Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle News
…ru, Luo, Kamba and Kikuyo tribes The Nairobi Chamber Chorus considered the topmost choir in Kenya today Cultural Pavilion At the entrance to Windsor Castle 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…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…t from those photos. The field visits is about to end while showing the photos to all the communities who performed music. Below are there comments None of us were expecting this We are happy to see ourselves and our friends Gasoda holding the pot its real. Gasoda looks exactly the way he always appears The Batwa who went to Nairobi were happy to see themselves in photos once again. Thanks to UOBDU and Singing Wells for sending this Album to us Se…
Winyo is shortlisted for Rolex Arts Initiative News
…rogramme designed to help talented emerging musicians reach their full potential. If selected, Winyo will benefit from a year of mentoring with the legendary Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter, Gilberto Gil. To find out more about Winyo you can visit the Ketebul Music website – just click here Singing Wells ‘Influences’ sessions featuring Winyo More performances from Winyo …
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…s this worth it guys? [This is a pretty relevant question 470 kilometres into a 800 kilometre journey back from the coast to Nairobi] TO: We have no choice. We have to do something and I don’t see anyone else doing what we’re doing. We’ve got to get three things right going forward: we have to get the audio right. People need to hear the music like we’re hearing it in the field. We’ve got to get world class at this. Second, we’ve got to get the vi…
Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience News
…travel was almost as interesting as the destinations. It took eight hours to get to Kitale on two lane roads with more lorries than I could imagine. Jimmy’s written very accurately about the driving in his blogs. The country side was beautiful with mostly farm land, small villages and quite hilly. I feel I had the best job on the trip because I got to interview all the groups about where they were from, what their clothing and adornment meant, wh…
On the eve of our very first field recording trip….. Story
…. After all, it is 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 l…
The Kalenjin & Kenya’s elite athletes News
…try champion. They are focusing mainly on their coaching and what it takes to get to the Olympics. Both athletes will be running at London 2012. Most Kenyan runners come from the Rift Valley, in particular the town of Itan where there is a strong culture of running. The high altitude enables runners to develop and maintain high levels of fitness. Chela has worked on various documentaries, in particular the Water Project for Unicef and her current…
Best of Singing Wells 2011 News
…t’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 YouTube or on Soundcloud: Singing Wells on Soundcloud SWP – The best of 2011 by singingwells …
A Year in Review March 2011 – March 2012 News
…all the necessary 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…
A message from Henry Neza at UOBDU News
…families was also another priority for them. After the Singing Wells visit to Kisoro there was an opportunity for some of the Batwa to experience life outside their community when they visited the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi for more recordings. During this trip they were able to interact with the Ford Foundation and benefit from new clothes and shoes, which improved their social status among the dominant tribes here. This gave them confidenc…
AMF receive grant to fund Batwa recordings News
…rnational Education has approved a grant to support the Singing Wells trip to Uganda to record the music and dance of the Batwa people. We are delighted that our proposal was successful and that the IIE agreed with our rationale for taking the project to the Batwa to increase awareness of their unique music and dance traditions. In our proposal, we outlined our rationale as follows: “The overall aim of the Singing Wells project is to identify, rec…
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…promote the cultural music heritage of East Africa. In taking the project to Uganda to document and record the traditional music and dance of the Batwa, we can help to stem the tide which is threatening to obscure the music traditions of this ethnic group. The SWP will ensure that the unique sights and sounds of the Batwa are fully and professionally documented, preserved for the future and promoted to a wide audience through all media platforms….
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…. The reaction of the groups and villagers confirmed that it is far better to ‘go to the music’ then try to bring all these talented musicians 900 kms to Nairobi. In addition, we confirmed that Ketebul absolutely has the right set of sound and video engineers to lead these sessions in the future – they have all now been fully trained and have already begun to record sessions on their own. They will be leading the November sessions. If you are inte…
Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2011 News
…traditional costumes, arts and crafts, dances and music to each other and to visitors. Combined with the stunning geographical characteristics and the very limited general knowledge on the Lake Turkana region, the presentation of the cultural traditions makes the Festival a unique and fascinating experience for everyone involved.’ Steve’s objective is to record the music of all 10 performing groups. All the material will be taken back to the Kete…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…m mid last century and offer them in easy to read, listen and view mediums to today’s audiences, young and old, we were trying to fulfill our dreams of preserving our music heritage for prosterity. We have so far produced two packages and are currently working on three others simultaneously. Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…20 people applauding their every move..When we finally managed to get them to stop, they insisted on doing one last number for us to join them in dance. I was dragged into the dance and forced to expose my two left feet. Tabu and Winyo gave a good account of themselves with the shoulder shaking dance (which I must point out though is very similar to the dance style of the Lake Victoria region where both Tabu and Winyo hail from). Jimmy gave it his…