The Pandemic slowed us down, but it couldn’t stop us. Having completed our Zanzibar trip in February 2020, The Field Visits of Singing Wells were put on hold for three years. But, we knew that our first visit when we could travel again would be Rwanda. We all arrived to Kigali on November 22, 2023 and before introducing the team, let’s talk about our shirts. Every visit includes 100s of shirts, which we wear and give to all our artists. Here’s the 2023 collection.
The back of our T shirts tell our history, where we’ve been over the last 10 years (see below). We started in March 2011 in the Coastal Regions of Kenya, traveled to Kisoro Uganda, and to Homa Bay Kenya, then went to the Rift Valley in 2012, on through Uganda, Tanzania, and Zanzibar.
The front of our t shirts are specific to each field visits and in 2023 we are in Rwanda to understand the beautiful of their traditional music (‘cow poems, et al’) and their beautiful dances, finding the best Inanga players. But we are also here to capture what we call the ‘hillside blues’, the great set of old acoustic guitar playing singer-songwriters that are so well known in Rwanda. Over the course of nine spectacular artists and groups we can’t wait to bring this music to you.
Now let’s move on to our team, a team that for the most part has stayed together for 12 years. The core of the team are our audio and video engineers. We are committed to honoring our artists by recording their performances with the best audio/video tech and expertise we can. We know we are not in a recording studio and welcome ‘chicken and children’ on all our recordings, but we demand of ourselves that we let the world see and hear what we see and hear. This is the core team that does this in action: From far left, sitting, is Hunter Allen, on Roving video, then Drix, on Close up video (you can’t see him in first picture, but he’s far left in the next shot), then Producer Shunkyz on audio, Steve on Audio and Patrick on Central Video. On the far, far left, standing is Jado, our local musical expert who will help us throughout the trip, navigating Rwanda, its music, its artist. We can’t do these trips without our local experts!
Here they are in action: In first picture below, you see: Further away, Patrick on Central Video, Steve on Audio, Drix on Close Up video, Producer Shunkyz on audio and closest to camera, Jado our local musical expert. Hunter, our Roving Video, is, well… roving. You see him below this first picture in the yellow cap. Below him is Patrick and Steve, the core of Ketebul who have been with us since Day One.
In addition to the core tech team, we are delighted to have Kathy Allen and Daisy Bard as interviewers and field writers, capturing the stories behind our artists and songs. They contribute ALL the information you read in these field notes! Kathy is a veteran of Singing Wells. This is Daisy’s first trip. Here they are with Hunter Allen (Daisy Left, Kathy Right). 
Here they are in action.
Finally, the team includes Tabu Osusa and Jimmy Allen, founders of Singing Wells. Tabu is a legend of East African Music and founded and runs Ketebul Music in Nairobi. Jimmy runs Abubilla Music in London as well as the Abubilla Music Foundation which support Singing Wells. Here we are with Abdul, who you will meet in two days (Tabu far left, Jimmy far right.
And here’s the founding, original team of Singing Wells, during the presentation of a Commemorative 10 year map of all of our work (this time, not to trick you, we have Jimmy on Left and Tabu on Right – left to right, Steve, Jimmy, Patrick, Tabu and Kathy).
A final note. Work hard on these visits and after, recording, filing, creating the videos, writing the blogs. But, we each view this has the greatest privilege of our lives because at the end of the day, we are enjoying the world’s most beautiful private concerts. Our artists and their songs are incredible and the world must know them. In the meantime, we will enjoy our private moments on the world’s greatest stage…
Now, let’s enjoy the music…