Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…Rest: We stayed at the Traveller’s Rest, a hotel famed for being a meeting place for gorilla observers. They write about this on their website: “In 1955 Travellers Rest was bought by Walter Baumgartel, and quickly became a meeting place for people interested in the mountain gorilla. Amongst them was ‘gorilla-woman” Dian Fossey, who said: “Walter’s hotel was an oasis to many scientists who came here before me.”. Fossey visited the hotel many, many…
Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…e there will be a Cultural Pavilion which will contain a backdrop of graphic representations of all the countries that have had a role to play in the Queen’s reign. On the Kenya stand there will be Singing Wells DVDs freely available for guests. The DVD is from our ‘Best of Singing Wells 2011‘ and features music videos from our field trips to the Coastal Region and Nyanza Province. We are grateful to our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board and Hill…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…Abubilla also have different technical background. They have access to the best equipment and don’t compromise. This matters to us. Abubilla challenges us to do things differently. And I think we challenge them. AP: Yes it is relevant and it is working. We’re a good team and like working together (sometimes even without Tuskers). Ketebul knows the music, has a feel for the artists, has full access to people that know the best communities to work w…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…eet soft voice. Winyo loved the song a parake yacu yo mgahinga. UOBDU say thanks to Singing Wells. Those are the comments from those who were viewing the photos. Best wishes, Zaninka Penninah UOBDU Coordinator P. O. Box 169, Bazanyamaso Road, Kisoro – Uganda….
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
…e long trip home. The village We recorded at the village’s central meeting place. Throughout recording, clothes were being washed, iron and hung to dry, meetings were being held, grain sifted, chickens chased about… We felt very much in the middle of things. The corner of the ‘meeting place’, with the rich red earth gradually moving up the light blue walls By this time, we were using the back of the truck as the studio as often as we set up the te…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…r performed outside the tribe. They travelled long distances to get to the place we were recording them. The longest distance one tribe came was 150km by bus. Many of the other tribes had walked, some through the night, for up 60km to come meet us. They had practiced along the way and for hours before we recorded them. They were proud and wanted to show us their best performances. I really felt for them if they thought they hadn’t done something r…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…s all about the music and the concert that Tabu organised to celebrate the best in East African Music. This was the concert (actually Tabu called it a ‘meeting’ to celebrate the partnership of Ketebul and Abubilla): Kothbiro: Ayub Ogado. This is the song everyone remembers from the Constant Gardner. Written by the legendary Ayub Ogado. He opened the ‘meeting’ and this was his final song. The instrument you hear is the nyatiti (a lyre-like stringed…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…e women wear a belt made from cowry shells. This belt denotes peace and is place on the woman’s abdomen during childbirth. When the fighting got very bad and the killing escalated the women would lay this belt down in the path of the Pokot. This acted as a ceasefire and the Pokot would always turn back. I asked why the women didn’t always use their belts and Fifty said they would only use them when the men weren’t adhering to the rules of war and…
Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…s unique and special – we loved them all – so picking just 10 songs for a ‘Best of’ album was not easy. Here are our final choices….it’s just a small reflection of what was an extraordinary year of recording music in East Africa. We hope you enjoy listening. Please get in touch and let us know what you think. Just send us an email – we’d love to hear from you. Email Victoria You can see and hear more on our YouTube channel : Singing Wells on YouTu…
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…ecessary expertise and equipment to do full field recordings (up to 8 microphones and 3 digital cameras) throughout East Africa. PROJECT BENEFITS TO EAST AFRICA : We are on a journey. When we started, we knew the critical importance of capturing the cultural legacy of East Africa with tribal music, before it was lost to all of us forever. We were reminded of the importance of this in December, when one of the most extraordinary musicians we’ve rec…
A message from Henry Neza at UOBDU News
…e non Batwa community agree that the Batwa can compete with others in many different fields if they are given the chance. All the best, Henry UOBDU, January 2012 …
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…da, Burundi and DRC. In recent history however, the Batwa have become a displaced and largely forgotten ethnic group and their traditional culture and way of life is threatened with extinction. The Batwa community first became fragmented as other ethnic groups populated their homelands, cutting back the forest to provide land for crops and livestock. However, it was in 1991, with the creation of formal conservation areas outlawing all human acti…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…o allow them to undertake the trip to this remote area of North West Kenya, 800 km from Nairobi and home to the Turkana and Samburu tribes and the original ‘singing wells’. When Steve Kivutia (Ketebul Music) presented the idea of recording music at the Festival to the AMF, it seemed a perfect fit with the objectives of the Singing Wells project and the trustees were happy to approve a grant to cover the costs of travelling to the Festival with the…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…immy kept a close eye on her and he asked me to stop drooling all over the place because she belonged to him and only him. The second car was delivered and Maddo, chairman for Ketebul Music would be the pilot for the V.I.P car. He had to leave because he had to drop the owner of the car and left me with his car, but not without detailed instructions on how to handle it and with a stern warning: don’t visit your girls friends with my car! We met…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Willie Bembe News
…restaurant. Everyone is very tired so we let the big boys have their meeting at the Fairview Hotel. DAY 6 It’s our guest’s last day and we enjoy having last recording sessions with them at the studio. The “seventeen hour” song is very catchy and Jimmy is dancing all over the place as an African touch is added by Makadem, Winyo and Ayub Ogada. Andy is at the control desk being a magician after tearing down our studio so we can use the new equipmen…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…only thing that scared him was the hotel room in Malindi. We’d booked the place for its beautiful name but promptly found out that we’d walked into a… (deleted!). Old, retired Italians prowled the place with semi retired local call girls in tow – the kind with skin falling off their faces after decades of chemical assault by skin lighteners. On our second morning at the hotel (and weren’t we glad we were leaving), this lady passed by our table, w…