African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ribal Crafts of Uganda. 1st. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ‘Traditional Instruments’ of the Uganda People’ (2012), Face Music, Available: http://www.face-music.ch/ ‘EgpytSearch Forums’, Wysinger, M. (2008), REAL Ancient Egyptian Music and Dance , Available: http://www.egyptsearch.com …
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…ere the men drum around the outside and women dance in the middle without drums (typically in Uganda, drums are only for men). A group of elderly men would perform it during the time of crowning the chief and then when he dies. It is also performed to entertain important personnel on big occasions. Being the only royal dance, it is one of the most important of the many dances of the Acholi: 2. We then plan to record a group performing the Otole wa…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…s so good, we decided to put together a magic moment. Watch this space for videos. We recorded right through to 9PM and the ‘northern folks’ rushed to the airport. The Ketebul crew continued to work in the studio, led by Jessie who loves bringing Singing Wells musicians into the studio. Hunter and Jimmy will board our flight at about 11PM and with a 12 midnight wheels up, we will officially end the ‘field visit.’ Now the hard work begins of produc…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…ing throughout it all. Other than recording, we continued to blog our little hearts out, write up trip reports, strategies, lessons learned, etc… The good news is we have now fully planned out field visits through 2014. Jimmy 10 March 2012…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…ssions are sometimes in conflict. If we spend too much of our time showing videos of more traditional tribes singing traditional songs, we might turn off the young audience we are trying to attract. Like kids everywhere, they tend to reject their parents’ and grandparents’ music, hoping to discover new music they can uniquely own. If we spent too much of our time showing only the videos of the few groups we think can be fed into more mainstream mu…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…er side. The second car bites the dust From Karabaret, we travelled to Nakuru and then half of us travelled on in the pitch black to Nairobi. The Nakuru crew, in the white van, was stopped cold by a broken alternator belt. The other car was able to flag down a matatu (small van public transport that fill the roads everywhere) and head back. We agreed to take off the belt altogether and get them to Nakuru before dark (with no power they had no ligh…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…kuru travelling down the Rift Valley. We will take this ride tomorrow. For today, however, in the words of Robert Frost, we ‘took the road less travelled.’ We left Iten on a red, dirt road. The athletes ran on the sides and our car and jeep travelled in the middle. While the countryside was beautiful, the roads left a bit to be desired and we bumped and jostled for about 80 kms. The land is tilled now, waiting for a new planting season, so we are…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…Kalomoywa We recorded 8 songs with them and a magic moment of wonderful chorus. The songs were: Kinyakar, Kamatakar, Chepo Nandi, Kamitoi, Kaperwo, Chemining Tie, Chepo Chepkai, Kimnakiy Mitinge, Kisech. Click here to go to Song Translations Everything Else Everything else from today can be divided into three key events. First, we survived the drive. There were a few scary moments, the first being driving to the village for the shoot – straight up…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…lls in Kisumu, Lake Victoria) were amazing and more modern than most music today. The Clapperboard Today was the first day we used the ‘clapperboard’. First a little background to this…… Singing Wells has always been about the music so our initial focus was on audio recording. We invested in first class audio equipment and can record using 8 mics directly into Pro Tools. But during the March Pilot programme, we realised that the visual experience…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…nspiration for the name comes from the real-life singing wells of the Samburu tribes people. During the dry season, Samburu herdsmen (and boys) draw much needed water for their cattle from deep wells which they have dug in the parched river bed. As they pull water from these wells they begin to sing, a different song emanating from each well. The animals appear from the bush, seeming to recognize the unique song of their master. Once the animals h…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…ang a song called ‘Kiseete’ on the album. (Interestingly, our second group today, Chebonet, played Kiseete, which is clearly a communal song of this community). Ben recorded 8 tracks with us, including a fantastic Influences track with Eddie Grey, a musician who joined Ketebul Music in 2011. https://youtu.be/ot3xNHqm7pU https://youtu.be/MPPFeuH1vF4 Please click here to read the meaning behind Ben’s songs: Song Translations of Ben Kisinja Chebonet…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…ey talks and the whole crew were there by 09.00. Everyone. That‘s the good news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little thunder storms and the normal fun with roadworks and trucks. Nice chicken grill in Nakuru for lunch with full team. Fun fact, Nakuru is the birthplace of Nakumatt, the most successful retail…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…raditionally they move around quite a bit and will not have heavy, big instruments. They will only have instruments they can easily carry although it’s amazing the amount sound they can produce. ” We asked Tabu about the role of harmony in African music: ” Ethical harmonies are different from traditionally trained harmonies. When the missionaries came to East Africa they changed the ways people sang to fit with the traditional Western hymns. The c…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…the end of the day I will have been in four different countries – Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. I am already struggling to believe that I am in East Africa when 24 hours ago I was in South West London and this makes me want to pinch myself even harder to make me realize it’s actually me here, doing this. We arrive in Kigali and we are all immediately struck by the airport – it’s calm, quiet and clean. There are no delays at immigration. It’s…
Return of the Batwa @ Ketebul Music Studios Story
…whole group insisted that we could not even consider recording the Batwa in Nairobi unless he was included. Gasoda Yohanadj Mbirikimu Mbarushimana – “Challenger” The magic bass player (beat boxes into a pot) with Tiny Moses. Great backing vocals as well. Mbirikimu Mbarushimana Gaudancia (and baby Stella) A wonderful singer from the group ‘Togetherness’ who we recorded in the empty (good news) refugee camp outside of Kisoro. She sang with each of…
Music of the Kalenjin: video playlist News
…hland ethnic group – the Nilotic – include eight culturally and linguistically related sub tribes – Kipsigis, Nandi, Tugen, Marakwet, Keiyo, Sabaot and Terik. They are perhaps most widely known as world class athletes as many of the legendary Kenyan long distance runners are Kalenjins, including Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee and the first African to win an Olympic gold medal (Mexico City 1968 in the 1500m). Video playl…