Music keeps Brukdown artist going
His name has become synonymous with one of Belize’s most prized musical genres. Tonight as we continue our coverage of The Coming of Age series, we highlight the incomparable Wilfred Peters and the Brukdown.
Rudy Castillo, Narrator
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.
It’s not known 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 instruments they could muster.
Wilfred Peters, Leader, Boom and Chime Band
“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 et cetera. and that goes whole night. The little old men would have their pants tie up with the tie-tie 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 the one now. So you don’t feel bad and you can get up and work in the morning.”
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.
Wilfred Peters
“Cause I love it very much. Which in, the kind (of accordion) that I learned on was not like this; this is modernised. It was small, “yellow gyal” they called it, the small one, but I like this one here.”
“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.”
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.
Wilfred 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.”
If you want to hear more from Mr. Peters, on most days you can find him on Albert Street retailing his music CDs.
