Day 1: The music of the Luo – starting at Rang’ala Village Story
We are in Rang’ala with the chance to listen to Osumba Rateng and Ogoya Nengo… If you look at a map and think of Lake Victoria as a clock face, the village for today’s recording is at 1PM – it is the Rang’ala Village, home of the legendary Luo singer Ogoya Nengo. We’re about 90 minutes northeast of Kisumu, our ‘base’ for two days. We are here to record the Sega Sega Band (Benga Style) and the Do Do Band (Do Do), both Luo musical styles; the Luo a…
From Kisoro to Nairobi to Lake Victoria Story
Following our recording of the Batwa in Kisoro, Uganda the team travelled back to Kenya to embark on the second phase of the trip. We are recording the music of the Luo in the Nyanza province in the west of the country near Lake Victoria. We want the focus of these blogs to be about the music. So we’ll keep travel updates to the minimum. In this blog we combine all the fun of travelling from Kisoro back to Nairobi and from Nairobi to Kisumu. Kiso…
The Batwa Trail News
We received a lovely email this week from Ivy Beccu from Belgium. I’m glad to see that news of the Singing Wells project is spreading far and wide! Ivy has made a great video about the Batwa Trail in Kisoro, Uganda. When the Singing Wells team visited Kisoro last year to record the music of the Batwa (click here to go to our field reports), we didn’t have enough time to do the Batwa Trail but we heard about how it is helping the Batwa people tell…
Day 6: The Studio @ Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Kisoro Story
DAY 6: An amazing day at the ‘Hotel Studio’, recording for the first time the Gatera Community (Alice’s community) and the Kabahenda Community. And the return of Francis and the Birara vocalists, and the Magic Bass Guitar… The day began with the return of Francis Sembargare from the lovely ‘Community on a Hill’. We started with an ‘Influences’ session with Winyo accompanying the ladies to sing Imparake Yagahinga – the song in praise of the Nation…
Day 5 (much later): The Micyingo Group – guitar and bass! Story
DAY 5 continued: Sunburned, exhausted, and ready to call it a day. Just in time to be shocked by the world’s best bassist.. We opened the ‘Hotel Studio’ for the Kisoro Hill Community who started with wonderful dance and song. But then, they switched gears and set up a smaller group of ‘bass’ and guitar and absolutely blew us away… They started as wonderful large group moving through a set of songs, including ‘Imparake Yagahinga’, the National Par…
Day 5 (PM): The ‘Togetherness Group’ from Kanyabukunga Story
DAY 5 continued: A wonderful afternoon – lots of children, sunshine and a very important empty field.Our time on the hill was followed with an afternoon in an empty field. It was a delightfully empty field. The purpose of the field is as a UN evacuation and refugee centre if there are troubles in Rwanda or the Congo. The fact that it has no tents, has no refugees, is a wonderful thing and we felt it was a great location to record Kanyabukunga Twi…
Day 5: Recording the Mperwa Dancers Story
DAY 5: Welcome to the most beautiful setting for a music recording session. Today we visit the Mperwa Community. The second day of recording – beautiful sunshine in morning and there’s a patten emerging. Morning sunshine, afternoon rain, then the power goes out. Then the locusts attack. But let’s focus on the morning. This morning we recorded the Mperwa Dancers – the lead singer had a beautiful voice and we did an ‘Influences’ sessions with her….
Day 4 (later): Recording for ‘Influences’ with the Birara Dancers Story
DAY 4: We continued our recording of the Birara Dancers when we invited four of the performers (Francis and the three lead female vocalists) back to the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro. Jennifer who manages the hotel is brilliant. She allowed us to set up a recording studio, under the verandah of her hotel, just outside the bar. We were able to record there over the next three days, rain or shine, night or day. Which was good, because it rained…
Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
DAY 4: After 3 days of travel (at least for those of us leaving from London), we were ready to record. And we rewarded with a great day of recording, starting in the morning with the Birara Dancers, led by the legendary Batwa artist, Francis Sembagare. We woke up early and were greeted with this wonderful view from the garden of the Traveller’s Rest Guesthouse: After breakfast our first stop was the office of the United Organisation for Batwa Dev…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
DAY 3: Today, we travelled from Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro, arriving at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel by late eveningWe set off early so we could settle all custom issues with our equipment (we really wanted to return with it all!). We then took Kenyan Airlines (new plane with movies!) to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, population roughly a million. We were met by our drivers Arun and John and drove through heavy rains to the Rwanda-Uganda border cr…
Day 1 & 2: Preparing to leave for Kisoro, Uganda Story
DAYS 1/2: The Abubilla Music crew sets out to Nairobi to meet up with Tabu Osusa, Founder of Ketebul Music and co-partner of the Singing Wells Project and met the Ketebul team in the studios for a day . Day 1: 11.11.19, Flight to Nairobi: Jimmy and Andy, Founder and Sound Engineer of Abubilla Music respectively, set out to Nairobi on Saturday for Nairobi. All good with flights, visas, bags and customs and we were greated by Tabu Osusa. Checked in…
News from the Batwa in Kisoro News
…We received a lovely email from our friends at the Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) this week. Just to re-cap, we visited Kisoro in southern Uganda in November 2011 to record the music and dance of the Batwa people….
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
We used the long ride back to interview Tabu, Steve and Andy about the Singing Wells project. Worth a read… We’ve finished our trip and had our long ride back from Mombasa. We used the opportunity to interview some of the team about the Singing Wells Project. Jimmy to Steve Kivutia (Singing Wells Project Manager): Q: So, first tell us about your self and one thing surprising SK: I was born in Nairobi. I am one of four, the youngest. Both my broth…
Kenya (Coast): Day 3 – our final recording day Story
Second day in Diani. Early morning trip to Vuga Kwale County, in a densely covered village, of deep red earth, light blue buildings and wonderful village life. Recorded our final two groups and packed up equipment for the long trip home. The village We recorded at the village’s central meeting place. Throughout recording, clothes were being washed, iron and hung to dry, meetings were being held, grain sifted, chickens chased about… We felt very m…
Kenya (Coast): Day 2 – recording in the village of Kibarani Story
This is our second day of recording and a full one. In this blog we report on the morning. We’ll give you a sense of the village, the groups, the kids and the ‘setup’… The Village This village was called Kibarani. We set up behind on larged thatched hut in an open field, filmed with cows (lots of mooing ended up on record), cow poo (lots of misteps), children, beautiful trees, chickens… but far off the main road, wonderful quiet and cool. This i…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
After a long drive from Nairobi to Malindi yesterday, we spent a full day recording in the village of Sita… Let’s focus this blog on today’s music. After all, it’s all about the music. Three things to report…. The Village Sita is about 15 kilometres from Malindi, which is on the Kenyan eastern coast, against the India Ocean. It has a long history, is mostly Muslim and has been ‘discovered’ by everyone including Chinese Emperor’s in the 1400’s. Si…