Our top 5 Singing Wells songs for March News
…th positive vibes. 2. Ochieng Nelly – Osare I’ll admit, a few weeks ago I knew very little about the history of Benga. But the more I’ve found out, the more meaningful this song is. Ochieng was one of the founders of Benga, a Kenyan music genre adapted by the Kikuyu musicians of the ’60s. We were privileged to have the chance to record him and preserve his music in March 2014. Sadly, Ochieng died soon after. Had we not recorded and documented thes…
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
…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 easily accessed by visi…
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
…edition that was revised for re-publication, stressing the importance of extra information being attached to the sound file, describing the location the sound was recorded, the artist, the date, etc and other technological information. Another issue often raised is the need for music files to be able to transcend the changes in technology; i.e. once archived, they are still able to be played back in the long term, due to support for new media or…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…e 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 tribal music of East Africa is forever evolving. It is wonderful that Jimmie Rogers inspired a new song and it is amazing that the Ota…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…hings. You don’t rediscover you heritage with a government policy. James: Exactly. One other issue. Part of the problem we have is our ‘everything now’ culture. 50 years ago, if you got a job, you knew that if you worked hard and stayed with the job and got promoted you could buy a home for your family, or a car. Or help your children to be educated. Once you got a job, you knew not to lose it. Now people work for a little bit and then quit and th…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…ing in 2013. 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 mi…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…our heart, 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 t…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…tage at the Motorpoint arena. Louise joined our trade fair neighbours from New Zealand at the Daycase stage to hear a showcase of Maori music. We also managed to pop down to see two performances on the Friday night – again at the Wales Millennium Centre and in a tent erected outside. In the Weston Studio we saw the magical Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson, who after a 9 hour car journey had almost not made it in time. Jarlath popped via our stal…
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…
Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…io with Jessie Bukindu. We recorded 5 tracks with the group in the field – one of which was ‘Charles Manager’ sung in English -about the arrival of a new manager to a sugar plantation. The irony being that they are thanking him, just for doing his job properly. This was one of the songs the group re-recorded at Ketebul studios – re-named Mr Manager and available on YouTube here: You can find links to the field reports below – along with a link to…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…we plan for our next trip to Kampala this Autumn, we can’t wait to publish new songs, new dances and new stories from East African music. But, we always recognized that there was a hierarchy of needs in East Africa. No matter how threatened the culture of music was, we understood that East Africa was facing ‘bigger problems’ – be it famine, disease, tribal conflicts, etc… Music was important, but the threat to music stood at the end of a long list…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…tional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones 2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera ThinkTank sun screens (for the laptops) Various Canon zoom and fixed lenses Plus at least 9 Sandisk memory cards and 15 portable back-up drives and a lot of leads an…
The New Singing Wells website News
…may be viewing the device on iPads, iPhones, tablets, netbooks, Samsung phones etc, so a lot of work has gone into making our site accessible on these devices. Albums We have now curated 4 albums, representing the music from 4 of our field trips to East Africa. We’ll be updating this as we curate more albums. You can listen to each of the albums in full and then purchase them in the knowledge that all of your money will go back to the performer,…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…nounce a new project at the Singing Wells. Group of the Month sees us take one of the 50 groups we have recorded in the field since the beginning of the Singing Wells project, and feature recordings, stories, videos, interviews, and other content we have gathered in East Africa. Our first group of the month is the Watmon Cultural Group. We have videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at the Entebbe Airport G…
The Beat of Kenya News
…s way: two drums, one from the Luo tribe, the other from the Luhya tribe), one nyatiti (Luo), one orutu (Luo), and a fifth instrument called the litungu (Luo). Click here to go to Andrea’s blog : The Beat of Kenya Andrea Dyck, Curator of Contemporary Cultures, The Manitoba Museum Andrea Dyck received her Master’s Degree in History from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, where her research focused on immigration and ethno-re…