Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
…mato soup can that works as well as any we’ve seen. So, hats off to our wonderful guitarist and his fully home made guitar, with wire strings and frets. And a special thumbs up to the magic bass – a clay pot and a ‘beat boxer’ providing one of the coolest bass lines we’ve ever heard. Here they are in action… https://youtu.be/38uXVC1pEvQ https://youtu.be/-alDBT6_wJw https://youtu.be/5Zv_8A8LpRE We invited them back to perform an ‘Influences’ set…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
…s’ sessions with her. Until the music is ready, with think this village is best described through pictures: We arrived, greeted by lots of men and boys going back and forth to market, including this chap (later we’ll write on a blog on all the things folks carried on their head and bikes). And there’s always the wonderful backdrop of the Virunga Mountains. And the inevitable narrow path leading up to the village…. And after a relatively short cl…
Congratulations Singing Wells! News
…is wonderful to see these fruits of their expertise and enthusiasm. Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator World and Traditional Music, British Library website: http://www.bl.uk online gallery: http://sounds.bl.uk main catalogue: http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-bin/webcat…
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
…We have multiple goals at Singing Wells. The first is to preserve the vast musical heritage of East Africa, capturing the diversity of music and dance throughout the region. Most of the music is ‘trapped’ in remote villages – everyday in 100’s of villages across East Africa wonderful performances occur as the community celebrates, mourns and remembers through music. But few peopele are there to listen and each performance runs the risks of being f…
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…artist, Francis Sembagare. We woke up early and were greeted with this wonderful view from the garden of the Traveller’s Rest Guesthouse: After breakfast our first stop was the office of the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU), where we met Henry Neza, the Capacity Development Co-ordinator, and Alice Nyamihanda, Tourism Officer and the first University graduate amongst the Batwa communities. They are to be our hosts and tr…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
…formances per tribal group (CD/DVD quality) Full interviews with tribal leader, group leader and key members of the community (on camera) Stills and video of the village and community One ‘Influences’ session. To remind, an ‘Influences’ session is when a Ketebul or Abubilla artist works directly with the local group on a song, either one he/she has been working on, or one inspired by the visit. This is extremely important to the Singing Wells phil…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…e there will be a Cultural Pavilion which will contain a backdrop of graphic representations of all the countries that have had a role to play in the Queen’s reign. On the Kenya stand there will be Singing Wells DVDs freely available for guests. The DVD is from our ‘Best of Singing Wells 2011‘ and features music videos from our field trips to the Coastal Region and Nyanza Province. We are grateful to our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board and Hill…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…Kisoro last year we sent a parcel to UOBDU for the Batwa communities we visited. The parcel contained printed books of photos of all the people we met and CDs and DVDs of the music performances we recorded. We also printed some leaflets about the Batwa in Uganda and their traditional music and dance which we hope will help to promote their standing in the community in Kisoro and beyond. Zaninka Penninah from UOBDU sent us this message: Dear Victo…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…ieve they’d just leave pads of paper our and pens. All along there was a side idea about a project to Africa. I was very sceptical. I didn’t want it to be some holiday project. I have lots of friends who did the ‘gap year’ thing pretending to help in Africa but actually just going on a trip. I didn’t want to do it. I made it clear I would only do it in a way that was for Africa and not some one off experience with no benefit except to ourselves. B…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…are also enthusiastic about capturing the indigenous music. On top of the musical side of things they were great to travel with. When things went wrong like our car breaking down or microphones not working, they took it in their stride and came up with solutions. A great bunch of people. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and heard a lot of wonderful music. In particular it was wonderful to see the fusion of old tribal music with contemporary music in…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…d an amazing evening that only Tabu could pull off. Amazing voice: We recorded video and used the mobile recording studio to record most of the concert. We’ll post this later. In the meantime, a couple of pictures: Winyo warms up with the Swiss Bone Guitar The Legendary Ayub Ogado …and his legendary goatee …and his legendary Nyatiti From left to right, Joyce, Alfred and Tabu. Joyce is from the Ford Foundation and supports Ketebul. Alfred helped in…
Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…e’ve recorded over 150 songs from more than 25 local music groups and uploaded 36 videos of these performances to YouTube (so far). Every performance was unique and special – we loved them all – so picking just 10 songs for a ‘Best of’ album was not easy. Here are our final choices….it’s just a small reflection of what was an extraordinary year of recording music in East Africa. We hope you enjoy listening. Please get in touch and let us know what…
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…also worked hard to find tribal musicians who were creating music that sounded wonderfully fresh and modern. Much of this we captured in what we called ‘Magic Minutes.’ Below, you will discover the Otacho Young Stars, with their modern take on the Orutu. But then watch the magic of the Nyatiti and Luo drums in two ‘magic minute’ sessions: The Kalenjin project, Great Rift Valley, Kenya: Scheduled for March 2012, we will be travelling to the…
A message from Henry Neza at UOBDU News
…r more recordings. During this trip they were able to interact with the Ford Foundation and benefit from new clothes and shoes, which improved their social status among the dominant tribes here. This gave them confidence and changed their behaviour. Now the non Batwa community agree that the Batwa can compete with others in many different fields if they are given the chance. All the best, Henry UOBDU, January 2012 …
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…. Their music is relatively well known at the national level and is highly dependent on percussion with vocal solos and harmonies and is pretty rhythmic. Very sexy. There are various styles including sengenya, chechemeko (actually a dance style) and mwanzele which has been exported to Nairobi and souped up as ‘nzele’. The Mijikenda (literally “the nine clans”) also employ the use of a vast array of impressive instrumentation such as kayambas, mari…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…local call girls in tow – the kind with skin falling off their faces after decades of chemical assault by skin lighteners. On our second morning at the hotel (and weren’t we glad we were leaving), this lady passed by our table, which I was manning as the others loaded the trucks, and asked of me what “TV station” we were. I wanted to inform her we were from You-Got-Caught TV but instead volunteered the nature of our mission. She seemed relieved, s…