Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…women all dance. They call their music ‘folk’ because it combines traditional musical styles with modern themes of war, disease, etc. Their lead singer is Wokorach Walter and their main likembe player is Ocora David. Here, they are warming up… Let’s set the scene of a typical performance and please watch the videos. There are typically 8-10 thumb pianos in any performance, ranging from about 20 inches down to about 6 inches. For this band, the ‘ba…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…t cast a hundred diameter shadow. We set up under its branches. As we did, from all directions, came a team of children and a team of performers – 6 groups with 20 members in each – and another 100 children. By the end, these two teams were joined by another group of 100 adults from the surrounding village. Our backdrop became not the cement buildings, but the faces and shirts of our three teams – we guess they were 350 strong at the peak. The Mus…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…d online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia), it is Open Source and so people from all around the world can add information to make the map a very useful source of information. By creating the basics, as we have, the broad tribal and musical structure of East Africa is there, now we can only add to it! There was also the difficulty of classification. There are hundreds of different language groups and dialects between tribes in East Africa, meaning t…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…the road side to pick at a fresh patch of grass, bike rider riding with small loads or walking their bikes with large loads (this trips winner was a large door, but fails miserably to our Rift Valley coffin), bed frames in all shapes and sizes gathered in front of workshops, big steel gates leaning against small trees, live chickens hung upside down by their feet showing how fresh they are for purchase, children gathering in groups of 2 to 5 to w…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…to Entebbe. After quick breakfast, we did last minute shopping for essential supplies (alcohol, sunglasses, papers) and then took the train to C57, where we boarded our flight and left pretty much on time. Jimmy sat next to Andrew who lives in Kampala and married to a Uganda woman with whom he’s had a one year old son. He was passionate about West African music and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…irobi studio. That led to 10 Batwa musicians and 5 Batwa babies travelling from Kisoro to Kampala to Nairobi and recording 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 remi…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…s surrounded by beautiful tall trees which blocked the sun. There were two all-female groups waiting for us, which seems appropriate given it is International Women’s Day. The Music Elimu Cultural Promoters Our first group was the Elimu Cultural Promoters from the Tugan tribe. They are a collection of women from little villages scattered around the Kabarnet area and they want to promote good values of culture and education. They were all dressed i…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…the altitude (roughly 2300 meters) is perfect – right at the peak of natural altitude where you can still train hard, but so high that the lungs are pushed to the limit. Second, for such high altitudes, the weather is great and allows year round training. Few places at this altitude allow year round training. Third, Iten is all about inspiration. Foreign athletes are motivated by all the Kenyan runners. You feel part of something huge and are sur…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…town in Lamut. They were a younger group, tall and thin, divided between male and female dancers. They performed explosive short dances, each with a clear story dramatically acted out. They were dressed in striking blue costumes. We recorded 10 songs with them: Kaseta, Kitok Pokot, Chepo Ktpsot, Chelimo, Kech, Chepng’aror, Kalokeya, Suma Agenge and then returned to do an Influences session on Kech and a Magic Moment. The Magic Moment focused on t…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…d loved R Kelley. He also liked Salif Keita, an afro-pop singer/songwriter from Mali, his only ‘African music’ influence. Steve’s first job at Ketebul was as an intern working with Jesse and Gabriel on the Spotlight on Kenyan Music series. His feature artist was Makedem who ‘blew him away’ and he still views Ohanglaman as his favourite album. He also says Jesse was the perfect coach, so passionate about good music, but so meticulous about creating…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…atrick Ondiek, adds, ‘I love producing the final videos and getting phone calls from my friends asking me ‘how did you find these musicians?’ I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ We have developed a three year plan to record a wide selection of important tribal musicians in East Africa. We are recording music in Northern Uganda in Autumn 2012 and then we will travel to Tanzania a…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…First up for recording was Ben Kisinja, a wonderful guitarist in the typical Kalenjin style. Tabu describes this style as very traditional and the way of singing is very unique to the Sabaot clan of the Kalenjin. The guitar is called a burkandit, and is a homemade guitar somewhat resembling the Nyatiti of the Luo. He was joined by a percussionist who played the karachimek, which is essentially two sticks on the ground played by two sticks. Tabu f…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…in the Ngara Estate, another part of Nairobi. He was the biggest Kikuyu artist around and would walk around our area with a guitar and play to all the little kids. My brothers all love salsa music and I grew up listening to Ochieng Nelly, a huge Benga star”. Singing Wells team, March 2012 …
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…d to play in festivals and concerts around the nation. They’ll gain financially from this and be able to support the music. “They may even become world stars!” He cited Tiny Moses from Kisoro, saying that he could play anywhere. He also works with the fusion of traditional and more modern music. He works with young musicians in Nairobi to combine their music with the tribal music. The Rift Valley is known for its marathon runners. Most of the Keny…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
…uest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Where+the+world+got+real+flavour+of+Kenya+in+London/-/1248928/1480860/-/djb5mf/-/index.html Photos from Kenya House …
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…x with the attribute table in it, which should look like this. The column called NAME_2 contains the names of all of the counties. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out a smart way of getting those names out of ArcMap and into Excel, so usually I just copy them out. Luckily for you wondermonkeys, if you’re going to be using the UK unicorn distribution data I’ve cooked up or even just the UK for your country, I’ve already done that for you! Click…