Central Uganda: Day 4 – Jinja Story
…n’t perform well and come back with a bad report the parents will be very mad and sad. This song was the highlight of the trip. James Isabirye says, “This group is inspiring and its name means that only those who work will get something to eat. The lead is probably the best Ugandan vocalist and he’s been around music for a very long time. His music is played by many people, but I do fear that people exploit his songs and don’t give him what he is…
Before They Pass Away News
…pockets of the world, there are still tribes that have preserved centuries-old traditions. Singing Wells records, archives and shares some of this cultural heritage that is at risk of fading out – East Africa’s music. Not only do we want to sustain the musical heritage of East Africa, we want to promote it in today’s world. With this in mind, we’ve been following the work of British photographer Jimmy Nelson with interest, who spent four years tr…
Meeting Ketebul: an interview with Tabu News
…moment. We need to look for a platform to promote our stuff, whether it’s online, digital radio, TV – we need to make the music more accessible to all. Why is Singing Wells important? Singing Wells is important because we’re trying to capture our East African heritage. Many of the musicians we record from remote tribes are old and we run the risk of the traditional music in Kenya dying out, we don’t want to see that happen. Further, most recordin…
Singing Wells is on Bozza! News
…heir fans throughout Africa. The platform is available to emerging and established artists from around the continent and can be easily accessed by visiting www.bozza.mobi from mobile phones and PCs.” Thabiso Mohare, Head of Brand & Marketing…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…University, it also enables the university to offer undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology that include training in performance of African music. Diane Thram became Director in 2005 and, under her leadership, an online listening library has been created, in line with the cutting edge of content access, to allow anyone to listen to Hugh Tracey’s recordings, with work currently being done to also make the Dave Dargie and Andrew…
Archiving Guidelines News
…d Preservation Strategy’ (IASA-TC 03). When researching guidelines for the online archiving of sound, the term metadata is often mentioned and this is the largest part of the edition that was revised for re-publication, stressing the importance of extra information being attached to the sound file, describing the location the sound was recorded, the artist, the date, etc and other technological information. Another issue often raised is the need f…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…the difficulties of archiving with an easily destructible medium like reel-to-reel tapes and the importance of now digitising these perishable recordings. The sound engineer who had recorded the music with Wachsmann kindly offered up the copies he had made a kept aside. Wachsmann went on to lecture at various universities and was awarded the bronze medal for “Devoted Service to Africa” from the Royal African Society in 1958. His legacy lives on a…
James Isabirye and Tabu Osusa Discuss East African Music News
…know their meaning or origin. So it just sounds vulgar – some Kampala teen-ager singing F this and F that in a bad American accent. Why is this good? Why is it unique? Why is it art? What they should do is learn about their culture, their identity – it is so rich, so wonderful, so new and exciting for others. If I’m an American or English person, when I hear a Ugandan I would want to hear something new from their culture – why do I want to hear t…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…ght and got to the arena early on Wednesday morning to set up the stand ahead of the trade fair opening This was our stand after setup (note the obvious mistake in the nomenclature….): Conferences Attended I attended a few of the conferences arranged by the organisers. Revenue streams in the digital environment was the first of these and looked at different examples from different territories – the main example being given as the Caribbean. This…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…ong is often performed at festivals or weddings. ‘Inanga yabatwa’ – a story-telling song. The leader gathers the community together and through the song tells stories of the Batwa traditions – the hunt in the forest and the celebrations and meal following the hunt. In this way the children learn about what it is to be Batwa and so will never forget the traditions and way of life of the ancestors. This is Bashitsi Bahire, the welcome song which the…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…recording studio in the garden. You can join us on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/singingwells and on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/singingwells – if you do tweet any links, please use the hashtags – #gotm and #singingwells We’ll update this page with any new items we add to the site over the course of the month. Check out the featured content links below to find the Watmon Cultural Group page from our Musical Map of East Africa….
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…father on one of the son’s tracks. This was a new concept for the group. Bado had always sung in the family music group – and in doing this had sung the songs of his family and heritage, but now they were collaborating on one of Bado’s songs. Bado sang the main line of the song ‘Love Is’ and his father sang between the lines, and the rhythm began to take hold. I also at this point learnt my forth Swahili word (Asante, Jambo and Sawa – Thank you,…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…miles north of Nairobi, our band of musicians at Abubilla Music in London had similar concerns. Some of us had travelled through East Africa and we were astounded by the quality of the tribal music, but equally surprised to find how hard it was to access the music back in Britain. As the founder of Abubilla Music, I set out to find partners in East Africa who were committed to preserving the music. Through a series of e-mails that travelled the wo…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…ician and remember that next time it might be you we sing about. Binihare had made the band leader promise to sing in his funeral. Thanks to Bado, the son, for working with his father to give the background; here’s Bado, with Patrick, who we’ve known since the founding of Singing Wells: At about 1900, Tabu broke away with Hannah and Andy to go to a concert while Jimmy remained with the core group to continue recording. The recording group stayed…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…elebrations in Kisoro. Through formation of the Batwa dancing groups have made other developmental ideas to the including saving groups. These groups have gone ahead to improve their economic situations by carrying out other activities such as working as a group on people’s gardens as well as entertaining people at a fee when invited. Some group members are improving their standard of living through purchase of house hold items such as bed sheets…
Hannah interviews Evelyn Ojok – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…uipment to keep authenticity. Why do you like to perform? I am a woman’s leader for a local parish and my work has now spread to four different parishes, this gives me strength and hope. Working in this group has influenced women, they now have guidance and work to earn money for themselves. It is not only a musical group but a community for women to grow. The reason we love it is because the music helps us heal and forget about the pain we experi…