Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…s unique and special – we loved them all – so picking just 10 songs for a ‘Best of’ album was not easy. Here are our final choices….it’s just a small reflection of what was an extraordinary year of recording music in East Africa. We hope you enjoy listening. Please get in touch and let us know what you think. Just send us an email – we’d love to hear from you. Email Victoria You can see and hear more on our YouTube channel : Singing Wells on YouTu…
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…ing with us was a funeral song that our team at Ketebul Music felt was the best version they’d ever heard sung. Here it is: But, this journey is not just about preservation of the music. We are continuously reminded that this music is vibrant, fresh and contemporary. This was on full display for us at the close of last year when we brought 10 musicians from the Batwa communities of southern Uganda to Nairobi to record some of their songs with…
A message from Henry Neza at UOBDU News
…fe outside their community when they visited the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi for more recordings. During this trip they were able to interact with the Ford Foundation and benefit from new clothes and shoes, which improved their social status among the dominant tribes here. This gave them confidence and changed their behaviour. Now the non Batwa community agree that the Batwa can compete with others in many different fields if they are given t…
Guy Morley – No Nation News
…Guy Morley is music programmer for the Big Chill festival – one of the highlights of the UK’s cultural calendar, and is the founder of No Nation, an independent arts programming, production and promotion company. No Nation has developed links across East Africa and has recently worked on a project for Sound and Music looking at the influence of early American country music in Africa. …
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…the ndindingwa style. They used the filimbi (a type of whistle). Group 2: Zaire ndindingwa Kibarani: We recorded behind one of the long houses under two great trees, which sheltered us from the sun. Click here to read our fuller blog of this visit. Interviewing group leaders in the village of Kibarani The third group was Chechemeko raha, led by Bahri wa katana in the checchemeko style. They danced like crazy in the mabumbu-mbu style, with their ma…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…o undertake the trip to this remote area of North West Kenya, 800 km from Nairobi and home to the Turkana and Samburu tribes and the original ‘singing wells’. When Steve Kivutia (Ketebul Music) presented the idea of recording music at the Festival to the AMF, it seemed a perfect fit with the objectives of the Singing Wells project and the trustees were happy to approve a grant to cover the costs of travelling to the Festival with the new mobile re…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…background with brotherly advice. March 26, 2011, about 22.00 hours, JKIA Nairobi. Ketebul had partnered with Abubilla on the Singing Wells Project, just about the best thing, in my view, that has happened to the dwindling fortunes of Kenyan traditional genres of music. Tabu and I were at the airport to receive James Jimmy Allen and Andy Patterson from Abubilla. I’d met Andy towards the end of 2010 on his first visit to Africa and we’d gotten on f…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…ther two groups. Time was of the essence, so an early departure was in the books. Breakfast was a quick affair and we were soon on the road to Killifi. We made a brief stop at Pwani University to pick up Deche the fixer and replenish our water supplies, and then proceeded to the village of Kibarani. Set up was done in a matter of minutes, as the village kids gathered around to see what we were up to. All the kids, with studio in background The fir…
What we learned from the pilot phase News
…merican group) and turned it into something truly amazing by combining the best of old and new. The Magic Moment on Day 1 when it all seemed worth it. We took a simple (very American sounding song) from Bado and blended it with his Dad’s styles to make something really special 3. And Lessons? What Need to Improve? We were glad we did the pilot because we did learn a lot. Here are the main lessons: Far more time on Visuals: We had under-estimat…
Ketebul Music website launched News
…which would show the work of the Ketebul artists in their full glory and we think we’ve succeeded in our goal. Take a good look around the site to see how Ketebul Music is working to combine the traditional sounds of East African tribal music with the best of contemporary artists. And through Bandcamp, listen to or download the inspirational music of Kenya from artists such as Ontiri Bikundo and Makadem, or the 4 piece women’s group Bismillahi Ga…