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…
Current Leading Figures News
…youth centre, although Julius primarily wishes to provide a stable support system and income for his previously disadvantaged band members, he also prioritises preserving traditional Ugandan music. “We perform as Africa’s Dancing Encyclopaedia. In Africa, written words did not exist thus Africa’s cultural history literature, knowledge and wisdom were recorded and passed on to succeeding generations through the medium of performing arts, music, dan…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…commercially syndicated world music show now heard internationally on 170 commercial and non-commercial stations. It is fantastic to see a World Music Label with such far reaching success, not only proving that traditional music in Africa, and around the world, can be commercially viable but also acting as a vessel through which people can access this music. To purchase their CDs, you can either order online or, if you live outside the US/Canda,…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…r African Music Archive is that when searching every track, it lists the accompanying commentary from Mary Oyer, so you can hear in her own words the description of the music and the story behind it. By the end of the summer, after initially deciding between a focus on music and art, Oyer knew she wanted to channel her efforts into indigenous music. As a teacher, ‘She saw the enriching possibilities for including cross-cultural music in her relate…
Promotion of Batwa Culture/Music: UOBDU report Nov 2013 News
…costumes, Kanyabukungu & Mperwa groups performed before the Uganda Revenue Commissioner General at Cyanika Border with Rwanda. The Commissioner General was so excited by their performance and awarded them UGX 100,000/=. While Gatera group entertained their Area Member of Parliament and rewarded them UGX 150,000/=. In addition Mperwa group was linked to tour guides who usually take tourists to Batwa communities and are entertained at UGX 50,000/= p…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…rk with if we venture to Uganda. Find out more about the film here: http://www.sweetdreamsrwanda.com/ New Friends at the festival We met a lot of new friends – as that was the point of our being there. We were spreading the word of the project and its aims and objectives, with listening stations for passers by to listen to the music we had recorded. We had a few instruments from our collection on display, and some even got played by some of our…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ans and music groups from the Baganda, Basigu, Bagwere, Basoga and Banyoli communities. In September, Steve and Tabu from Ketebul Music travelled to Uganda to undertake a ‘recce’ and identify the music styles and groups which we will be recording for this next Singing Wells trip. We now have our outline itinerary to share with you. Day 1: SWP team assemble in Entebbe After flying in from Nairobi and London, the Singing Wells team will meet at the…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
…and at the Entebbe Airport Guesthouse, where due to the generosity and patience of the manager Jan Willem and the other guests, we set up a 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 c…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…anchise in Kenya. His daily diaries between the years of 1970 and 2003 are comprehensively written and prove and interesting insight into life in Nairobi at this time. His diary writings tail off towards the end of his life. He died in Nairobi, on the 24th January 2004, aged 84. Colmore was a keen photographer and as his diaries and the archive show – he seems to have taken a photograph of almost everyone he met, including the ruling politicians o…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…n the coast and recorded for the first time in March 2011 and now he is re-writing bass and guitar lines in Pro Tools). Their words are mainly about love so strong that they are willing to give her anything. They see her and want to give her the clothes offer her back. Macadem was then inspired. The song was so sweet and ernest we encouraged him to come and sing an ‘anti love’ verse over it. He sings ‘Love don’t love me’ and talks about a woman wh…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…uma’s debut album, still in the same light she joined Miss Tshila in a girls band called “Tshila and the Diamond’s”, still in this journey she worked with Miss Lilian Mbabazi in a band called “Lillian and the Sun downers”, among others. Akello now begins a new journey of composing and writing her own music which she chooses to call “Hybrid”, a simple cross between urban sounds and local tunes back home. Akello joined the Singing Wells team on the…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…his downfall. This song basically says, ‘I’m here, I’m still singing, I’m writing my own songs and the prediction of my demise is greatly exaggerated.” The band leader then talked to us about the 1970’s during the ‘band wars.’ There would be big concerts where the competing bands of each village would meet and sing ‘hate songs’ to the others. He would arrive earlier than the others and sing the other bands hate songs that were meant for him first…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…board and keep recording through the whole take. We learned to get all the computer and cameras on the same time signature. We learned the roles of each camera (1 is stationary, full group, 2 is politely called fingers/feet and faces and 3 is context and overcoming the weaknesses of 1 and 2’s position). We even sorted out after a while how to stop the groups from starting the song while our poor clapper board person (Nick) was still running from t…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ore marriage, and functions as a method of preventing a married woman from committing adultery. 1% of Ugandan women undergo the procedure, compared to 95% of Pokot girls. Times are changing, however. Since the Female Genital Mutiliation or ‘FGM’ Act in 2009 the practice has been on decline, but this year in particular Pokot men have come to women’s aid by rejecting the practice. There were reports in February of this year of men demonstrating with…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ha’, Musical Instruments, Crafts, Aboriginal and Ethnic, Available: http://www.kaypacha.com.ar/en/instruments/nyatiti Wachsmann, K. Trowell, M. (1953). Tribal Crafts of Uganda. 1st. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ‘Traditional Instruments’ of the Uganda People’ (2012), Face Music, Available: http://www.face-music.ch/ ‘EgpytSearch Forums’, Wysinger, M. (2008), REAL Ancient Egyptian Music and Dance , Available: http://www.egyptsearch.com …
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…London and Nairobi to produce songs and videos of the trip. In addition to writing blogs, organising strategy through 2014, sorting through about 10,000 receipts of expenses (we run a very tight shop, thanks to Steve’s leadership), we welcome Ben into the studio to record. The Otacho Young Stars stayed the morning as well. We had a full crew to support Ben – Johnnie and Bishop on guitar, Nina and Winyo on vocals. Watch this space. We also continue…