Kathy’s reflections on her Singing Wells experience
Kathy Allen, trustee to the Abubilla Music Foundation, travelled with the Singing Wells team in March 2012 on the trip to record the music of the Kalenjin. Here’s her report from the trip.
Kathy Allen, trustee to the Abubilla Music Foundation, travelled with the Singing Wells team in March 2012 on the trip to record the music of the Kalenjin. Here’s her report from the trip.
‘Fifty Cows’ travelled with the Singing Wells project during the recording of the Kalenjin tribes in March 2012. He was our liaison contact with the music groups. Kathy interviewed him – here is his story…
In March 2011, the Singing Wells team travelled to the coastal region of Kenya for their very first field recording trip. The team recorded music from various groups representing the Mijikenda tribes.
Back in Nairobi after the latest field trip, Jimmy files this report via Skype. Jimmy reflects on the recording trip and the weekend ahead in the studio with Ben Kisinja and the Otacho Young Stars.
“I’m glad I came across Singing Wells. The production team goes all out to unearth East African traditional music, giving account of the people’s past and present through music. The recordings are a valuable treasure, since a lot of traditional African music often goes un-notated. Singing Wells is the much needed portal for ethnomusicology research…
While on the road in Kitale, we interviewed Nick who is working as an intern at Ketebul Music. This is Nick’s second Singing Wells field recording trip where he is learning how to use the mobile recording equipment whilst also acting as photographer. He is now officially in charge of the ‘clapperboard’ – a role he is relishing.
On our journey from Nairobi to Kitale we are joined by Chelagat Lebo (Chela) who is making a documentary for Custom House Education Trust about Kenya’s elite athletes.
In 2011 we completed three field recording trips in Kenya and Uganda and also took the mobile recording studio to the Lake Turkana Cultural Festival. We’ve recorded over 150 songs from more than 25 local music groups and uploaded 36 videos of these performances to YouTube (so far).