Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…d out of school at an early age to help his father, Walter Omondi Onyango, run his carpentry workshop. A self-taught musician, Olith Ratego later used his woodwork skills to create a novel five-stringed instrument he named okoddo after his great-grandfather, Okoddo Madanda, who was known to his peers as a fierce warrior and revered as a mythical figure by members of his community. Olith Ratego is an ingenious vocalist, a gift he inherited from his…
Zam Zam Group
…, in Rahaleo. All male group ranging from age 7 up to 40, ten all together today. They sing Islamic and secular songs for weddings and celebrations. It was mainly an acapello performance with one flute made out of a bamboo stick. The singers included: Ibrahim Ali Hassan (lead singer, flute ), Issa Ali Hassan (lead singer), Mlenge Ali Hassan, Othman Mlenge Ali, Afann Mlenge Ali, Iddi Abdallah Mohd, Abdillah Salum Juma (lead singer), Fesal Sleiman M…
Mr Bado Group
…ombasa, and is now an accomplished music producer in his own right, and he runs his own studio in Watamu called Bado Records, where he records his own music as well as support and help aspiring artists from Watamu. His songs, ‘Shemeji’ and ‘Susumila’ were mega hits in the coast region, earning him a performance slot at Safaricom Live in 2010. He has performed internationally, including in the USA as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2014….
Day 4 – Tuesday 4th July 2017 Story
…st of the nyatitis he makes go to clients from outside the area (as far as USA). Ogwe considers that since the materials are becoming more and more costly, so does the instrument and consequently fewer people are purchasing it. When describing his manufacture process, Ogwe enumerated several types of trees for the resonator (ondero, ng’owo, kuogo, murembe) and for the arms (ogwero, milinginda, apindi, mago), while confirmed siyala is the best type…
Kochia Traditional Dancers Group
…l 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 mainstay of traditional Luo culture. Ramogi was the patriarch of the Luo people, and this centuries-old dance is performed by mature men to beseech his spirit to possess them. Some moves of the dance represent the movements of birds,…
Day Five: February 20, 2020 (DCMA) Story
…opana (guitar, kalimba (hand held thumb piano), lead singer), Heri Kombo (drums) Songs: Mwaludeja – Kirundo group started with this song they had composed. Tarajazz joined in. Nyumbani – Tarajazz started and Kirundo joined in. They improvised together. It was wonderful to see the combination of traditional instruments such as the Tanzanian drums, Kaliba, shakers and sticks along side more Western instruments such as the piano, saxophone, cajon…
Pius Wafula Group
…play the following instruments: LITUNGU – a 7-string traditional lyre; ISIRILI – a one-string fiddle; LUENGELE– a percussive idiophone, they use a wooden stool struck with wooden sticks; ENG’OMA – a generic term for drums, they use a plastic water container also struck with wooden sticks; CHISASI – shakers made out of gourds. We recorded five of Pius’s original compositions and were amazed with his rough yet mellow voice….
Day Three: Bungoma Town to Kakamega Story
…irili (which are these?) Pelele: A local beer, this was great song sung by band leader solo. Isukuti Drums: song featuring the drummers Tsing’oma: Shirili Instrumental We rushed to get all equipment stored and drove to our next destination a bit wet……
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…tarted playing music in 1958 and has mastered several Teso traditional instruments. Today he plays with an old friend – Mzee (Edler) Ikobulo (born 1932) and his daughters as back-vocals. Through a series of 8 songs, he showcased three major instruments: ADEUDEU – 5-strings arced harp; AGEREGERE – a one-string traditional fiddle; ACCORDION. All through the session, Obasie was accompanied by a percussionist on a drum called atenus amwatonitand by Mz…
The Singing Wells podcast #5 Podcast
…Edition 5 of the Singing Wells podcast is here – with a bit of a catch up on the latest news from the past 12 months of the Singing Wells project. Click here to download Podcast 5…
Here for Research? Page
…a. This database is constantly evolving as we discover and record more instruments. The instruments are tagged by their ethnicity, their recording location and the type (simply broken down into stringed, percussion or wind at present) Groups Detailed information about each group we meet on our Field trips. Head here to browse through groups by Location or Genre, or to search directly for a Group that we have met. Each page has information about th…
Recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa Page
…heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences. As a group of sound and video engineers, producers and musicians, we set out on this mission not to become ‘fossil collectors’ and store the recordings in inaccessible archives. We work with musicians to make sure their music traditions continue to be practiced, can be shared amongst the widest audiences and become a source of inspiration for new musician…
Day One: January 18, 2019. Assemble in Tanzania Story
…tyles and background, instruments and songs. In almost every village, we struggle with spellings of songs and instruments as these can differ by village and by band. We fully recognize that there are multiple spellings out there, but we defer to the band leader in almost all cases. During a recording session, we will also capture alternative takes; these are called: ‘Freestyle’: We work hard to give our groups the space and freedom to sing and dan…
Group 1: Inganzo Ngari Group Story
…tion – a modern twist on the tradition. These were performed just be male drummers. These drums were once used for announcements among the ancestors, summoning people to the village, for celebration, and – most unexpectedly – for when the king was sleeping, to gently soothe him with rhythmic drumming. The individual drum is called Ngoma. Then came a slow dance (Umushagiriro), an ancestral dance just performed by female dancers that honors the eleg…
Ketebul Music Group
…ustry players such as producers and promoters, media personalities and the market audience. Memorable archiving is achieved through intensive academic research reports released along with a market-friendly package from each phase of research. The package comprises of a shorter, but succinct, popular version of the academic report and is contained in an attractively designed booklet. To reinforce it is an audio CD featuring re-releases of previous…
Group 4: Urugangaze Ballet Story
…the Ethnographic Museum, where we recorded two groups. The first was the Urugangaze Ballet, a group of 55 performers in total (we saw 21 today). They are all made up of locals of different ages, the furthest being from Nyanza. The group was started in 1991 by Tomas Bazatsinda, and since then has only grown, performing at weddings and ceremonies around Rwanda and even touring France, Libya, Egypt and Germany over the last ten years. While the engi…