Kenya: Wrap up of Field work!

     It doesn't totally do justice to our fieldwork to try to talk about it all in three blog posts, but I must do my best to stay recent!  The first half of our fieldwork was with the Kipsigis people of Kericho and Bomet.  We finished all of our work with 50 Cows, and were joined by a new fixer- Tabu Asousa, Manager of Ketebul Music.  He is basically the mastermind behind most of the great collaborations that made this project possible.  He oversees the recording studio in Nairobi, but also helps to organize and initiate the archiving of the Singing Wells project.  Basically he is the MAN.  And he also happens to be a Luo man, which is the people group with which we worked for the second half of our time!

Our first interview was with Michael Kinyany, a performer
in a popular Kenyan band that was featured in Hugh Tracey's work.

     To work with the Luo, we traveled to a city called Kisumu.  This is the third largest city in Kenya and it is right on the coast of Lake Victoria.  He flew out to meet us directly from a conference, and we hit the ground running with an interview the first day.
    Michael Kinyany was in the popular music group Lang' Obiero, but gave it up while still young in order to pursue business.  We met him in his office in the third floor of a building overlooking the square of Kisumu.  He is now the only surviving member of the group.

After a successful interview with Michael, he recommended
the fish at the Kisumu Yacht Club.  Yes, they have a yacht
club in Kenya! And the fish was pretty good!

The grave and original home of Toby Oyugi, a performer
in Hugh Tracey's recordings. 

After a brief and distant interview, we stopped by the rock formation
known as Kit Mikayi.  There are huge rocks randomly sitting out in
the middle of the bush!

We ran into a school group at the rocks.

Schoolboys posing like they're in a GAP commercial.

Hunter knows some sleight of hand magic tricks that always
get the kids excited!

Samuel Otuoma is the son of a popular performer that is on Hugh Tracey's recordings.  He denounced his father for being an alcoholic and polygamous.  Unfortunately neither of those attributes have been rare in our experiences here.  Samuel also references his Christian piety for his distaste towards his father and the music of his father.  Some Christians have inherited this disliking for Kenyan music from missionaries that worked in the area.  As a Christian that also loves the beauty of the style of music these men performed, it is a little troubling to hear that missionaries were directly a factor in all of this music losing its popularity within two generations.  

Wide shot of the whole interview outside of Samuel's gate.
We were sure to get permission to film him, don't worry!

These cute kids greeted us at the site of our second interview that day.

      Tabu holds two brass plates that are pressed with script.  They are a contract for musical performance and recordings done by Otuoma.  It cites him for having started performing in 1918, as well as having participated in recordings as early as 1938!  These were at the home of his grandson, Moses Otuoma.  Moses comes from a different wife of Otuoma than Samuel, and it seemed that his opinion toward the music of his grandfather was quite different.  He seemed to feel be proud and fond of his grandfather's reputation as a musician.  He even had the original instrument played by his grandfather in the 1950 recordings of Hugh Tracey!  He also could perform music for us on it!  Even more interesting, he came to our interview right after he returned from church!  So he is a Christian, but also loves his legacy as an Otuoma.

Moses is holding the Nyatiti here.

Moses performed the Nyatiti for us.  It is the very same instrument
that was played in Hugh Tracey's recordings!

A photo of Otuoma, the nyatiti, and the brass plate contracts.

Diane takes notes in a notebook with scanned copies of the field cards
and journals of Hugh Tracey.  She is verifying the information logged.

Carilus Odundo, percussionist for Aton Mito

 The next day we were guided to a set of interviews by Fred Mito.  He is the son of Aton Mito, who performed with a small group on Hugh Tracey's recordings.  Fred lives and works in Kisumu, but still has close connections with his family a small homestead in Pala Kabongo.  First he led us to the home of Carilus Odundo, the percussionist on the Hugh Tracey recordings.  Mr. Odundo was not able to speak much, but he did react strongly to the recordings of himself, commenting that "[He] used to play damn good."

Carilus was given a copy of his performances for Hugh Tracey.

As we tried to interview Carilus, this rooster kept crying out during
the interview.  It was so frustrating and obnoxious that the only
way I could vent the anger while shooting was to capture the rooster
in a photograph.  He would sneak up close to the microphones and then
blast Steve's ears.  So rude!

Millicent Mito, wife of Aton Mito.

     After speaking to Carilus, we continued on to the home of Millicent Mito, one of the last wives of Aton Mito.  This is actually not the mother of Fred, though.  When we first arrived, we were asked to come into the home for a prayer.  Then we walked out to the gravesite of Aton, which is on Millicent's plot!  Fred helped explain why we were there, and Diane gave Millicent copies of the recordings of her deceased husband.  She was most grateful.  We were then asked to stay for tea with biscuits and chapatti (my fave!! Biscuits are what they call cookies).

Pictured is Millicent Mito and Edwin Mito.  He is literally Fred's
brother from another mother.  He really helped us organize all
the interviews of the day.

Diane hands Millicent the copies of Hugh Tracey's recordings.

Millicent and Diane embrace.

Diane loves these moments!

Playing the Lang' Obiero recordings for the Obiero family.

 The next day we drove out to Yala to find the family of a musician named Horace Obiero, the leader of Lang' Obiero.  We found one of his sons, as well as a grandson and granddaughter.  There was a really cool moment when the grandson confessed to never knowing his grandfather was such a prominent musician, but always having felt the tendency towards music "in his blood."

Grandson Simon and Granddaughter of Horace Obiero

Part of the Obiero home.

Simon shows Steve and Hunter an old photo album.

Simon got the chance to connect with the popular Kenyan artist,
and Ketebul musician, Makadem.  Makadem uses traditional
music influence in his dance music.  Simon was already a huge fan.

Diane giving the recordings to the widow of Owiti Ger,
Amasia Owiti.

      Next we went to the home of the last wife of a musician by the name of Owiti Ger.  Owiti Ger is recorded by Hugh Tracey as both a solo musician and also as a band leader of the Lake Victoria Band.  Diane got to give a copy of the recordings to the widow of Owiti Ger, much to her delight.  She was visibly happy to hear the songs of her husband again.  Then one of her sons, Patrick Owiti, showed us the grave of his father.  He is one of only four of Owiti's children that lives today.
    Our last stop was with one of Owiti's friends, John Nyawade, that helped us confirm that Owiti is in fact leading the Lake Victoria Band in the recordings.

Patrick guides Diane and Tabu to the grave of Owiti.

The grave of Owiti Ger.

John Nyawade chuckling out loud at the sound of his
old friends performing in Hugh Tracey's recordings.

    These visits comprised the extent of our work with the Luo people!  Once we were done, we headed back to Nairobi for a few last minute interviews.  More to come!  I'm in Egypt now, FYI!

Kenya: First week of Fieldwork

     We had an incredible first week of field work giving recordings back to the Kipsigis people.  For many, it was their first time hearing themselves or their relatives in these recordings.  We are documenting our work in hopes of creating a full documentary film to help acquire more funding in the future.  I just want to share these photos with you all in order to tell more of the story!

The countryside in Kenya.  Looks a lot different than the "bush"
we all imagine!  This is a tea plantation.

Some locals helping us had their PA system and instruments
just chilling in their trunk.  Pretty hardcore.

The "nursery" of a primary school we went to visit.

Diane briefs the principal on why we are here.

Ryan gets ready to do some solid radio journalism.

Part of Ketebul's awesome field setup includes two AKG C414
microphones.  These are really nice, and are usually reserved for
nice studios or live venues.  Just a testament to how
legitimate this crew is.

Steve has is 17" Macbook Pro and two rack-mount interfaces set up
for the group performance.  No big deal!

Patrick is one of our videographers.  Based out of Nairobi,
he specializes in music video shoots.

Diane presents the Hugh Tracey recordings to the principal
for the school to use to educate children in traditional music.

Just a cute nugget I found hanging by a tree.

Steve is constantly listening to the audio to make sure
we are getting the best quality sound from our setup.

School students perform some traditional music and dance.

Wide shot of the whole scene. 

Singing beautiful traditional songs in cool home-made costumes.

Hunter gathering a crowd with the photos he got of the children.

Diane poses with some of the performers from the school.

A quick look inside the classrooms of the school.

We arrive at the second site of the day- a small village where
relatives of a performer live.

A widow listens to a 1950 recording of her husband for the first time!

Cute children abound!

Ryan always tacked on some really awesome questions to the interviews.

The legend, 50 Cows.  He did an amazing job locating these people!

A group of men from the village perform!

This is a form of an instrument called the nyatiti. 

We used a car battery, a stereo, and a wood-housed speaker
to play the songs for the villagers.

Day three, we met a man named Josiah that is the son
of a senior chief in the area.

Holding a traditional drum used both for music
and informational signals.

Josiah created a museum of the Kipsigis people,
containing all kinds of local artifacts and instruments. 

Our last stop on the way out of the area was a small music shop
in Kericho.  It was filled with recordings of local music!

   Through all of our work in the area of the Kipsigis, we have gained a lot of insight into some of the work of Hugh Tracey and the songs he recorded.  One song we focused on the most is called "Chemirocha."  This is a local way of saying "Jimmy Rogers," whose music was very popular in the area during the mid 20th century.  The song "Chemirocha" speaks of a legendary white man named "Chemirocha" that is coming to visit the village.  He is described as being half man, half beast.  We learned that the reason for this was that the local villagers believed white men were part beast.  They drew blood from Kipsigis people to use in blood banks for British soldiers, but the people thought they just ate the blood.  They also believed that the sacraments in the Holy Communion literally meant they were eating a man and drinking his blood.  For this reason, Kipsigis would not close their eyes during communion- for fear that one of them would be snatched away and eaten!  Kind of crazy, but it is so amazing to get these insights into field notes that to this day have only been a source of conjecture.
    After leaving the music shop in Kericho, we headed to the city of Kisumu, which is right on the coast of Lake Victoria.  There we began the second leg of our research with the Luo people.  More to come!