mama, a rite of passage song celebrating that a young girl is ready to be married. Briefly: The basic song, starts with an old women sitting down against a tree. Between her legs is a…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…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 Uganda and Kenya we have a lot of recordings of rites of passage, mostly around male and female circumcision rituals – happily the songs survive but not the rituals in the places we visited! But we have far less on the theme of ‘women for women’ songs of instruction, or the rites of passages of women preparing for adu…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…. This is our first trip to Tanzania. For those of you that have followed Singing Wells, you will know that we’ve been working for seven years now in Kenya and Uganda. We thought we would have covered more countries by now, but we have been blown away by the richness of the traditional music in these two countries, so we kept going back. We are very excited now to start our work in Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo on this trip but also recognize this is…