Music of the Batwa: video playlist News
…Kisoro in SW Uganda to record the music of the Batwa, a marginalised group whose music and dance tells the story of their history, culture and the problems they face today. 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, including a grant from the Institute of International Education….
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…usic, as we did with Tabu yesterday), where we drew 5 main lessons on this trip: Agree the ‘must do’ instruments/song styles at the beginning of trip planning and then make sure we have a group (and a back up group for each). On this trip we came close to missing a couple styles. We work ourselves too hard in the field and don’t leave enough time for file management. So, we have established two new ‘non-negotiables’: a) no driving at night, and b)…
Music of Northern Uganda: video playlist News
…In December 2012 the Singing Wells team travelled to Uganda to record the music of the northern tribes, including the Alur, Acholi, Iteso and Langi. To read the daily field reports from this trip, click here. The trip was facilitated by the generous support of donors to our charity the Abubilla Music Foundation. Video playlist…
Winyo performs with Batwa musicians for ‘Influences’ News
…cians and the music groups we have discovered during our field recording visits. When the Singing Wells team visited Kisoro in SW Uganda (Nov 2011), we were joined by Winyo, a singer/songwriter from Kenya. Here is a video from that trip and the music is performed by Winyo collaborating with Tiny Moses, a wonderfully talented musician from the Micyingo Batwa community. The track was recorded at the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi. For more about…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…y observations as you compare this trip to others? A: For musicality, this trip rivals our trip to record the Batwa. In terms of the ‘health’ of traditional music, I think it is mixed, but frankly the traditional music scene feels healthier in Uganda than Kenya. On the negative side, clearly there is not enough money going into supporting music. Uganda music is known for its elaborate costumes and yet in every village, hide-covered shields aren’t…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ere ‘trained’ to shoot in a matter of days, and were periodically beaten a number of strokes depending on your age, in his case it was 300. Odika called it the ‘bush mind’, and sometimes even once soldiers returned that mind would come back again, in nightmares or in daily life. To help returning soldiers they were taken to Gulu Children of War Rehabilitation Centre for 6 months before going home, partly to make sure the rebels couldn’t find you i…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…ith Ben Kisinja Eddie joined the Singing Wells team on the field recording trip to Kenya (Great Rift Valley). Akello Akello Jackie is a young Ugandan singer who writes and performs both African contemporary and urban music in languages like Acholi (her mother tongue), luganda, abit of Kiswahili and English, among other languages. Akello started her musical journey as a young girl in her junior school leading in school musicals. Later on at 13 ye…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…upe, masters of the Adungu. We had interviewed their leader on our ‘recce’ trip earlier. Here’s the band: We’ve had the odd adungu here and there in the north, but never the full ensemble. There’s the big bass adungu and then 3-4 others in progressively smaller sizes. The three general sizes are called ‘bass’, ‘solo’ and ‘bass 2’. As with the Likembe, the bass adungu doubles as the kick drum and this case the drummer was also the vocalist. The ban…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…Fourthly, we need to run our blogs and Facebook entries ‘live’ during our trips, when we get the most interest in Singing Wells. This requires the refilling of all photos to groups and villages so these can be used 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 particul…
Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
During our last field trip to Uganda we were joined by singer/songwriter ‘Akello’. Originally from a small village near Gulu, Akello now lives in Kampala. She travelled with us back to the north of the country and was not only invaluable acting as a translator when we visited the Acholi communities in the area, but also performed some of her songs for the Influences series, accompanied by the local music groups. ‘Wan Wilobo’ performed with the…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…RBYf6d8dp4 We loved the song so much we had them perform a ‘Magic Moment’ around the phrase ‘Uganda will be alright’. Lovely. And then we played footie… The second half of the day was, well, not so good. We needed to leave at 13:00 to get to Kampala before nightfall. No night driving is a Singing Wells rule given how scary the roads are. We actually left at 12:45 and got about 20 minutes outside of Soroti only to have a car breakdown. So we had to…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…tle shed or lean to made from scraps of wood or just a sheet covering the ground, offering scant shade. Inventory comes in the morning and leaves at night. Everything you want is sold somewhere in one of these three types of stores. But all is random. Don’t expect Omo at the Omo stores or a mobile at the Orange store. And Lord knows what you’ll find at the drug store but it will rarely be medicine. But this collection of Lego stores is just a back…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…with his father’s group and then he founded this group in 2007. They use a number of styles, most notably Sengenya, which we covered fully in our March 2011 field recordings in Malindi. We interviewed Swalhe Mwatela Massai and his grandson, Ali Tungwa : Q to the grandfather: In contrast to Uganda, we have seen many villages in Kenya where the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. Ho…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…nd, these two teams were joined by another group of 100 adults from the surrounding village. Our backdrop became not the cement buildings, but the faces and shirts of our three teams – we guess they were 350 strong at the peak. The Music Groups The main theme of the day was dance. All groups featured wonderful female dancers and two ladies in particular were stunning. The best our Singing Wells team have seen. In Acholi dance it’s all about the he…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations 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 se…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…d into Kampala to pick up our press badges. We then headed off to Gulu at around 2PM (yes, we tend to spend a lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km drive to the town of Gulu in Northern 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, tomatoe…