Day Two: 8 March 2022 (Ilesi) Story
…isters and their two brothers have pleasantly matured musically and it was really encouraging to see them helping to keep their father’s legacy alive. All was done a few minutes to 8:00pm. After the routine photo shoot the Obasie Palnyang brothers and sisters were off to their serene village in Kodedema, close to the Kenya-Uganda border. After the long day, some of the Ketebul Music team decided to accompany our host, Jack Songwa, to unwind at a l…
Imachina Group
…coming together for the wedding. Khuchende Pole: This song is telling everyone to walk slowly to and from the wedding so all the people can gather and honour the bride and groom. The Shishebo process – this is about rites of passage, and specifically male circumcision. The songs include: Bikubanda: This is a song that mocks other tribes and peoples that don’t carry out these rituals and ‘are afraid of the knife.’ Nuli Musata: This is a song that i…
The Luo of Kenya Album
…Group. The Kochia Traditional Dancers gave a very visual performance, and one of their tracks, recorded on the shores of Lake Victoria at the Homa Bay Hotel is also included. The final day of recording on the trip saw us head to Rongo – and the settings of Dinky’s Resort Club. The Otacho Young stars, whose image graces the album cover, are featured, as are the Kanindi Jazz Band and Josey Kokeo, performing a special collaboration. As an added extr…
Camera Group
…Camera, who has been performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE….
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…raditional lyre; ISIRILI – a one-string fiddle; LUENGELE– a percussive idiophone composed of a wooden bowl struck with wooden sticks on both the outside and the inside; ENG’OMA – a generic term for drums, use it for several drums of different shapes and sizes; CHICHUKA – shakers made out of gourds; metal ring struck with wooden sticks metal plate used as a drum-set cymbal. The charismatic Namatete played for us 6 songs and did one of his song (“Oc…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…ement. The piano and gaara add more depth to the chorus parts and pull us away from the shakers’ high pace forcing us to lay back some more. I think the end result leans more towards dodo, at least to my ears.” We love what Stefano has done to make this track sound truly his own. If you want to see more of his work, you can follow him on… Instagram: @stefanositanne Twitter: @stefanositanne Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stefanositanne Want to…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…cut down, the logs have been hollowed out and the skins have been formed. One of the early milestones was finding a tree out of which to craft the largest of the drums, no trivial task given the size and type of tree required. Here is our first video, James Isabirye talking about the tree and introducing the project: https://youtu.be/bZUxKhTGmCA The lead drum maker is called Muhamudu Kaziba (in the left of the video above). He comes from a famous…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…na Walusimbi of Nile Beat Artists to reconstruct the performances directly from the recording he received from Peter Cooke. James tells us: “Nile Beat Artists is a semiprofessional group of musicians that include highly talented musicians. We will also add other musicians selected on the basis of high skill to avoid wastage of time. We will listen to the recordings together with the youths. Then we make sense of what is played in the recordings. A…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…s on the Zeze (stringed instruments made from gourds) and Ilimba (a lamellophone, or modified thumb piano). We will spend a lot of time with Chibite over the next two days and meet many different family members. For this first recording in Boma, the line-up was Ndahani Bwani, the older brother, his sister Ndekwa and two daughters Grace and Leah. Here’s the group: The group is a family group, with all members related to Msafiri Zawose, a very famou…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…If you mix it, you will drink it. Kiingereza (English) This is Leo’s song from his album, Bangili (bangles) This was a wonderful day of recording for three reasons: We had the whole day so were able to record a large number of songs and do an “Influences” session. This gave the village children time to get to know us and understand our mission. By the end they were singing along to all the songs. In addition to being a professional musician, Leo…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…us and definitely a top 5 Singing Wells moment. The Snake Dance originals from the Sukuma People in the Lake Victoria zone, where there are, you guessed it, lots of snakes. The tribes learn early which are the poisonous snakes and which are safe and dancers grow up learning to handle the non-poisonous snakes. The medicine doctors learn cures for snake bites. Snakes are kept as pets and feature heavily in their dances, which involve acrobatics, ‘c…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…e drummers. I thought I was in great shape, because I knew Sebuwufu, a xylophone player who knew all about the drums and agreed to help me. Together, we found out that Peter Cooke had recorded the drums and we listened to some of these recordings. But then, Sebuwufu passed away in August 2015 and I realised I had a big problem now. He might have been the last person who knew the drums. But I remembered that Sebuwufu had heard of someone named Musi…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Benga playing a dominant role. Currently, you can get advance copies from K…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…ait 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 & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…ent written for five or six different musicians – the Royal Drums, the xylophone, the flutes, the trumpets all follow this pattern and there are magical moments that happen in such complex song-writing. Are all instruments the same? Here we are less sure. The xylophone is extraordinary and continues to thrive outside of palace life. Xylophones didn’t disappear in Uganda village life after the fall of the kingdoms in 1966 because they were part of…
Central and Eastern Uganda: Day 2 – Kampala to Jinja Story
…of three separate groups of musicians: the trumpets, the drums and the xylophone. Let’s look at each in turn: The Bigwala trumpets These trumpets are made of long gourds and a trumpet group is made up of at least five trumpets (or more), each of which plays a specific role. They are tuned to the pentatonic scale and like the royal drums are often tuned to the xylophone. Our group had five trumpets: The Enhana: meaning ‘calf’ — this is the largest…