Serengeti Group Group
…sicians in ‘red’ and two dancers in ‘white.’ The dancers were performing a ‘head nodding’ dance which was mesmerizing and was extremely unique. The athleticism of these dances were very similar to what we’ve seen in Uganda and very special. …
Day Two: January 19, 2019 From Tarime to Buturi to Bariadi Story
…ng the truth Mahenne Gayo: We repeated song 5 with ‘freestyle recording’ – what we mean here is we allow our three camera operators to ‘roam’ and to ‘release the band’ to dance. We are trying to overcome the somewhat artificial nature of ‘archiving’ where the band is constrained into a single shot. Magic Moment: We loved the percussion and wanted to capture this as magic moment. https://youtu.be/u7xcXahAlzI Group 2: Upendo Jazz: The group is fro…
Muturi wa Wandindi Group
… Muturi wa wandindi (Actual name is Geoffrey Mutwiri, Mbaraka). He is from Kigane Village, Nkevene Sub-location, Nicwene Division. He started performing in 1964 and is from the Ameru Ethnic Community. He plays the Wandindi (thus his performance name), which is a ‘tube fiddle’, or what the Luo call the Orutu. …
Support Singing Wells Page
…provide for two field-recording engineers from Ketebul Music, a non profit organisation in Nairobi and our project partners. Your donation will also provide for gratuity payments to the individual music groups, which they can use to help them continue practicing and performing in the future. The songs and videos we record from your sponsored day will be archived and published, giving the groups further opportunities to gain an income from their mu…
Conclusion: Challenges and Recomendations Story
…niques). On that same note, I believe a preparative work session should be organised between the researcher and Project Manager, and the fixer or any other individual that might act as the translator from vernacular languages into English during field recording. If this function is to be filled by the fixer (which was the case in this first recording mission), I believe he should be informed and prepared in advance accordingly. I mention this beca…
FAQ’s Page
…e researching before our visit. They make sure that everyone locally knows what Singing Wells is about and why we are there. Do you pay the musicians you record? Of course – we believe that musicians should be paid for their time performing for us. We pay a recording 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…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…ove about 90 minutes to Nzali to record four groups: Group 1: Makunga: This group is from Dodoma and the Wagogo Community, which they argued is the main indigenous community of Tanzania (always from the land, never migrated into Tanzania. The group was formed in 2018, but was built on a much older group. They perform in the Wuyina style. Their instruments/costumes include the: Ndulele (Horn), the Nindo (Shakers), the Mbega: (Animal Skins), the…
Mohamed Uthman Kidumbak Group Group
…lt the midwife because you might need her again.” The song is about not taking cassavas for granted. Kidole Chauma Sana – translates to “My Finger is Painful.” Again, this is not the direct meaning. It’s a naughty song with sexual connotations about the man’s hand being worn out….
Field Recording Report by Kahithe Kiiru Story
…cted as our contact person and by the group’s secretary Wilhemina Oduor, this is a very organized group of twenty eight (28) members coming from the different administrative areas of Samia district. Ekhunjwe ya Abasamia was formed in April 2008 with common focus on using music as a tool for community development. The group promotes traditional African values and acts in both education and local economy. Members also engage in traditional crafts li…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…secure the two skins onto the entongooli base for stretching and drying. This is the last part of the process before the threads are used to tune the Entongooli base. Stringing it Together In this latest video, we go back to visit our music scholars after a month away (due to the political climate and the Covid pandemic). Here we go back to our original instrument and strings, and begin to thread everything together to start the tuning process. It…
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
…that we have sounds from our region represented in the music we make and this is a great way to spotlight traditional music.We tried to build the track around the vocals that we chopped from the Nyatiti Group loop and fused that with the Otacho Young Stars Shoe Shine Box loop. We added some drum hits of bongos and congas to compliment the groove and have that interplay between the drums we made and the loops provided. it was easy to add some melod…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…on our second day, group one: Mohamed Othman Kidumbak Group Unyago: This is music by women by women and was used during rites of passage as the women prepared the bridge. Originally, these were ‘secret songs’ and filled with metaphors that would explain about sex and love and all the wonderful and difficult parts of marriage. As this music moved from the secret rites to more public performance, you find the audience laughing at all the doub…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…eve in themselves and their values. Our history has weakened our minds and what is left is for man to eat man. No values! No identity! No humans! Just creatures moving the path of God’s gift called life and breathing the air meant for humans.” Below are excepts from Peter Cooke’s recordings of the drums that James talks about: http://www.singingwells.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peter-Cooke-naizungwe-recording-1.mp3 http://www.singingwells.org/w…
A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…enous teaching methods used with the young people involved in the project, what this meant for the sustainability for the instruments future, and how this impacted the young people’s identity and associations with the Bigwala-playing community. You can find the full report on the Sage website here: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/EBNMQEBVD9ECYMFJF8EP/full Professor Isabirye’s extensive work in reviving lost instruments so that they will be pas…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…rica, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mathew-watmon The donors of Abubilla Music Foundation, who support the Singing Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our prayers to…