Gull in East Africa

Photos by Imgard Rop and Len Albright

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:54:00 -0400

Photos by Imgard Rop and Len Albright

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Mon, 11 Jun 2012 05:05:17 -0400

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Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:44:48 -0400

Meshack Asin is a blind musician who performs Christian hymns...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:33:19 -0400

Meshack Asin is a blind musician who performs Christian hymns and traditional Luo folk songs on the streets of downtown Nairobi. A father of seven, Meshack shared stories with us about the origins of his songs, people he has met while performing on the street, and the aspirations of his family. His smile lit up when he told us about his daughter who is about to enter law school. This is a clip of a Luo song, that Meshack said reminded him of touring Kenya with a performance group when he was a young boy.

Photos by Imgard Rop

After Nate played on the street in front of Penya Africa, a...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:36:00 -0400

After Nate played on the street in front of Penya Africa, a Nairobi based record label, we had the chance to meet some of the young musicians participating in the Sauti Academy. Sauti assists young Kenyan musicians with information about career development and the music business. Mishel Muriuki (mishelmuriuki at gmail) took out a guitar and shared a song with us. Here’s a clip.

Photos by Imgard Rop On Saturday, after a drive through wild...

Tue, 29 May 2012 06:30:00 -0400

Nate playing before the film

Acrobats from Kibera's Fruitful School

Photos by Imgard Rop

On Saturday, after a drive through wild traffic for 1.5 hours, we arrived in Mathare, where Hot Sun Foundation had organized a festival including musicians, acrobats, and a film screening by the European Film Festival.

This afternoon we met Issac and Jennifer playing music with...

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:34:00 -0400

This afternoon we met Issac and Jennifer playing music with their family on Ngara Road in Nairobi. We’ll be meeting them again next week to film and learn more about them and their music.

Last night we hung out with Nairobi’s Sauti Sol at their...

Thu, 24 May 2012 05:18:35 -0400

Last night we hung out with Nairobi’s Sauti Sol at their practice space in the basement of the Alliance Francaise. Sauti Sol is a four piece Afropop band who recently returned from shows at South by Southwest and Mali’s Festival sur le Niger. In July they are embarking on a Scandanavian tour. Nate played a bit with them, and we’ll be meeting up again next week to do some video and recordings.