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. …
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…ar. 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 they complain about how hard life is. I tell them, “Why did you stop the job? You just lost a home, or education for your children. Why did you lose that?’ But we don’t celebrate someone that works hard. We celebrate someone that is trying to make a quick buck. We want to take short cuts. So we sing American mus…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…we launch this book during the Smithsonian conference next year in Washington DC. In terms of artists, Winyo is doing very well. Benga Blues is sold out. He’s been to China, where he met Jackie Chan, and to Sweden. Makadem has also toured all over, Croatia (where he met the President), Germany, and Denmark. Olith Ratego has been to Germany almost every other month where he is very successful. Gargar, our Somalia women, won a major award in France…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…splay, and some even got played by some of our fellow Womexians as this photo from Louise shows: I gave an interview for Icelandic radio about the project. And around 150 people entered our competition to win an iPod shuffle – direct from one of our listening station. We’ll be making the draw soon. Cards in the Kalabash We were pleased to host a few meetings for our friend Guy Morley who used our stand as a meeting place. We were delighted also…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ew location – this time the town of Jinja on the shores of Lake Victoria, close to the source of the River Nile. Day 5: Iganga, Kasokoso & Nabirere – Music of the Basoga Day 5 will see us in Kasokoso to record a Basogo musician called Nathan Mata. Here are Steve’s notes from when they met in September: “Our first stop was at Kasokoso village to meet an elderly man who has been mentioned in several circles so far as being one of the remaining custo…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…st 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. The microphones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selec…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…da 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at the Entebbe Airport Guesthouse, where due to the generosity and patience of the manager Jan Willem and the other guests, we set up a recording studio in the garden. You can join us on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/singingwells and on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/singingwells – if you do tweet any links, please use the hashtags – #gotm and #singingwells We’ll update th…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…nd Ketebul Music on his recent trip to the UK. The purpose of the trip was to research into the archives of the late Peter Colmore, which are now in the possession of the Bodelian Library in Oxford. Andy accompanied Bill to the University library at Rhodes House to help sort through the photographs and documents and take photographs for the ‘Kenya at 50 project’. Who was Peter Colmore? Peter Colmore was born in England on the 22nd November 1919. H…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…our mission is to bring this music to the next generation, to inspire them to look to their heritage for inspiration before they look elsewhere. We do this with ‘Influences’ artists… Like Winyo, an unbelievable Kenyan musician that was blown away by the music of the Batwa and couldn’t help but joining Jovah in song: 5. Singing Wells is about bringing together tribal music and wonderfully talented young performers like Akello from Uganda… We brough…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…was the very first video we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to record the music of the Mijikenda tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where we met and recorded the wonderful Batwa people. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global tra…
Victoria’s reflections on field trip to Northern Uganda News
…gine your world through your soulful eyes Their silence speaks volumes, a story to tell We’ll re-tell your story, we are Singing Wells We travel a road to a world far apart Your country, Uganda, it captures our heart Your eyes are a window that’s opening wide To tell us your story that’s hidden inside So sing us your story and dance us your life Share with us your memories and don’t let them die Sing us your history and dance us your life And your…
A new type of city Story
…n the distance. Despite this unconventional type of city,I loved it. There was certainly a lot going on and during the week Akello told us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…Mperwa have settled on a small area of borrowed land just a few kilometres from the town. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnificent Virunga volcanos in the distance. But we were quickly struck by the impoverishment of this small community. As we arrived, a group of women were gathered on a muddy terrace, washing their babies in a small plastic…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…s, ‘For reasons I can’t fully explain, contemporary East African music has lost touch with its tribal roots. Our most popular musicians find far more inspiration in western music than they do with East African music. I worry about this. As a people, we risk losing our deep cultural heritage – the role of traditional music and dance in our lives. And as musicians, we risk becoming undifferentiated. Rather than drawing upon what makes us unique we r…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…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) all travel plans must assume an average speed of 50 kph. It is simply impossible for two vans and 10 people to travel faster. Keep a running table of groups, songs and audi…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…all security related, but the steps are worth recounting: Drove 8 minutes to Airport. About 600 meters outside airport we had to stop and all get out of van and go through a metal detector. There was a large sign telling us not to bring in pistols and rifles. The van was then searched. At airport, we had to unload bags at departures, take them by trolly to bottom of stairs. Take all bags up the stairs. Find new trolly and proceed to next stage. A…