Uganda: music of the Batwa Gallery
…record the performances of six Batwa communities from the district of Kisoro – Birara, Mpwera, Kanyabukunga, Micyingo, Gatera and Kabahenda….
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…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…holomani sub-location in Kakamega County. He started his musical journey in 1990 as a member of the choir at his local church. He took up the stage name Itenya in 1999 when he joined the Phoenix Success band led by veteran musician Jacob Luseno of the Mukangala hit. He broke away from Jacob Luseno’s group in 2007 and formed Super Phoenix Band. Like most of the Luhya beats, Julius calls his music Maveka a musical style close to Isikhuti and like mo…
The Kalenjin of Kenya Album
…rs and the Kewamoi Women Dancers both featured. The latter – a nice addition to the lineup, as the field day coincided with World Women’s Day. Eddie Grey was part of the team for the recordings, and he joined a number of groups to join them for Influences recordings. Two of these have been included on the album – his guitar playing accompanying The Elimu Cultural Promoters and the Kewamoi Women Dancers….
Privacy Policy Page
…the screen. The Cookies that we use are very much standard and in the true spirit of Abubilla Music and the foundation, we like to be open with you about our methods and how and why we do things. We want to make you aware of this without being too intrusive, so we feel this is the best way to do it. You’ll also notice that all sites are starting to do it. The directive says that functions that are essential to the site are exempt, so sites with sh…
Kochia Traditional Dancers Group
…b-County in Homa Bay, Kenya. The group has a strong history, being found in 1965, and since then its members have dedicated themselves to entertaining guests at countless national celebrations and holidays, private events, as well as internationally as part of the Folklife Festival in the UK and in the USA at the Smithsonian Folk Festival. As well as this they are determined with their performance to preserve the incredible Ramogi dancing, a mains…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…verage, we do one field visit a year, recording roughly 20-25 groups, and a 100-125 performances. We have roughly 1,000 videos online. Our general setup for a recording is: a) Steve is in charge of audio and we typically have two general mics for the group and 5-6 specific microphones for singers and musicians, b) we have three video cameras operating – one wide shot for full performance, one close up to capture details of instruments and one rovi…
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….
FAQ’s Page
…ording gratuity on the day of the recording. This amount varies based on a number of factors such as the number of members in the group and the number of songs we record. In the event of any music we record making money directly (through sales, sync licensing or performance royalties) we will endeavour to channel this money back to the original performers. Can I buy the music you have recorded? A selection of our music is available to download fro…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…taarab to the point where woman are now usually the lead singers. …Between 1928 and 1950 she recorded over 150 recovers…It is through her recordings …that Taarab became widely accessible. Later, further Egyptian influence was incorporated into the genre by including full string sections as well as accordion and qanun, keyboard and flute.” But, throughout our journey, we hear artists talk about Siti Binti Saad, noting that she was a rebel, noti…
Day 9 – Sunday 9th July 2017 Story
…h to common tunes or influence instruments’ shapes and music styles, etc. 1. Source: Wikipedia 2. The most widely used instruments classification system first devised in 1914 by musicologists Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs; English version published much later in 1961; most current updated version: “Revision of the Hornbostel‐Sachs Classification of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium” dates from 2011, published by Musical Ins…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…e had to deal with is the time limitation. The entire programme was shot in 11 days, which included master classes and a studio session in Nairobi. Considering the ambitious amount of information we wished to gather from each interviewee (as per the original concept) and the accompanying demonstration, it would be advisable for the recording schedule to focus on one individual ‐ one instrument maker per day only. Also, possibilities of postponed s…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…Western Region of Kenya in the period from 17thto 25thFebruary 2018. DAY 1 – Saturday 17th February 2018 The first day of recording for “Rhythms of Western Kenya” took place in Busia County, in the Samia sub-county. This sub-county was named after the Samia sub-group of the Luhya ethnic community who make the majority of its’ population. In Nanguba village of Agen’ga location, we met EKHUNJWE YA ABASAMIA folk group. Led by Stephen Bwire, a loca…
Group 8: Abutazi Story
…nanga with rap. Their flow was such that they often went straight from one number into another, so the set list reflects this. Set list Agahinda (“Sad”) and Inanga. Agahinda is a song about depression that Makare wrote 8 months ago, using a metaphor of a burning house where the smoke can’t be kept in. This went straight into Inanga, an ode to the inanga and its sound and all it does for them. We loved this double number so much we recorded it twic…
Group 1: Inganzo Ngari Group Story
…da, Uganda, Burundi and parts of Congo). Then the same dancers performed a number about a community, Intwatwa, formerly known as the Batwa, the group we recorded in November 2012. It was a celebration dance with many steps to honour their rich and historic culture. Next we had the Intore – which means a traditional warrior dance. This was a manifestation of each warrior showing the king what he’s made of – his talent, his weaponry, and judging by…
Day 4 – Tuesday 4th July 2017 Story
…According to him, he was one of the first players to do a studio session in 1954 in Kampala. After he listed over 30 nyatiti players from different locations in Luo land, he also helped us date the appearance of the famous “Koblong” tune to approximately 1954. Finally, he showed us his instrument tuning technique, which seemed well elaborated and in accordance to what we’ve heard from other traditional players. After the excellent interview with O…