Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…traditional music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
Central and Eastern Kenya: Days 5-11:An Interview with Gregg Story
…e. Everyone digs in to get the job done. Second, you get it – it is about stories and I greatly respect the amount of time you invest The second thing is stories. You guys look out for real stories and try to tell the stories. This is really important. I think development is really about stories. And I watched out much you invest in telling the stories of these people. You care. This leads to the third thing which I wouldn’t under-estimate. You le…
The History Of Benga Music: A Report by Ketebul Music Story
…nre and Ketebul has kindly given us permission to publish in full their history of Benga music. Here it is: Retracing the Benga Rhythm From simple traditional village entertainment to a national and regional music genre, this is the story of the making of benga music. Setting the Background A characteristic of popular music the world over is the element of mystery surrounding the origins of the genre and sometimes also, the real meaning of its nam…
Naizungwe Drums News
…t we would support him with funding for his new project. We are excited to announce that we have agreed to support James in his endeavours and will be posting about the project’s development, which has been under way for a month now. We will be documenting the progress of these drums with pictures and videos here, and more details about the project and the instruments themselves are to follow soon so you can stay updated….
Interview: fusion band Ndoto Afrika News
…Rj9BrTT20 Hi Holly. Tell us about yourself and Ndoto Afrika – what’s your story? They say stories live forever and one famous Kenyan writer keeps saying that a story is good, until another is told. We are here to share with the world how wonderful it is to be born and raised in Africa. Sadly, the urban African youths are so consumed with the modern technology that they no longer are willing to sit by the evening fire and listen to stories. So we w…
Central Uganda: Day 5 – Jinja to Kampala Story
…he three core members are: Walusimbi Nsibambi Haruna: He the Founding Director of Nile Beat Artists. Walusimbi was once the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassador for Africa after winning the Global Youth Earth Day Ambassadors Competition in Marikina-Philipines. Nabayaza Sumaya Baiga: She is a senior member of Nile Beat Artists and is vice president of the cultural association in my university. During her school life she was best dancer in 2007 and 201…
Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…. The Bigwala Cultural Group One of this group’s primary purposes is to restore the Bigwala, the big Ugandan trumpet, to Ugandan musical culture. According to our local musical expert, James Isabirye, it was close to dead, but a Unesco project has helped to draw attention to the group by pointing out the instruments and its players are threatened with extinction. He also says there is a horn shortage because people don’t grow the right kind of gou…
Central Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Budaka Story
…o levels. Our ‘stage’ was on the lower level, with two small brick single story homes and a little kitchen cleaning area. On the second level to the right of the houses was a hill, with the school and a couple large trees, under which our two bands rested and changed clothes – each song brought new and more beautiful costumes. Before the performances started we also spent quite a bit of time filming ‘drum tuning’, which involves a lot of fire, a l…
Who’s looking at you? Story
…This little fan joined us along Lake Victoria to record some of the best Nyatiti players in Kenya in November 2011….
The coolest dude at Homa Bay Story
…A wonderful picture of one of the Kochia Dancers who we recorded on the banks of Lake Victoria at Homa Bay, Kenya, in November 2011….
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…oing 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 m…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…to the 27th of October. The trade fair and conferences were held at the Motorpoint arena, with the evening showcases and events held at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. For our first visit to Womex, we booked a stand at the trade fair, with the main intentions being to spread the word of the project and the work we are doing in partnership with Ketebul Music. Ketebul have attended Womex before, and we would have benefited from the presence o…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…he person Teshome wanted me to meet was James Isabirye, the Selam co-ordinator in Uganda and, more importantly, the secretary of a cultural organisation called National Council of Folklorists of Uganda – NACOFU. James turned out to be very resourceful on the music and culture of Uganda and organises an annual tribal music festival. He was very impressed by the Singing Wells project agenda and very pleased to be part of the project and suggested we…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…wer of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro, Uganda!) We can also combine the two recording units into one to increase the number of inputs, while still working off battery power. The laptops use Avid ProTools recording software – an industry standard for recording and music production….
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…bout Singing Wells. Cancel the taxis, warn the baby sitter, here come the stories… Last night I was asked by a good friend about how the project was going and off I went. Even the waiter was calling home to warn his family it was going to be a late night. But as I told the stories, I wished I had a computer with me so my poor tired friend could at least hear the music and watch the performances as I prattled on. So, I came home, woke early and dec…