Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…anted to make sure we recorded their shakers, the Kayamba (hand shaken idiophones with dried seeds inside), the Lungo (broken glass moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones). In the Rift Valley, where the people are more pastoral, we really focused on their voices and I wanted some one to play the burkandit (a handmade guitar). In Nyanza, we focused on the Orutu, the Nyatiti and the Ohangla (drums). In Kisoro…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…he group then went on to sing An Lakara Pee… …Odong’o Kilau… …Lawie Akada (with the group leader playing the Olwet (flute)… …and they closed (and we closed our Ugandan trip) with Anyaka Lim Pee. The last song is essentially a lament that a male suitor doesn’t have enough money for the woman’s bridal dowry. Watmon is pictured above with a plastic flute (traditionally it’s made of bamboo – but he said these are hard to come by) which he played durin…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…music 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 th…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…nvolved I decided to go to schools and teach music. I compose new material with my students and come up with something they like. I watch how they dance and whether they feel the rhythms and I try to teach them what I’m doing, but I also adapt to how they feel the music. I let them take the music where they want to take it as long as it is rooted in our traditions. I just watch them dance and move and create the linkages. Q to the grandson: Why ar…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…nd with “Camera 2 (or 3) is speeding.” Now with all systems go Nick starts with ‘This is Macedonia with their fourth song Uganda Land of Freedom Take 5’. He then clicks the clapper board on which he’s written village, group, song, take and the camera cards everyone is using. We all then go through the take. Now of course, being the island of misfits that we are, every 5 times or so one of the cameras is in the wrong place or drops the lens cap and…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…We then arrived at Joshua’s village. It was the most beautiful we’ve seen with four-five small thatched huts, each painted with patterns. There was a large clay oven in the middle of the village and the whole grounds were landscaped with flowers. The village was so well swept and so often that you could see 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…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…horrible things that will kill you. They are pitch black. They are filled with deep holes that swallow you. They are lined with bikes and motorcycles that fall from the shoulder in front of you. They have trucks zooming by you, typically with one headlight so they can pretend to be motorcycles and disguise the fact that they are mostly in your lane. Everything that could happen in life is happening on the shoulder in pitch dark only to be reveale…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…nter and the song is about the village wondering whether he will come back with a kill. Oramba is fierce, running around with a spear, lunging at the audience. Think about what that would be like for the children as Oramba drifts into the shadows only to fly out of the darkness at different points of the circle? So, we vow to do more nighttime recording. Maybe with mosquito netting. Cieng Dwong Tonight’s group was fantastic, especially given the f…
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 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…e Rigi Rigi, where Owach Tartizio sang Obimo. We then featured the Adungu, with Okumu Jolly playing Lwangni. And finally, we recorded the Ndara with Omiya Charles playing Mbeta. We loved these musicians the fun of the traditional dances. You got mad at the stubborn girl, you got scared when the hunter returned and you celebrated for the new chief. On the way to Fort Murchison where we were staying, we saw some spectacular stormy scenes as we cross…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…with us: 2 Apple 17″ 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 Microphones2 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 Think…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…rum and then use a little metal brush as a tom. There are then lots of men with big sticks with metal on them which sound like a snare. All the men sing back up and become a beautiful chorus. 20 folks playing Likembe give you the soft rhythms of Calypso, but as Tabu pointed out, it is more accurate to say Calypso sounds like the soft rhythms of a good Likembe band. Here’s a quick sound clip of the band… Here’s a video of their ‘magic moment’: Thei…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…by: Bul (drums), Gara (ankle shakers) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…bution to link it to the map. This means one can compare tribal structures with musical styles. This could go on, such as with information about dress, language, history of conflict, customs etc. Below is an example of how the layers on the map can be used.. Distribution of all percussion instruments Distribution of melodic percussion instruments Distribution of only ankle bells The map above gives an indication of where ankle be…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…pells it out. Ultimately we all made it to super-market where we loaded up with money, mobile phone cards and other sundries and headed out. The William car stopped to pick up Akello, a lovely Ugandan singer/songwriter, who is joining the group as our Influences artist. The Emmanuel car headed 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 hea…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…frican music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and the Tra…