Hitching a ride Story
…ke and took advantage of the passing lorry. Most people seemed to be on foot and many of the Batwa make the arduous journey to town three times a week, without being able to hitch a ride….
The repatriation of Kenya’s music heritage News
…returned to the communities in which these songs were made in the 1950s by English ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey. The repatriation of these recordings began in August, during a two-week pilot project in Kenya’s Rift Valley led by Prof Diane Thram, Director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in South Africa and the team from Ketebul Music, supported and funded by The Abubilla Music Foundation as part of the Singing Wells project….
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
There’s now a new way for audiences to discover and listen to traditional East African musicians and music groups recorded by Singing Wells. Head over to our Bozza page here. About Bozza “Bozza is a plug & play solution for musicians, poets, photographers & film makers to promote and sell their digital products to their fans throughout Africa. The platform is available to emerging and established artists from around the continent and can be easil…
Ten More Singing Wells Stories News
…tures in his masterpiece Soge (and this is the tube fiddle, the sister instrument of the Orutu which inspired Benge in the Luo tribes): What do Singing Wells, Jimmie Rogers and ILAM have in common? Read here. The Otacho Young Stars and the Sadness of Joyous Praise: Travelling around Africa you always pray a little to the gods above that Africans would enjoy the benefits of a few more responsible folks with power, in power. And then we ran into t…
Current Leading Figures News
…it all. where is culture? How much support would one expect?” Words that truly reinforce the crucial work of many of the individuals and organisations explored throughout this series, along with all the work that James does himself. His students at the university perform at carol services, annual university graduation ceremonies to a crowd of over 40,000 people, and perform every Wednesday to each other during a recital hour. However, when asked…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…ca. Incoporated in 1948, under the name Folkways Records & Service Co., in New York City by Moses Asch and Marian Distler, it was one of the first record labels to offer world music as a viable commercial product and became incredibly successful. After Asch’s death in 1987, Folkways was acquired by Smithsonian and, under the terms of the contract, Smithsonian had to keep nearly all of the albums ‘in print’ forever, for posterity. It honours this t…
Archiving Guidelines News
…they are still able to be played back in the long term, due to support for new media or data formats – as in conjunction with OAIS. Chapter 7, Small Scale Approaches to Digital Storage Systems, is of particular use because it contains straightforward information for smaller would-be archives, such as those wishing to archive East African music, concerning both the digitisation of audio or the online storage of the data. It cites two viable options…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…- Ebigwala, bigwara , amagwara, magwara, amagwala etc. for the Soga gourd trumpets,’ that make searching on the British Archive, regarding East African music, often a tricky task. In addition, sometimes it is difficult to know, for those who are not experts, exactly how the East African words are spelt: Cooke suggests that ‘a “fuzzy” keyword search facility seems very necessary.’ Moreover, the British Library online archive is difficult to use for…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…illage music. We listen to the likembe music in Uganda and here the steel drums of Calypso music. We listen to Benga blues and here the music of Cuba, demanding that we look further into the circles travelled between musicians between the Congo and Cuba, and we listen to Samba drumming and particularly the tambourin only to be reminded of the Watmon Cultural Group’s use of the Calabash. Our heads appropriately spin and we’re happy about that. The…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…earn about their culture, their identity – it is so rich, so wonderful, so new and exciting for others. If I’m an American or English person, when I hear a Ugandan I would want to hear something new from their culture – why do I want to hear t hem cursing about the police in Los Angeles that beat up a gang banger? Tabu: We have a dozen musicians a week visit us at Ketebul wanting to ‘do what we do.’ Some have been on Project Fame, or have signed t…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…13. Here is the voice of Tabu. “A New Studio: Our first big milestone is a new studio. We refurbished our studio and brought in new equipment. We used our own savings for this to build a better studio and are very proud. Nick Lader, a sound engineer from the UK, helped improve the studio with bass traps, etc… so we could really do a better job. Nick was very hands on and did a great job. He now does a lot of work with us, mastering and mixing our…
Obuell-Lira and the Macedonia Band Story
…e. Pretty quickly, everyone in the Teso region carried a thumb piano or a drum and all claimed they were members of the Macedonia Band. The Macedonia band and the song Uganda, Land of Freedom was known by everyone and many times served to spare someone from being accused a rebel collaborator. How you can help the Macedonia Band We aim to help support the communities we meet by sharing their music and dance through Singing Wells. You can support…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…town and have to make this arduous journey to buy provisions two or three times a week. The Birara Community live on a small plot of borrowed land at the top of a steep hill. We parked on the track a the bottom of the hill and carried all the recording equipment up a narrow path to the top. It was hard work- and we needed the help of one of our Batwa host to carry the generator – but the view, and the warm welcome from the whole community when we…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…such as Uganda. An article on the website of the Ugandan daily newspaper, New Vision, warns about the need to preserve ‘Bigwala’, the royal music of the Busoga region. Bigwala music is performed at ceremonies such as coronations, funerals and, recently, other social events. It is the music of gourd trumpets and is accompanied by a specific dance. UNESCO cites Bigwala music as playing ‘a significant role in contributing to unity among the Basoga p…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…da. Find out more about the film here: http://www.sweetdreamsrwanda.com/ New Friends at the festival We met a lot of new friends – as that was the point of our being there. We were spreading the word of the project and its aims and objectives, with listening stations for passers by to listen to the music we had recorded. We had a few instruments from our collection on display, and some even got played by some of our fellow Womexians as this phot…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ing which will focus on the music of the Baganda and also the recording of new newly arranged songs for our Influences series. First, our Baganda musicians. We will be recording Albert Bissaso Ssempeke, who plays a variety of Baganda instruments including the Ennanga (bow harp), Entongoli (bowl lyre), Amadinda (xylophone), Endere (flute) and Engoma (drums). We have also arranged to record a performance from the Kadinda Players, a Baganda group led…