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…
Thursday, February 22, 2018 We travelled to Ilesi, Khakyega to record three groups. The first was Imachina. They call themselves after the village where they live. As with many groups over the last two days, most of their songs are for processions, like weddings, funerals, bullfights or rites of passage. So they tend to play…
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…
This Field Visit to Zanzibar is all about celebrating Siti Binti Saad, the Mother of Taarab. We assembled in Nairobi on Friday the 14th of February and flew to Zanzibar on Kenya Airways on the first flight on Saturday, making our way to the Ngawala Hotel. Temperature 33 degrees centigrade. Partially cloudy. Saturday…
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 first day of recording, we follow Siti Binti Saad’s footsteps to Bi Kidude and to Amina Abdalla, a performer we met on the grounds of the Ngawala Hotel (Coincidently, Ngawala is another name for Dhow), where we recorded three groups. Nyota Za Meremeta: The group’s name means ‘twinkling stars’. …
