A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…the men. The rest were filled with bloodlust, however, and moved to the next village and killed everyone. The Macedonia Band, a Likembe band (think thumb pianos on steroids, sounding like a calypso band), played in the rebel camps and within the rebel held villages. Aware that the political tides may change, the band leader was careful to not play rebel songs and stuck with very traditional songs far away from politics. The tides did change, the…
A new type of city Story
…somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….
The Influences Series from Singing Wells News
…ll refresh the origins of East African music and make it discoverable to a new generation of music fans. Newly released Influences song – Missing March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, fe…
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…cameraman and artist then also joined in. I quickly re-arranged the microphones and prepared headphones, so that the musicians could hear each other, and we recorded it. Thus the concept of the ‘Influence’ session was born. The recording is here for you to listen to, and to buy on the Mijikenda of Kenya album The father, Nyerere wa Konde was very gracious and offered us coconuts as a thanks for visiting and recording, which he, with the help of ot…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…a few Skype calls, we agreed to start the Singing Wells project. We both knew we wanted to do something to preserve the music but it took us a while to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the musicians, to their villages, to their homes and record them with their families. We would record them singing their songs to their children, three generations dancing together in their village….
Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…ur first song, ‘Welo Obino’ is sung to welcome visitors, a celebration for new comers in the village. That is why we sang it for you first. We then sang ‘Dug Gang’ which is to celebrate the end of war, to call the people over to tell them we are in peace. ‘Alocaloca’ was our final song: it is all about change. It is mainly sung to mark the end of a dispute or a war. These songs now mean more to us as the hardship in Northern Uganda is slowly comin…
Returning to Uganda in Autumn 2013 Story
…t keeps bringing us back… The individual voices The collective voices The exotic instruments The extraordinary dance, youth and energy The inspiration A performance or two for each of these… 1. The Individual Voices: Who can forget Francis, the lead of the Batwa musical community, singing with Jessie in the grounds of our hotel. Everyone stopped to listen and it remains one of our most inspiring tracks… Or the leader singer of the Rubanga Kingom A…
‘Missing’ – Singing Wells fundraising song for 2013 News
…March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, featuring musicians from Kenya, Uganda and the UK collaborating in this a unique song to celebrate and support Singing Wells….
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…eep all watches and computers/cameras on same time. Agree to do an audio mix in the field and bounce immediately for videos. The ‘field’ audio becomes the input recording for videos (they need to be topped and tailed but no other editing) – we then will go back and do more detailed mixes on audio that we want to include in DVD’s and CD’s. This allows for much faster uploading of videos. That’s it. Onward and upward…. reflections to follow. And tha…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…em. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduce a whole new melody over Stanley’s song and deliver it as Bishop reported with pitch/timing perfect. By this time Nyerere Wa Konde wrote a new part requiring a different bass and guitar for part of the song. They rushed into the control booth to offer something (remember, the leader is someone we discovered in the coast and recorded for the first time in March 2011 and now he is re-…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…Uganda’s own Michael Ouma’s debut album, still in the same light she joined Miss Tshila in a girls band called “Tshila and the Diamond’s”, still in this journey she worked with Miss Lilian Mbabazi in a band called “Lillian and the Sun downers”, among others. Akello now begins a new journey of composing and writing her own music which she chooses to call “Hybrid”, a simple cross between urban sounds and local tunes back home. Akello joined the Sin…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…sions or children, back to her village in shame. She is unlikely to find a new partner again unless she finds someone who hasn’t heard the story. The man will be forced to pay whatever sum of money demanded by the offended husband and will even be expected to give up his shamba – the small plot of land upon which his family depends. As late as the 70’s, the other consequence is the offending husband would kill the adulterer. Whenever the song is s…
Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
…ing contemporary and world music greats such as Kaweesa, Susan Kerunen, Myko Ouma, Tshila and Kinobe Herbert..she is indeed a rare talent with a rich textured organic voice. Akello begins a new journey of performing her own music compositions that she chooses to call “Hybrid” a simple cross between urban and local sounds back home. …
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…also share the knowledge on culture and pass on the knowledge to the young ones in order to promote and preserve the Batwa culture which includes music and dance. KANYABUKUNGU group As the Batwa group that benefited from the Singing Wells visit, the group is improving very fast in terms of cultural performance and savings as a community. The group is active, committed and promising because they have made savings which has accumulated to UGX 80,0…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…d flawlessly. The next big mission was video. We had to discover what everyone else knew before us, that to be able to work quickly after a take to edit between three cameras, we needed to have all three cameras and audio start recording to a clapper board and keep recording through the whole take. We learned to get all the computer and cameras on the same time signature. We learned the roles of each camera (1 is stationary, full group, 2 is polit…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…l ashamed that I have an amazing teacher, my grandfather. He’s taught everyone, including Kaboge Chagalla (a famous Nairobi percussionist) and Mwatela Kamanza (pictured in the far right of the group, Sengenya, we recorded in March 2011 near Mombassa ). We recorded three songs with the band at Ketebul studios tonight. These are: Ndege Ya Panda Mlima (Sengenya Style) : Written in 1988, this literally means ‘Music’ Strengt’h (Ndege) can climb up (Ya…