Returning to Uganda in Autumn 2013 Story
…Acholi, Iteso, Langi and Lugbara). For this upcoming trip we will focus on Central and Eastern Uganda which is home of the Bantu tribes (the Baganda, the Basoga, the Bagisu and the Banyoro to mention a few). Here’s an example of Basoga music – as always with Uganda music, amazing energy, exotic instruments 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 c…
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…
Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
…erformed with the Watmon Cultural Troupe Akello Biography Akello is an African contemporary and urban music performer who sings in most popular languages like Acholi, Luganda, Swahili and English..After years of working with a few of Uganda’s leading contemporary and world music greats such as Kaweesa, Susan Kerunen, Myko Ouma, Tshila and Kinobe Herbert..she is indeed a rare talent with a rich textured organic voice. Akello begins a new journe…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…to extend the project even to other communities who shows interest. These promoted groups lack dancing costumes (uniform) and equipment which would make it more unique and attractive. Due to this challenge, UOBDU had to purchase a few musical instruments (Drum and dancing bells) for Kanyabukungu group who danced for the Prime Minister of Uganda. Dancing costumes and traditional instruments remains a challenge among the groups in order to market t…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…sed in different file sizes for ‘road posts’, formal trip reports and then latest versions of the Singing Wells book. And finally, we need to be able to archive EVERY THING. We feel it is very important that if someone later has a particular interest in a group or an instrument that they will find all we’ve recorded on that topic, even if it doesn’t feature initially into our ‘output.’ So, learning how to do all this in the middle of a field trip…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…The African Night Road Spirits are kind and offered up a wonderful last night of recording….
How music archives can help communities News
…l be on the road in Uganda, travelling to the north of the country for our latest field recording visit. It’s a good time to reflect on the importance and relevance a project such as Singing Wells. Why should we record and archive traditional music? Our objectives are not about archiving music for the sake of it. We do not see ourselves as ‘fossil collectors’, merely recording the music and dance performances of traditional groups and then…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…out the middle of the road, where the vehicles are. There are two types of African roads. r oads in the day. And roads in the night. Day roads are funny. Every pot hole, every large crater makes you chuckle. You can drive around them or slow down and go through them. Our Ketebul team will explain that the worse the road, the less support the locals have given to the party in power. A lot of people don’t support the party in power it seems – at lea…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…o play the song just with their part find it all a bit strange. So too for African village groups. They don’t go into studios and ‘lay down their track’ in some great over-dubbing session. They perform with a troupe, and they feed off of and help drive the dancing and the other instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff and we wanted to capture it on its own. But the subsequent magic moment session lacked something – our friend w…
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…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…nd. They formed thirty years ago and their goal is ‘Edu-Tainment’, helping African children learn key life lessons through song. They have 35 members, who all have full time jobs doing something other than music, so usually about 15-20 can make any performance. In general, the men all play instruments and the women all dance. They call their music ‘folk’ because it combines traditional musical styles with modern themes of war, disease, etc. Their…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…uments that were surprisingly common that I would not have associated with African music, such as the Sansa, a type of thumb piano: Distribution of the Sansa Pokot Tribe (highlighted) Writing a profile for all of the different tribal groups was also fascinating. There are such a wide variety of different customs and beliefs in one area, and some tribes, such as the Pokot tribe from Kenya, were memorable for some of their cultural theories. Interes…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…thern 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 the road side to pick at a fresh patch of grass, bike rider riding with small loads or walking their bikes with large loads (this trips winner was…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…enany, Western Thebes (right). Some scholars have rejected the theory that African harps and lyres today were originated from the instruments that were created first thousands of years ago, although there is strong evidence to suggest they were, not only due to their likeness, but because of the way the instruments have migrated with their players, as shown on the map (left). Below is a video made by Levy, one of three, describing his theories lin…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…of different tribes, including the Lango peoples. Location: Northern central region or the “Lango sub-region” as demonstrated on the map. Population: about 1.5 million people Language: They speak Leb-Lango, a language similar to those of the Acholi and the Alur. They are part of the Luo group or “Western Nilotic Group”, and so all of the languages in this area are fairly similar to understand. Origins: Their original homeland was north of La…