Our Pain, Your Gain.. Story
…We wanted to find a shady spot to record the Sagat Traditional Dancers during our trip to the Rift Valley. But we ended up recording on top of hill in the blazing sun, overlooking the baking country side. But it made for lovely photos….
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…re grateful for your support. Our YouTube channel features videos from our trips across Kenya and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern Uganda, our work to share the music of the Batwa community and the Luo community. We’ve told the story of repatriating Kenya’s music heritage after 50 years and celebrated magic moments – where we’ve found an extra-special artist on our journeys and recorded their work. To…
Sponsor a Singing Wells recording session News
…nal music of East Africa to take place in November 2015. Our Singing Wells trips generally last about 10 days, depending on how much ground we’re trying to cover. We also organise a pre-trip ‘recce’ where a smaller team visits the country/ region in advance to pre-record groups, identify key talent and make all the preparations to ensure we don’t waste a moment on the full trip later in the year. You can find out more about our field recording vis…
Deep in thought…. Story
…This was taken on our first Singing Wells trip to the Kenyan Coast in March 2011. Here is the leader of the social leader, deep in thought, as we prepare to record the Zigidigi Cultural Troupe….
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…c enclave of made up of some seriously hip outlets. The main purpose of my trip, besides hanging out with the team and trying to absorb some of their street cred, was to chat to the main man: Mr Tabu Osusa. Sitting across from me in his office in his bright yellow patterned t-shirt and flat cap he looked laid back as he sipped his cool beverage. His easy smile broke every time I said something that amused him. Here’s our interview: Who are the mos…
The lovely painted faces of the Marakwet tribes in the Rift Valley Story
…This is one of the beautiful singers from the Sagat Traditional Dancers; we recorded them on March 7, 2012 during our trip through the Rift Valley, Kenya. Her white dots represent the soil and the harvest; their beads are traditionally given to them after female circumcision. These dancers had walked over 50 kms the night before to make sure they arrived in time for the recording….
Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…fter. Had we not recorded and documented these songs, they might have been lost forever. 3. Mariene Traditional Dancers – Mpandi mautini This group was formed in 2003. They are from the Ameru Ethnic Community and their musical style is Kirarire and Authi. The lead singer wears Murungi, an ornament on both sides of the arms which is worn by the initiator/circumciser; it signifies a man of respect and authority. This one made it onto the top five be…
Amone Watmon Matthew Story
…e then began to perform on a stringed instrument, while singing along, in close rhythm with another player and a third playing simple percussion on a calabash. We made a decision very quickly to invite the musicians back to our hotel to record further. We made the journey back to the Airport Guesthouse in Entebbe, with the musicians continuing their performance in the vehicles. In the garden of the Airport Guesthouse, we recorded a further 6 perfo…
Current Leading Figures News
…cky enough to meet Julius and have both bands perform for us on our latest trip to Uganda on Day 3; take a look at our field trip report to hear about Julius’ past and both groups. Here the Elgon Ngoma Troupe are performing Isongja, a song about the circumcision ritual for which the Bagisu tribe are well known. Julius appreciates and is an ambassador for what music can achieve in Uganda. As an orphan himself, struggling to pay the university tuiti…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…s a mixture of interviews with top performers, live concerts, a monthly CD round-up, and special location features. For 13 years the programme has been exploring the globe and making on site recordings of world music, whilst also giving some background on the culture and history of the recording. From East Africa, they have a 60 minute episode on Kenya – you can listen to recordings of the singer Suzanna Owiyo in Nairobi, the rain songs in the nor…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…n about how hard life is. I tell them, “Why did you stop the job? You just lost a home, or education for your children. Why did you lose that?’ But we don’t celebrate someone that works hard. We celebrate someone that is trying to make a quick buck. We want to take short cuts. So we sing American music because some other artist has done all the work – we just have to sound a bit like them. But we don’t. It is a bad copy. But it feels easier to do…
Obuell-Lira and the Macedonia Band Story
…band began to play Uganda Land of Freedom and the rebels started to gather round, starved of music and the chance to relax. An argument broke out amongst the rebels – most wanted to continue the raid and kill the musicians but a small group started to argue that the band could serve a purpose and help provide welcome distractions for the rebels. Eventually, after a few tense hours of debate, the village was spared. The rebels were about to take th…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…our people a sense of history. Our partners are Hivos, Phat Magazine, Kiss 100 (every Sunday they host two artists from us and talk about the music, etc..) etc… and we will be the main stand, talking about music through a set of panels. Everyone wants to be involved. One major project we still need to finish is Kenya at 50, both a documentary and coffee table book – which presents 50 years of music. We still need to finish this. A gentlemen named…
Clowns Story
…On our first recording day during the Northern Uganda Field trip 2012 we had the pleasure of working in front hundreds of children who slowly climbed a tree to watch the proceedings. They were delighted by the cameras and we had a lot of fun showing them their smiling faces. This little boy was the biggest show off….
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…ere we introduce you to the first Batwa community we met on that memorable trip – The Birara Our story: Singing Wells & The Birara Community We left Kisoro in the early morning to travel to the Birara community. The journey by road took about one and a half hours – a distance of about 35km. Just outside Kisoro we picked up an elderly lady from the Birara community who was walking the long, mainly uphill route back to the village. This was one of o…