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’. …
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…
Our second day we drove into Stone Town. We recorded the first two groups at the Emerson Spice Hotel along the seaside. This hotel is an Arab style hotel, reminiscent of the rhiads in Marrakech with lots of small courtyards. In the Emerson Spice Hotel we filmed the first two groups in a…
