Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…’s recordings, with work currently being done to also make the Dave Dargie and Andrew Tracey Collections available for online access. There are over 12000 30 second recordings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The archive grants access to anyone who is interested and is not restricted to academic or research purposes. The physical archive at Rhodes University is open normal business hours, unless special arrangements are made. 2. Global Music Archive T…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…of Independent Music. Horizons joined up members from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. We were pleased to be sited next to New Zealand across the way and next door were South Africa! Podcast Andy recorded a few snippets of audio for an upcoming podcast – which will feature on the site soon. The Team A big thanks to Mike and Louise who were marvellous evangelists for the project over the course of the 4 days. Here is a picture of us all at o…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…nd has returned to host villages of peace and music. We met the Macedonia band and the leader told us a long story, which I will do no justice to in a few words. During one of the rebel movements, the rebels came to his village. The typical mode of operation on these visits was to kill the adult males, seize the boys for fighters and hurt and abuse the women. The band leader tried to convince the leaders that he was a man of peace and music and hi…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…e right routines, we can learn more and more from each trip and get better and better. For the March Pilot in 2011, simply getting audio equipment to work in the field was the most important routine. Don’t underestimate the learning required to set up 8 mic recording session in the dirt, surrounded by cows. By Kisoro and the recording of the Batwa, audio was fully sorted and the team could set up and breakdown in about 20 minutes and record flawle…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…o or a drum and all claimed they were members of Macedonia. The Macedonia band and the song Uganda, Land of Freedom was known by everyone and served dozens of times to spare someone a fast execution as a collaborator. We then arrived at Joshua’s village. It was the most beautiful we’ve seen with four-five small thatched huts, each painted with patterns. There was a large clay oven in the middle of the village and the whole grounds were landscaped…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…king on new thatched roofs or those needing repairs. A thatched roof lasts for between five and ten years. Then there are the charcoal makers and sellers. The thatch ladies ensure that the roads are dotted with thatch pillars. The charcoal makers burn the charcoal and then fill five foot high white bags of charcoal that line the roads in groups of 4-5. We often mistake them for nuns walking along the road in their beautiful white dresses. The whit…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…the case and it shouldn’t be surprising. Most good musicians play off the band and if you ask them to play the song just with their part find it all a bit strange. So too for African village groups. They don’t go into studios and ‘lay down their track’ in some great over-dubbing session. They perform with a troupe, and they feed off of and help drive the dancing and the other instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff and we want…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…s the celebration of the chief. It features the spectacular Ndara, the Bul and Agwara and involves a lot of rolling around. We loved it so much we recorded a ‘magic moment’ – there was even more rolling around then usual and the 150 kids around us had a great time. We then took the time to solo each instrument given the quality of the musicians. The started with the Rigi Rigi, where Owach Tartizio sang Obimo. We then featured the Adungu, with Okum…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…ghting (and it is a pretty good tussle) before they are encouraged by the band and woman dancers to calm down, solve their differences and forgive. Given the recent wars in Uganda and given that we are in formally held Kony territory, this song is pretty important. https://youtu.be/_u4-hVbcVV0 In the same vein, their second song was Lweny Dong Pee, a message to the government to bring back the children of conflict, many of whom remain displaced or…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…Group Quite appropriately, after a song about youth, we brought the youth band forward, Pajoto and their instrumental song Dingi Dingi. Here’s the video: Umuny Jubi Ite Yaa They were followed by Umuny Jubi Ite Yaa (essentially the name of their camp plus Ite Yaa, meaning gathering under the Yaa tree). Then they sang: Welo Obino (Let’s Celebrate now that vistor’s have come) Odok Gang (A celebration of peace after war and call to go home), Balo Mura…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ult of a platform developed by Harvard University. WorldMap is a great platform for a project like this for several reasons. It is free and open source which means any researcher can work with the source code to extend and improve its functionality, so it is constantly developing and improving. It’s also web-based so it’s easy to access and share, which is exactly what we want in order to carry on building the Singing Wells community. Rosie has ma…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and the Travelers Rest in Kisoro), Charles and Simba (the Rottweiler who feast on Kisoro locusts during our locust attack). They…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…join us to put on new percussion. He plays the Tabla at the speed of light and transformed the song. He was 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…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…some great songs over the course of four days. We now want to repeat this for every field visit and decided to invite the Otacho Young Stars, the great find of our field visit to record the Luo, and Ben Kisinja, the great Kalenjin musician we recorded earlier this week. Saturday was all about the Otacho Young Stars. Let’s remind you who they are – here are two clips: We focused our recording time on Mr Manager, their quite sincere thank you song…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…ations: Elimu Culture Promotors ‘Chamgi’: a greeting song which ends with handshakes ‘Chebet‘ : about a beautiful girl from Tugen. It’s done in four parts, the first part when her mother presents her, the second part where she sings, the third part when her grandmother presents her and the fourth part when her mother sings her praises. ‘Rirenech’ : a prayer from mass. This is started by the song Kim about God being great and strong. He has created…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…e surrounded by amazing runners. But there is also a mystique to the place and foreign runners feel like some of the magic might rub off on them.” Because the Olympics were approaching the place was filled with runners and documentary makers, all telling the story of this beautiful place. In fact, we were confused for a CNN crew! You can read more about Iten and its famous athletes here: Running with the Kenyans From Iten there is a beautiful tarm…