A History of Recording East African Music News
…ross the world; beginning in the Middle East in 1966 and spreading through North and East African from 1969 till 1975. He later went on to record across the Pacific Ocean for ten years, from 1978. He is stated to have recorded hundreds of tribes and is commended for forming close relationships with them, which allowed him to gain permission to record their music. Mary K. Oyer, b. 1923 Mary Oyer graduated from Goshen College – a private Christian…
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. …
Report from Womex 2013 News
…assers by to listen to the music we had recorded. We had a few instruments from our collection on display, 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 f…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…ing with us: 2 Apple MacBook Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional 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 Thin…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…ogether tribal music and wonderfully talented young performers like Akello from Uganda… We brought Akello to Northern Uganda. She joined almost every band. Here she is with the Watmon Cultural Group singing Amari… Or with the Adungu Cultural Group singing Awinyo… 6. Singing Wells is about capturing how cool, how relevant this music is through Magic Moments: Listen to the Nyatiti for the first time with your eyes closed. It is a kick drum. It is a…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…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 track from Abubilla Music featuring musicians from Sao Paulo, Nairobi and London which was produced to support the launch of the Singing Wells project in 2011. Keep watching! …
A new type of city Story
…d Trip 2012 we ventured into Kampala to pick up Akello before we headed up north to Gulu. I was curious to see what the capital would be like; this image speaks a lot about the city. The number of ‘proper’ buildings were few and in only the small centre. It was hilly and most of the roads were not built for vehicles. The shops were small shacks mostly and at night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift house…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…hen we travelled to the Mperwa Batwa community. Consisting of just a small number of families, the 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 a…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…neer, Patrick Ondiek, adds, ‘I love producing the final videos and getting phone calls from my friends asking me ‘how did you find these musicians?’ I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows where we…
Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
…ld 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 Rubanga Kingom Awach…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…he Nyatiti and the Ohangla (drums). In Kisoro I didn’t know what to expect from the Batwa and was schocked by how musical they were – amazing vocal harmonies. In Nortern Uganda, I wanted to make sure we did three things: 1) the likembe (thumb piano, called Kalimba in Kenya) which they borrowed from the Congo but make their own, 2) adungu (stringed instrument) and 3q) certain vocal harmonies that are very unique. Q: And how did we do? A: I think we…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…He accompanies Watmon’s group which plays Acholi style music (as they are from the North). Whilst talking to him I asked him about popular Ugandan music, as we’d heard alot during the week (usually being pumped out of local stores on big speakers). We listened to a few different tracks on his phone, and I narrowed my favourite Ugandan pop tracks down to ‘Apple’ by Bigtym and ‘Guns & Bomb’ by Bebecool.. Odika Constantine, son of Watmon, is in his…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…usic in the style of Acholi, as Watmon is originally from Kitikum, not far from Gulu up in Northern Uganda, and moved down to Kampala during the war. We love the instrument they played, the Nanga (below) so much we asked if they would join us in Entebbe to record more songs with Akello. We asked them to come with us to our next stop: our hotel in Entebbe, purely because we were desperate to have more time with the stunning musicians we met in the…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…ou will be happy to know we’ve just passed Jinja and are roughly two hours from Kampala on a well paved two lane road. We have moved from sheer terror that we will be run off the road by Mac trucks to a growing lack of confidence that we will arrive in Kampala before the hotel kitchens closed. Given that we forgo lunch as a rule we find ourselves highly dependent upon night time eating. Just over the sounds of speeding trucks and crashing bikes on…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…da we met with Swalhe Mwatela Massai, the founder of Msergo Mwatela Group, from the Coastal regions of Kenya. He originally performed 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 man…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…ee by the raised area under the huts that they had swept 6 inches of earth from the common areas. The Macedonia Band is a Likembe Band (thumb or finger harp) with about 8 Lukumbe players and four percussionists. If you recall the ‘bass’ of the Rubanga Kingom band in Awach was a small Likembe on an overturned steel tub. The Macedonia band’s ‘bass’ was a very large (3 foot) Likembe that act as bass and kick drum. They also had 16 dancers, all 12-15…