Tracey Instrument Collection News
…It is made from legavaan, or rock monitor (a large type of lizard found in South Africa), skin which gives it the ‘crackling’ sound. The legavaan is now actually endangered in Uganda, as it is demanded so much for drums, lyres and fiddles. Endara log xylophone The xylophone is 263.5cm long, made up of 16 roughly cut keys and tuned to a pentatonic scale. It is played using one beater, which is attached to the xylophone by string and can be played b…
ILAM, Repatriation and Jimmie Rodgers/Chemirocha News
…ds appropriately spin and we’re happy about that. The tribal music of East Africa is forever evolving. It is wonderful that Jimmie Rogers inspired a new song and it is amazing that the Otacho Young Stars were inspired to sing a song about a factory manager. At Singing Wells, we do not celebrate static village music – that would be to deny the very essence of music, which is to evolve organically as the musicians are inspired by new things. We simp…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…the CD at music shops. By the way, distribution remains a terrible problem for all of Africa. My worry remains, however, to create content and then worry about sales and marketing. No point in arguing about marketing until you have deep and rich content. Our government is pushing for local content which is good, but my view is that we first have to have great Kenyan content and then our people will want it because it is good not due to regulations…
Preserving Threatened Heritage News
…has been helping the villagers to preserve the music, by encouraging them to grow gourd trumpets, teach it to the youth and increase the profile of the music, by performing it at more occasions. Nevertheless, their efforts are stumped by limited resources and finances. …
Report from Womex 2013 News
…o the Singing Wells Bill Odidi. The project is to provide an online portal for African musicians to showcase their work, and it looks great. Hopefully we can help the project and work together in some way in the future. Showcases Visited Mike and I were present at the opening concert – curated by Cerys Matthews at the fantastic Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The show was a showcase of traditional Welsh music including performances from…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…the centre, they also live there and till a modest garden, producing crops for their food and also for trading in exchange for other food items like rice and beans. They play both traditional Bagisu music as well as being a brass band. Julius informed us that his vision is to get to a point where they will play traditional Bagisu music in the brass band format. They are well known for their circumcision dance ‘Kadodi’, the pre-circumcision dance ‘…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…he ancestors. This is Bashitsi Bahire, the welcome song which the group performed for us. This was our first experience of the traditional music of the Batwa people and we were all overwhelmed by the quality of the performance, so before leaving the Birara we invited Francis Sembagare and the three female vocalists, Jolly, Paskazia and Vastina, to join us in Kisoro so that we could record more of their songs with the Ketebul Music artist Winyo….
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…k of the van on a bumpy track to one of the remote villages we are heading for. We are adding to our equipment lists all the time as we refine our methods, learn new techniques and face new challenges. For our next field recording trip to Uganda (November 2013), this is the list of everything we will be taking 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 L…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…: As many aid agencies now recognize, a key conduit to sustainable support for Africa is a healthy village. One of the most important proxies to understand the health of a village, is whether it has a strong, vibrant and young musical troupe. Supporting tribal music, therefore, is a key component in sustaining a healthy village, which is a key conduit to delivering all the more urgent and important aid, from medicines, to clean water, to sustainab…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…the world. I’m also the music editor for our films and now while searching for tracks for our Ugandan film. I’ve found your website – lots of respect for this work!” Josh Courter, Director, The Last Hunger Season “Hi Victoria, a friend, of a friend, of a friend, brought the Singing Wells project to my attention and I decided to reach out. We are producing a documentary film called The Last Hunger Season about 4 Kenyan farmers who are growing their…
The New Singing Wells website News
…ou can listen to each of the albums in full and then purchase them in the knowledge that all of your money will go back to the performer, wherever possible. Search facility We’ve added a search facility so you can easily find the information you’re looking for. And finally… Please get in touch with us via Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you think of the new site! Our thanks go to Wes Burden and the team at Nebulo Strata who worked tireles…
Kampala traffic jam Story
We go to great lengths to plan the itinerary for our field recording trips so that we make the best use of the limited time we have. Steve K from Ketebul Music is our Africa Project Manager and he does an amazing job in the weeks prior to the trip, contacting music groups, booking local accommodation and arranging vehicles and drivers to transport us to some very remote destinations. But even Steve’s meticulous planning could not help us avoid…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…s, stories, videos, interviews, and other content we have gathered in East Africa. Our first group of the month is the Watmon Cultural Group. We have videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at the Entebbe Airport Guesthouse, where due to the generosity and patience of the manager Jan Willem and the other guests, we set up a recording studio in the garden. You can join us on Facebook here: https://www.faceboo…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…estate. We are indebted to Lucy McCann and the staff at Rhodes House in Oxford for their help in studying the as yet un-catalogued collection. James Currey Andy also provided support to Bill in the video recording of an interview conducted with James Currey – a leading academic publisher on Africa. The interview will form a part of the project looking at the other aspects of culture around the time of independence in Kenya. Currey was part of the…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…is music to the next generation, to inspire them to look to their heritage for inspiration before they look elsewhere. We do this with ‘Influences’ artists… Like Winyo, an unbelievable Kenyan musician that was blown away by the music of the Batwa and couldn’t help but joining Jovah in song: 5. Singing Wells is about bringing together tribal music and wonderfully talented young performers like Akello from Uganda… We brought Akello to Northern Ugand…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…a tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where we met and recorded the 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 Sing…