We started day two with a visit to Meshack at his late father’s home in Umala village, Alego constituency (Siaya County). His setting up for playing brought about a discussion and interesting notes on the accompanying “equipment” traditionally used when playing the nyatiti. These include: badiz (a piece of cloth tied to the player’s ankle…
The third day of our field recordings was particularly fruitful. We visited Patrice Odour Oriwo known as ‘Sewe Oriwo’ at his home in Murumba village, Sega constituency (Siaya County), who fully demonstrated the making of a nyatiti resonator. We started off by going to a nearby wood and picking a log, which was then transported…
On the fourth day, we had several venues and individuals to meet and time we could spend in each interview was therefore limited. We started our day in Unyolo village, Alego constituency (Siaya County) at the homestead of William Ogutu Omondi. Born in 1936, this elder amazed us not only with his excellent nyatiti playing,…
On our last day in Lake Region, we paid a visit to Ayub Ogada, probably the most internationally acclaimed Kenyan musician, whose use of the nyatiti in different musical genres is both original and pertinent for our Masters of the Nyatiti story. We spent the day at his home in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu…
Day 6: On this day, we travelled by road back to Nairobi. This report lacks detailed information on several days of recording in Nairobi, because of my absence. The team’s résumé of those days’ activities is included in the form of short notes: Day 7: Recording of the making of obokano, an 8 string instrument from…
The original concept of the Masters of the Nyatiti programme included a side segment focusing on the orutu ‐ a one‐string fiddle from the same community. Because of time limitations, this could not be done fully; yet the idea of instrument comparison remained and was reintroduced through an instrument comparison forum held on day 8…
Day 10 – Monday July 10th 2017 (as per team’s report): Two master class sessions with the 2 masters of the nyatiti (brought in from Lake Region) – William Omondi Ogutu (recorded on day 4 at his home) and William Odondi Matara, also known as Odondi Diel Matara (interview and several tunes recorded before master…
Challenges and difficulties One of the main intentions of this report on SW’s pilot Masters programme was to analyse and report on the difficulties encountered in the field. Although it is based on a somewhat personal experience, it was previously discussed with Ketebul’s Project Manager, as I wished to include other voices and mention issues…
