Listen to more ‘Influences’ tracks from Singing Wells News
…fluences series – a fusion of contemporary and traditional music from East Africa. Influences songs This track features Jovah Nyiramajoro performing with Jesse Bukindu at Ketebul Music Studios. We discovered Jovah on the Singing Wells field trio to Uganda in November 2011. She is from the Mperwa Batwa community, a small settlement of families just outside Kisoro. Read our report from the trip here. This next track is called Amahoro – a Batwa song…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…s for the whole group to perform, singing and dancing in front of ten microphones and three digital cameras.’ Video engineer, Patrick Ondiek, adds, ‘I love producing the final videos and getting phone calls from my friends asking me ‘how did you find these musicians?’ I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East…
Returning to Uganda in Autumn 2013 Story
…nstruments and wonderful dance: Our Love of Ugandan Music and The Pearl of Africa While our mission is to record the music of all of East Africa, we are continually drawn back to Uganda. This will be our third trip and we are convinced we will return again and again. While it is always hard to capture a million images and sounds in a single blog, we’ll try to summarize what keeps bringing us back… The individual voices The collective voices The ex…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…roductions, which has produced several local TV shows. His goal is to take African music all over the world and enliven people to dance and sing to the sweet and melodic sounds of African songs and music. Winyo’s debut album ‘Benga Blues’ has recently been released. Click here to view on YouTube. Winyo with Mperwa Dancers from Kisoro, Uganda Winyo has joined the Singing Wells team of three recording field trips – Kenya (Coastal Region); SW Uganda…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…first part of our mission, which is to recording the tribal music of East Africa – in the field and with extraordinary sound and video quality. Our second mission is then to use these visits as inspiration for new artists to write music inspired by their tribal heritage. We now have developed a pattern – each field visit involves about 9 days in the field recording new groups AND then we return to Nairobi to work in the studio with tribal musicia…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…anted to make sure we recorded their shakers, the Kayamba (hand shaken idiophones with dried seeds inside), the Lungo (broken glass moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones). In the Rift Valley, where the people are more pastoral, we really focused on their voices and I wanted some one to play the burkandit (a handmade guitar). In Nyanza, we focused on the Orutu, the Nyatiti and the Ohangla (drums). In Kisoro…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ocal stores on big speakers). We listened to a few different tracks on his phone, and I narrowed my favourite Ugandan pop tracks down to ‘Apple’ by Bigtym and ‘Guns & Bomb’ by Bebecool.. Odika Constantine, son of Watmon, is in his 30s. He was abducted by the LRA from his home in Kitgum District when he was just 17. He was held as a soldier in the bush for 6 months until he managed to escape. He described the day it happened: the rebels arrived to…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…s to convey their message of national pride. Here is the video of Pearl of Africa: The last song, which was wholly authentic, was called ‘Africa Na Jembe‘ which talks about the Ugandan’s emphasis on being deserving. The song says that first you must dig in the field before you can eat. The lyric in swahili in the chorus: “tula kula kua jembe” means ” through our work in the field we can eat”. It is based on the traditional ideology that hard work…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…with his father’s group and then he founded this group in 2007. They use a number of styles, most notably Sengenya, which we covered fully in our March 2011 field recordings in Malindi. We interviewed Swalhe Mwatela Massai and his grandson, Ali Tungwa : Q to the grandfather: In contrast to Uganda, we have seen many villages in Kenya where the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. Ho…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…d as we write this, at about 18.44, we are looking at the most spectacular African sunset to our right. We must be heading south right now and we must be being rewarded for bringing the story of Macedonia to you. You’re most welcome. But we digress. A group of us is in file management mode and this is worth a brief discussion (well, mostly because we are driving on the road in pitch black to Kampala and are using this blog to distract ourselves fr…
How music archives can help communities News
…la. The curator of the music archive is Dr. Sylvia Antonia Nannyonga-Tamusuza who we will be meeting while we are in Uganda next week. Click here to link to the Klaus Wachsmann Music Archive. References Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond Published in 2012 by Fountain Publishers, Kampala. Editors: Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Thomas Solmon Available in print from African Books Collective: click here …
Singing Wells – The Story So Far News
…ill help give much needed financial support to tribal music groups in East Africa. By supporting these artists, we can help them keep their cultural music traditions alive and give them opportunities to gain a sustainable income from their music. Thank you. Preview our book “Victoria, I’ve just received the Singing Wells Project book. It’s fantastic to see what the project is doing ! Thanks for sharing, Nick” Nick Blazquez, President|Africa, DIA…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…ons and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It seems Nigel liked what I told him! Operations Manager Lina Vaiksnoriene has been in touch and ATT…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…with us: 2 Apple 17″ MacBook Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera Think…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…hundreds of different language groups and dialects between tribes in East Africa, meaning that within the huge range of instruments there were also a number of different names for them. This became very interesting to discover however, and over time that information could gather on the map, making it more comprehensive. What did you find most interesting about the data you collected? What stood out for me was the huge range of instruments used, a…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…to Gulu at around 2PM (yes, we tend to spend a lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km drive to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda. Within minutes we were deeply immersed in the ‘classic’ East African road scene: big tall white bags of coal, with grass helmets, bricks in various stages of manufacturer (either drying or firing), pyramids of potatoes, tomatoes on patches of blankets under trees, tiny goats tethered near…