Busolwe Post Test Club Group
…Daudi”: The song is about a boy in the village that is going astray. The singers advise him to get a job and settle down and find a woman. “Mabega Dance”: The song is about when you see someone who is happy and you know they have good fortune. But when you see them unhappy you know they are having problems. Magic Moment featuring the Tube Fiddle and Flutes. The flute (Omulelel) player is George Wandela. The two Tube Fiddle players are Wilber Mutan…
Kaniini Kaseo Group
…trunk of a banana tree; it says that the trunk can’t be climbed by boys. Mutongoi: This is a song sung to a political leader in the area. The song praises the politician and asks the people to vote for him – he’s Kyonekana na nengwe. His name means, “if seen give it to him”. Kolleji or College: This is sung in the Itheke genre. The song praises a local politician (Major Mutina Muluvi) who takes graduate students to work at Equity Bank and high sch…
Ayub Ogada Group
…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 exper…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…and hard work – this song had an incredible beat. Ng’oma ya Asilia: a traditional song Ali Nilihali: A lady turned down Man 1 because he was poor and settled on Man 2 who was even poorer. Meanwhile Man 1 got rich and lady came back to him and the song asks, “So how did it end up?” Magic Moment on a song Ndono. They then did a lot of dances with ‘modern’ music on speakers. https://youtu.be/uRfFn7ZgUrU Group 2: Camera: Camera, who has been performi…
Otacho Young Stars Group
…h us at the resort, including ‘Charles Manager’, a sincere song showing gratitude to the manager of a factory who has been doing a good job. We asked them to join us in the Ketebul studio in Nairobi to record this song, renamed Mr Manager, which you can listen to here. The percussion in this group is particularly impressive, with ongeng’o rings used both by themselves, and also together with the Nyangile, a wooden box topped with two of the rings,…
Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…itch doctors and snake oil salesmen. Simiyu: A song for praise for the region. Bahuni ba ng’wanza: A song referring to local women of questionable virtues Balimi: A song about farming where the band brought up children from the village and taught them about hoeing the soil to the song. Later we saw several videos of how this song is used in the fields to motivate farmers, who hoe to the beat. Throughout Tanzania, we saw school kids walking to/fr…
Mariene Traditional Dancers Group
…songs, plus performed three magic moments: Arabamba Mwarone Mpandi mautine Kirarire: Song about pre-cirumcision; they are calling out to all that can hear that they boys are ready. Wikiri Mariri: Song is about herding… He asks a woman for thin porridge which is kept in the gourd during long trips away. He meets someone else that wants the gourd and dies with it. In the song he calls for those who will really listen to what he has to say (this is…
Eridat Makwiri Group
…playing the Litungu. Song meanings “Wangoyo”: This is a song about co-wives. One lady was lazy. And she would wait for the co-wife who had already woken up and prepared the food. The wife who had prepared the food tried to keep the food away from the lazy wife and the lazy wife would go complaining to the husband. The message in the song is to not wait for everything to be done for you. “Paulo Wawanyera”: This is someone’s name, meaning Paul, son…
Otieno Aloka Group
…rument of Luo music. The orutu consists of a hollow wooden box that has monitor lizard skin stretched over one side. The string used to be made from fibers of the sisal plants but is now made from a variety of repurposed materials, including bicycle brake cables. When played with a bow, orutu creates different notes determined by finger pressure against the central stick. It provides a fast-moving, melodic accompaniment, similar to the fiddle in f…
James Allen Staff Profile
…m Johns Hopkins. He is a dual US-British citizen and has lived in the United Kingdom, with his wife and three children, since 1995. He is chair of trustees for The Abubilla Music Foundation. During the Singing Wells field recording trips Jimmy is a volunteer video engineer and writes daily field reports about for the project website….
Kochia Traditional Dancers Group
…colours that dancers would adorn themselves with) are augmented by attention-grabbing ostrich feather headdresses (the ostrich, a symbol of beauty and courage, represents the courage they will need to entertain) and monkey fur. They are accompanied by drumming, and the Tung’, the Luo horn. You can contact the Kagan Kochia group for bookings on +254 700 600881 Sources: www.hivisasa.com www.allafrica.com Homa Bay, Kenya Leader: William Odero Ondiek…
Tabu Osusa Staff Profile
…nna Owiyo, Olith Ratego, Ogoya Nengo, Gargar and Winyo to mention but a few. Together with the director of Alliance Française in Nairobi, Tabu Osusa co-chairs the steering committee of the “Spotlight on Kenyan Music“ project which seeks to discover and promote young talent, performing a blend of African music. The Kenyan government through its Ministry of National Heritage and Culture also supports this project. Tabu is also the Project Coordinato…
Royal Entenga Drummers Group
…thing 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 set of Royal Drums, recruited a team of passionate drummers to learn how to play the drums, l…
Singing Wells Stories Page
…ry and make it relevant to today’s audiences and musicians and this goes a long way to helping. Since the field trip, we are pleased to report that Akello has been performing more with the Watmon Cultural Group (our group of the month for September – read more about that here. To read more about Akello and her part in Influences, click here: Akello To hear her collaboration with the Watmon Cultural Group – Amari – click here: 2011 – 2013 sampler C…
Day 5 – Wednesday 5th July 2017 Story
…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 exper…
Day 3 – Monday 3rd July 2017 Story
…afene, maembe, ondero, mugombra) as he said he could basically use any “as long as it’s strong and the right size”. Another interesting piece of information gathered during this interview was Sewa’s description of the small pointy decoration on the bottom of the resonator we had previously referred to as ‘the nipple’. According to him, this is in fact the umbilical cord of the instrument (in vernacular pende thum), which makes the resonator strong…