Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…usician, 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 mother, Maria Anyango Odari, who was an accomplished singer in her own right. His musical style is greatly influenced…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…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, noting that her lyrics were p…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…day at his home in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu town, and conducted a long yet free of form type of interview. Although a Luo himself, Ayub had never learned how to play the nyatiti in a traditional setting. He picked it up later in his career and studied from a player/teacher at the national cultural centre of Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and…
FAQ’s Page
…us to publish the material on the Singing Wells website and other digital media which is free to access. Any money received from the sale or commercial use of Singing Wells recorded material will be donated back to the project via The Abubilla Music Foundation and wherever possible royalties will be paid to the original performers. New Influences material is jointly owned by Ketebul Music and Abubilla Music. Profits arising from the sale of Influe…
Martin Fredrick Muyeshi Staff Profile
…a Broadcasting Cooperation’s Metro FM Radio as a Production intern from Jan 2006-June 2006. With the experience he had gained at KBC he then moved on to Nation Media, where he joined the station’s celebrated investigative journalistsMohamed Ali and John Allan Namu at NTV, working on their investigative feature documentary The Inside story, specifically the episode “Death in Ten Minutes” as a cameraman. In his free time he was freelancing as a mu…
Day One: The Iteso People and their Music Story
…l Relations and Diplomacy. His first break in professional music was at the 2008 edition of Spotlight on Kenyan Music, where he represented Nairobi with his song ‘Jawabu’, which features on the compilation album. Other than the guitar he also plays the drums and the chivoti. We welcome Fadhilee to Singing Wells and hope you enjoy his contributions! From Obekai, we drove to Kodedema, to record Obasie Palnyang. The group was founded in 1958 by Obasi…
Group 7: The Impano Group Story
…elf guitar and met Ivanny playing at a wedding. Since then they’ve all gigged together at weddings and in bars. Some of them are still at university and hope to be professional musicians. Band members Inanga and vocals – Karinijabo Ignas Guitar – Kirenga Lead Vocals – Mutangana Yves (stage name Yvanny Mpano) Vocals – Livingston Elie (red shirt) Vocals – Deborah Wiyineva They showed us around their very cool studio, but as we wanted to film outdoor…
Video playlists from Kenya 2018 Story
…t=PL6jxUA468Mq9NQ-zWTvuNk2xUKNJQr6Uh Bugnoma Roots Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESB-pxQBUYE&list=PL6jxUA468Mq9OAlm-PXg8Z-Pgb_ckPZHK…
Global Influences Project: Artist Submissions Page
…nt to learn more about the Global Influences Project, head to singingwells.org/global-influences-project SHONA X EKHUNJWE MUSICAL GROUP This next collaboration comes from DJ and producer, Shona. This is our first submission using the beats from the Ekhunjwe Musical Group, and we love how this music has been transformed from traditional dance accompaniment, to a house track that you could hear in any major club this summer! “It was a thrilling and…
Days 6 to 8 – Thursday 6th July 2017 to Saturday 8th July 2017 Story
…y 2017: Recording of an in‐depth interview with John Otieno ‘Rapasa’, our fixer who had previously travelled to Lake Region with us. In this interview he explained his personal journey to becoming a professional nyatiti player, instrument maker and teacher….
Group 1: Inganzo Ngari Group Story
…Inganzo Ngari, a group of some 100 members of different ages that was formed in 2006 to promote traditional Rwandan dance, music and culture. They perform at everything from national and international events to weddings. Their name Inganzo Ngari loosely translates to “Limitless Talent” and based on today, that is the perfect name for them. The group’s manager is Serge and today we had about 50 performers, some fully professional, some with day jo…
Our Sponsors Page
…Batwa communities we visited through our strong relationship with the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). http://www.iie.org Soundcloud Type of sponsorship: discounted services Our entire archive is available to listen to on Soundcloud, and their players power the audio playback on our site – click here to visit our archive. Thanks to Soundcloud for their continued support in the Singing Wells project. You can sign up f…
What We Do Page
…rson, our Abubilla Music sound engineer. The first field visit was in March 2011 when we travelled from Nairobi to the Kenyan coast to record the music of the tribes of the Mijikenda. Since then we have completed more field visits in both Kenya and Uganda. Our long term goal is to visit each country in East Africa and research, document and record the music and dance of the major traditional music styles of each region. Click on the following link…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…n revenue-generating activities of many artists. However, a number of urban-based performers were able to migrate their shows and concerts onto online platforms, reaching their audiences at their homes via live streaming. In doing so, they created new income-generating platforms, as some of these online acts allow audiences to support the musicians via M-pesa and Pay-Pal contributions. Another possibility was to sell tickets with the use of online…
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…, chest and leg decorations and a full cheetah skin outfit. We then proceeded to the second location of recording in Obekai village of the same location in Busia County. Here we met one of our fixers in the area – Patrick Okodoi and his group – the SOUTH TESO JAZZ. Based on the adeudeu– a traditional Teso string instrument, this group plays an interesting folk local sound and is very popular in the area. They combine several adeudeu(arched harps…
Royal Entenga Drummers Group
…cians disbanded and much of the music forgotten. But in 2015 James discovered the sixty-something Musisi, possibly the last surviving drummer. Musisi was just a teenager at the time of attack and barely survived the night of the attack itself (more on this here). James met him and realised that together they could begin to build the drums. Working closely with Albert and Shaban, a professional drummer who now leads the new band, they built a new s…