Mr. Peters promotes Brukdown Music
The Boom and Chime Band may be on the cover of a book which helps people use current technology like cellular phones, faxes and pagers, but their fame has come through their ability to preserve and promote a Belizean tradition: Brukdown music. But Wilfred Peters and his accordion, his musicians with their turtle shell and jawbone of an ass do not only preserve the music, they write new songs and perform for the younger generations. Tonight News Five is pleased to present once again a story which was part of the “Coming of Age” series produced by Channel Five in collaboration with Help Age Belize several year ago. As you will see “Mr. Peters” is a man with a musical mission, and he has no intention of slowing his tempo.
Mr. Peters and his Boom and Chime Band singing
Narator, Rudy Castillo
“It is called Brukdown Music and there is no one more closely associated with its performance and preservation than Wilfred Peters. While other kinds of popular rhythms come and go, Mr. Peters and his Boom and Chime Band play on and on.”
Band continues singing
“It’s not know exactly how Brukdown Music came into being. But most people trace its roots to the mahogany camps of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when small groups of rugged men, working for long periods deep in the forest, had to make their own entertainment with whatever they could muster.”
Mr. Peters, Band Leader
“Well you see, when you start, they would have, what they would call first log, they would have dance. Meaning you would have an accordion, a boom drum and a horse jawbone etc. And that goes whole night. The little old men would have their pants tie up with the tie and round their waist; they could go all night. Those times, it was pure white rum–no coke was there then–with water (laughs). But even with that, the white rum was better than those are now. So you don’t feel bad and you can get up and work in the morning.”
Band singing “Shalie (shal-lie) Baby”
Narrator
“Mr. Peters is now stranger to getting up for work in the mornings, his still earns a living as a carpenter and does a bit of farming. But there is no question about what comes first in his life.”
Mr. Peters
“Cause I love it very much. Which in, the kind (of accordion) that I learned on was not like this, this is modernized. It was small “yellow gial”, they called it, the small one, but I like this one here.”
Band singing “Run Mr. Peters Run.”
Mr. Peters
“My band is very good to Belize you know, plenty good, because it brings back some of the older memories of the older people I used to play with, this a culture thing. Even thought they call it Punta or calypso, those mostly I like, but the older people call it Brukdown. Brukdown music.”
Narrator
“It would be wrong to say that young people don’t like Brukdown music, it’s just that they’re no exactly beating down Mr. Peters door to take accordion lessons.”
Mr. Peters
“Yeah, I’m willing to help them learn it, but they rather to play cassettes or are interested to play the big box, boom boom boom boom. But not this, they’re not interested. Well when I’m gone, I don’t know who’ll take over (laughs). You know, I don’t know.”
