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…) the better! Muwewesi Xylophone Group Unsurprisingly for the Muwewesi Xylophone Group, the Xylophone is the star of the show. A giant xylophone lays across the floor, played by 8 musicians, alongside vocalists, pipe flute players and tube fiddle players. Based in Nakisenye, East Uganda, we visited the group in 2013, and when we arrived we found that the band had been there since morning preparing – they had dug the pit for the xylophone, with the…
The Singing Wells podcast #3 Podcast
…Here is podcast number 3. In this podcast, we look at the development of Abubilla Music – one of the partners in The Singing Wells project – from initial idea, to music label. There are interviews with members of the SMCC, and music from the SMCC, Louise Calf, Gus Warriner, Tati Kalveks, Chris Kozlowski and Ketebul artist Winyo. Click here to download the podcast….
Nyangile Instrument
…A resonating box – hit by the player with a wooden stick, who often holds ongeng’o rings in their hand and feet to add more rhythmic potential. We heard the Nyangile, also referred to as the Sanduk (Swahili for Box), played by a member of the Otacho Young Stars, when we recorded them at Dinkys Resort Club, Rongo, as part of our field trip to record the music of the Luo in Western Kenya….
3. Background of the Naizungwe drums Story
…drums, James Isabirye, who is co-ordinating the project gives us some background information about the drums and the traditions from which they come: Where do they originally come from and who played them? Uganda has about 65 ethnic societies according to the 1995 constitution. Each ethnic society had a way it was organized socially before the advent of colonialism. Most of the societies were and still are organized on clan system. One ethnic soci…
Mchele Mchele Sanaa Group Group
…This group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). …
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…s group, from the Sukuma community, was formed in 2010 and performs with a number of styles: Bukomia Lume, Buchheye, Wigashe. Their instruments are: Ng’oma (Drums), Pembe (animal horns, large impala), Firimbi (flute), and Njuga (shakers). We recorded five performances: Ntale Atabihyala: ‘The boss, who is always wrong, wants to be always right. Just accept it’ Ba Tanzania (Malima): Praising country, encouraging farmers and hard work – this song h…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…ecording mission is quite satisfactory. Considering the limited time and a number of challenges encountered, I believe we managed to accomplish most of the set objectives and bring back an extensive amount of data and video/sound materials of very good quality. However, there is space for improvement. I think that team work was successful, although division of roles, more particularly on the data collection part on the project, was initially blear…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…I – leg rattles; EFIRIMBI – a metallic whistle; OLWIKA – antelope horn aerophone; LIKHANGO – another aerophone made out of a reed attached to a wild goat horn; MUTINDI – flat two-skin drum played using two wooden sticks. Their props included spears (lifumo), shields (esikhumba), fly whisks (mukia) and clubs (eskong’o). They were wearing hats and tops made out of leather, leaves and feathers, and most original skirts which were in fact recycled umb…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…ypes of wood); body parts (any specific additional parts and why); strings number; playing techniques (position of instrument; hands positioning and fingers involved in playing; plucking techniques); tuning and sound (central string, sound spectrum, twin strings, accompanying instruments in both traditional context and modern instrumental ensemble, technical innovations and developments); transmission methods; community occasions played in; taboos…
Discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms Gallery
…rney which you can read on our Field Reports section. Including: Some background and the beginning of our journey to discover the lost royal drums of the Buganda Kingdom Context on the Entenga royal drums we’ve been searching for The story of Musisi – a drummer from the royal palaces and the fall of the Buganda Kingdom Some information on the progress of the Bigwala trumpets – an instrument we restored on a previous field trip Interviews with the…
Day 1 – Saturday 1st July 2017 Story
…yatiti’s shape (resembles the traditional Luo hut shape), symbolism of the number (8) of strings of the nyatiti, his tuning techniques and order of string tuning, together with the story of his personal attachment to his instruments collection (owns 14 nyatitis). Upon our arrival to Kisumu City, we had another semi‐formal interview that would birth ideas for other hypothesis and arguments to follow up on. We met Meshack Okoth Okumu, who was to be…
Hunter Allen Staff Profile
…closely with Singing Wells for past three years. He first joined us on our trip to record in Kalenjin in 2012 and was blown away by the talent he saw. Since then he has directed and edited Singing Wells’ first Lost Song Books documentary, which told the story of our repatriation project in 2014. The project involved the returning of recordings by Hugh Tracy to the Kalenjin and Luo communities from which he recorded in the 1950s. Hunter graduated f…
The Northern Tribes of Uganda Album
…ection of recordings showcases the field recordings from our December 2012 trip to record the music of the Northern Tribes of Uganda. We began with a base in Gulu, with journeys to Acet and Paibona. In Achet on our first day of recording, we were blessed with a recording location in the shade and 6 groups who turned up to perform their Acholi dance music. Day 2 found us in Paibona, with our first introduction to Likembe music provided by the Ruban…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…n do another take which we call ‘free style’ where we take our cameras off tripods, and our video team simply follows the group around as they dance and sing. This provides a much more free feel, although it does mean we can miss part of the performance, so we always try to do two versions of the song. Magic Moment: For many songs, we find there is a moment of amazing percussion, or dance, or other instruments that we want to isolate and record, e…
All field reports have now been published and provide links to youtube videos! Story
…You can now see all Field Reports for February 2018 trip to Kenya. If you want to link directly to youtube videos you can do in field reports or go direct here. A detailed account of the trip written by Kahithe Kiiru is available here….
Albums Introduction Page
…h the music of the area we were recording in. Each album also contains a number of extra tracks that weren’t strictly part of the archiving recordings we were making. These recordings are of ‘Influences’ sessions – where a popular musical artist has joined us on our trip to collaborate with the groups we record. In the event that we have invited one of the musicians back to the Ketebul Studios in Nairobi to record, we will also include these rec…