Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…ould get a better view and get a more authentic sound. Then Abubilla Music contacted Tabu for a project and we discussed the idea of a mobile recording studio. From that discussion, we established Singing Wells. We thought something might happened because Tabu was pretty sure – but it was odd to get this e mail out of the blue. But then Andy came down in October 2010. First time he came to studio he was very business like. He had a checklist that…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…ing the recording of the Kalenjin tribes in March 2012. He was our liaison contact with the music groups. Kathy interviewed him – here is his story… The Interview Fifty Cows is a Merekwet, part of the Kalenjin tribes. He organised for us to see singers from the Merekwet, Pokot and Tugen tribes. These are all sub-tribes of the Kalenjin. He was born in 1976 and grew up in a Merekwet village. His father was Merekwet and his mother was Pokot. Hi…
Music of the Mijikenda: video playlist News
…In March 2011, the Singing Wells team travelled to the coastal region of Kenya for their very first field recording trip. The team recorded music from various groups representing the Mijikenda tribes. Video Playlist The trip was facilitated by the generous support of donors to our charity the Abubilla Music Foundation. …
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…3. Francis Sembagare from Birara Dancers with Jesse from Ketebul Music on Guitar: We hope you are excited by our journey and enjoying the music. If you’d like to support our artists or the project please don’t hesitate to contact us. The Singing Wells Team …
Music of the Luo: video playlist News
…In December 2011, the Singing Wells team travelled to western Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria to record the music of the Luo tribes. To read the daily field reports from this trip, click here . Video Playlist The trip was facilitated by the generous support of donors to our charity the Abubilla Music Foundation. …
AMF receive grant to fund Batwa recordings News
…news that the Institute of International Education has approved a grant to support the Singing Wells trip to Uganda to record the music and dance of the Batwa people. We are delighted that our proposal was successful and that the IIE agreed with our rationale for taking the project to the Batwa to increase awareness of their unique music and dance traditions. In our proposal, we outlined our rationale as follows: “The overall aim of the Singing We…
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…wa in Uganda is now being recognized and there are initiatives in place to support their communities and help them reclaim their traditional way of life. The United Organisation for Bawta Development (UOBDU) was founded in 2000 to address land problems and develop sustainable livelihoods. UOBDU has identified four key areas of support: land & housing; education and adult literacy; income generation and forest access & benefit-sharing. By way of ex…
Global song released to support SWP News
…Abubilla Music have released a truly global remix of an original song from their first album Six Months of Saturdays – it’s called 71 Hours to Monday and combines musicians and vocalists from Sao Paulo in Brazil, Nairobi and London. All profits from the sale of the track will be donated to The Abubilla Music Foundation to support the The Singing Wells Project. Take a look and find out the story behind the song and the SWP: …
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…the sessions and write and perform songs inspired by the village music and supported by the village musicians. Train a new generation of sound engineers during these sessions to learn mobile recording techniques so they can continue to capture village music Create a multi-media song library of these sessions available to music lovers and ethnomusicologists on line and through CD and DVD releases. Create a separate video/audio song library of instr…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…o allow them to undertake the trip to this remote area of North West Kenya, 800 km from Nairobi and home to the Turkana and Samburu tribes and the original ‘singing wells’. When Steve Kivutia (Ketebul Music) presented the idea of recording music at the Festival to the AMF, it seemed a perfect fit with the objectives of the Singing Wells project and the trustees were happy to approve a grant to cover the costs of travelling to the Festival with the…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…, an Ethiopian restaurant in Hurlighan for dinner. Am not exactly a fun of Ethiopian food but I must say I enjoyed it especially as we shared our personal experiences of the trip to the coast. DAY 7: Ketebul Music studios It was around 1pm everyone was looking energetic from what am sure was a good night sleep, Jimmy and Andy were in the studio with Winyo and Ayub Ogada who is a famous nyatiti player and Bbishop a guitarist who is a member of Winy…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Willie Bembe News
…obi seems shorter than the one to Malindi. Get to Nairobi and enjoy a nice Ethiopian dinner at the Habesha restaurant. Everyone is very tired so we let the big boys have their meeting at the Fairview Hotel. DAY 6 It’s our guest’s last day and we enjoy having last recording sessions with them at the studio. The “seventeen hour” song is very catchy and Jimmy is dancing all over the place as an African touch is added by Makadem, Winyo and Ayub Ogada….
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…mpromising on sound quality. Mzinga were accompanied by a small wooden xylophone, the marimba. Mzinga After four captivating numbers from Mzinga, we quickly pulled down the set and set off for our second location. The drive would take us to Mombasa,where we would end up in the most interesting set of all so far. Junda. We first drove in to what seemed to be a very busy township with a very steep and treacherous gravel road to drive on. Everyone…