mr-peters-biography

Mr. Peters' Boom & Chime

The King of Brukdown, Mr. Wilfred Peters is a Belizean national icon and one of the country's best loved musicians. After over 60 years of playing, he continues to define and invigorate Belizean Creole culture through his distinctive brukdown music style.

Brukdown music reflects the journey of the African slave into the mahogany camps of Belize. It uses syncopated rhythms and call and response patterns firmly rooted in Africa, harmonies borrowed from Europe and lyrical themes colored with the Belizean Creole language and experience. Brukdown became the music of the people, whether urban or rural.

As one of the few remaining brukdown accordion masters, Mr. Peters learned to play the instrument from his father on the family farm near the Sibun River in Belize, where music was the main form of entertainment in his household and when farmers and loggers gathered.

"We had no radios or cassettes then, only what we could play. And with some white rum and wata, people would dance through the night," Mr. Peters said.

Performing with accordion and guitar since the age of seven, his reputation grew, and by his early teens he found himself in demand throughout Belize. His popularity never waned, and he and his band continue to be a steady fixture at dances, holiday celebrations and events around Belize.

Now , at 70 years of age, Mr. Peters also continues to tour major music festivals in Mexico, France, Spain, the Caribbean and North America.

As a tireless bandleader, Mr. Peters has over the years refined the Boom & Chime Band into what is undoubtedly the most recognizable and dynamic representation of Belizean Creole culture.

--- Courtesy Calabash Music

Mr Peters Boom & Chime

Wilfred Peters

Wilfred Peters is a Belizean accordionist and band leader, known as the "King of Brukdown". He has toured Europe and North America with his band, the Boom & Chime Band, and was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in 1997 for his cultural contributions.

The King of Brukdown,

--- Courtesy Stonetree Records

Mr. Wilfred Peters is a Belizean national icon and one of the country's best loved musicians. After over 60 years of playing, he continues to define and invigorate Belizean Creole culture through his distinctive Brukdown music style Brukdown music reflects the journey of the African slave into the mahogany camps of Belize. It uses syncopated rhythms and call and response patterns firmly rooted in Africa, harmonies borrowed from Europe and lyrical themes colored with the Belizean Creole language and experience. Brukdown became the music of the people, whether urban or rural.

As one of the few remaining Brukdown accordion masters, Mr. Peters learned to play the instrument from his father on the family farm near the Sibun River in Belize, where music was the main form of entertainment in his household and when farmers and loggers gathered.

"We had no radios or cassettes then, only what we could play … and with some white rum and wata, people would dance through the night," Mr. Peters said

Performing with accordion and guitar since the age of seven, his reputation grew, and by his early teens he

found himself in demand throughout Belize. His popularity never waned, and he and his band continue to be a steady fixture at dances, holiday celebrations and events around Belize.

Now , at 70 years of age, Mr. Peters also continues to tour major music festivals in Mexico, France, Spain, the Caribbean and North America.

As a tireless bandleader, Mr. Peters has over the years refined the Boom & Chime Band into what is undoubtedly the most recognizable and dynamic representation of Belizean Creole culture.

In 1997 Queen Elizabeth II awarded him with an MBE for his outstanding work and cultural contributions.

The Father of Belize Boom and Chime Music - Mr. Wilfred Peters.

Tribute To Belize Patriots 2005

--- By Emory King

Last week the annual Tribute to Belize Patriots was held. Seven outstanding people were honoured with the richly deserved Meritorious Medal by the Governor-General.

There was not enough time in the allotted time to say everything that should have been said about these wonderful people and their achievements. For instance, take the career of Mr. Wilfred Peters. About 35 years ago Mr. Peters was earning less than $5.00 a day as a construction worker in Belize City. But he knew how to play the accordion. He had a couple of other friends who earned small amounts of money per day and they knew how to play the guitar and the drums. They decided to combine their talents and form a trio which was named The Mahogany Chips - playing traditional Belize Bruk Down music. Now they earned $5.00 per night plus bus fare and a little rum and cokes.

The Mahogany Chips caught on and soon the group changed its name to Boom and Chine and more men were added. You know the rest of the story. They played all over Belize and the world. Mr. Peters became a Belize celebrity in the West Indies, the United States, the U.K. and elsewhere. He is a hero for he has single-handedly preserved the traditional music of old Belize.

Article MT115 -

Musical Traditions No 11, Late 1993

Mr Peters' Boom and Chime

Used to be, just ten years ago, that Belize in Central America was the end of the world. Aldous Huxley wrote 'If the world had any ends, British Honduras would surely be one of them.' But not any more. Belize today is a unique, peaceful mixture of people; call it a melting pot or a true rainbow nation. Roughly the size of nearby Salvador but minus five million or so of its inhabitants, Belize has 200,000 souls, including African Creoles, Mayans, Mestizos, Mennonites, Rastas, Black Caribs, East Indians, Central American refugees, Lebanese, 'backras' (whites), expatriate Americans, even Chinese. There are still thousands of British troops there as well, intended to keep the Guatemalans from reclaiming Belize as their lost province. The large sign on the Guatemalan side of the border with Belize ominously states 'Belize is Guatemala.' Also adding to the mix are scuba divers along the coast, visiting the Western Hemisphere's largest barrier reef. There are also intrepid, mostly European, 'budget travellers' and some well-heeled eco-tourists as well.

I was there with my wife and daughter in September 1992, celebrating Belize's 11th birthday. No longer called British Honduras, Belizeans elected to stay within the British Commonwealth as an independent state. From National Day on 10 September, through Independence Day on 21 September, Belize was awash with revelry, parades, jump-ups and vaguely organised mayhem.

We were invited by our friend Mr Wilfrid Peters, musical leader, vocalist and accordionist extraordinaire, to participate and record his band in the musical celebrations that followed. Our purpose was to combine live recording sessions of Mr Peters with excursions to other parts of the small nation.

It was a simple yet somewhat schizoid idea. Belize City, the former capital, is not at all like the rest of the country. The recommended strategy for visitors is to leave muggy, crime-ridden Belize City for the spectacular back country as soon as possible. Enjoy the rest of the country's laid-back population, its mountain ranges, jungles, wetlands, Mayan ruins, beaches, islands, tropical sunsets and abundant wildlife - that includes jaguars, monkeys and Belize's odd national animal, the tapir (locally called the mountain cow). Also, take some time to sample the excellent locally produced Belikin beer and stout plus exotic rum punches of every variety, some even blended with seaweed.

However, Belize City is where Mr Peters and his 'Boom and Chime Band' reside. We recorded and video-taped Mr Peters as best we could . He sings, or rather croaks, in strong Creole accented English and plays a rugged sounding accordion in a rollicking barroom style, somewhere to the left of Louisiana zydeco. Folk Roots described his accordion style as 'heavily influenced by the sound of car horns in a Belmopan traffic jam'. Not to be outdone, his band backs Mr Peters with a most awesome cacophonous rhythm section . As that same reviewer claimed, 'The most driving rhythm playing ever heard, sheer excitement'. The rest of the band, for that matter, is all rhythm: Egbert Beltran plays the jawbone of an ass and the brake drum of a car, beating it with a metal stick. Ruben Flores beats on the mahogany 'Boom and Chime' drum; one side with a mallet - the boom side - and the other with a drum sack - the chime side. Mr Peters' son, Wilfrid Peters Jr, plays tumbas, which outside Belize are usually called congas. Samuel Myvett pounds away on banjo and relative newcomer to the band, Lennox Blades, plays electric guitar. Lennox replaced Allie Staine who, according to Mr Peters, wasn't holding his rum like he used to. This is soulful, up-tempo, traditional dance music that puts techno and computer driven dance music to shame. When Mr Peters starts to play, it' s simply amazing to watch everyone get up immediately and start dancing.

As recently as the 1970s, a friend of mine claimed that every dance and party he went to in British Honduras back then, always had this distinctive Boom and Chime dance music. Sad to say, this has become a thing of the past. Mr Peters' band is the last surviving that regularly performs 'Boom and Chime'. As they told me 'Hurry up with this recording, we won't live forever.' As recently as a few years ago the Turtle Shell Band was the only other surviving band of Belizean traditional musicians - however on their last international tour, they apparently got so drunk and rowdy that they haven't played or toured again.

Boom and Chime music has been compared to Caribbean 'scratch', music with its exuberant rhythms and emphasis on playing 'found' instruments. It's even been compared to Cape Coloured Jive from South Africa. Actually though, this music is culturally connected to music from the American Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, Mexico and obviously from Africa, while there is also a considerable amount of British ancestry. It's interesting that this combination of influences is what makes our own North American music so interesting, from jazz and bluegrass to rock and roll. It's that unique mingling of both African and Anglo musical and cultural influences.

Mr Peters' Boom and Chime is now the last remaining Belizean band representing the music of old Belize; the land of rain forests and the music of the timber cutters. Mr Peters and his band perform numerous 'brukdowns' which Chicki Mallan's Belize Handbook (1991: Moon Publications, Chico, CA, USA) describes as 'a cadence begun in the timber camps of the 1800s, when the workers, isolated from civilisation for months at a time would let off steam with a full bottle of rum and begin the beat on the bottle - or the jawbone of an ass, a coconut shell, a wooden block, anything that made a sound. Add to that a harmonica, guitar and banjo and you've got 'brukdown'.'

William Setzekorn's Formerly British Honduras (1981: Ohio University Press, Chicago) adds to this, stating 'All breakdowns are original, sometimes biting and many are slightly vulgar. Breakdowns relate a story, usually based on some local person. They poke fun at some prominent personality and are full of saucy puns. The more prominent the ridiculed person is, the more the song is enjoyed'. Not surprisingly, North American music has had a profound effect on Belizean music. Setzekorn continues 'Old Native music forms, so popular as late as the 1940s, have all but disappeared in Belize. Only rarely is the traditional Belizean music, the "breakdown", heard except at private gatherings'. Mr Peters embellishes his 'brukdowns' with his own Creole songs, which provide additional commentary and stories with Creole lyrics. Newer music in Belize runs the gamut from soca to reggae to another local hybrid, 'punta rock', an interesting updated electric version of older traditional Junta rhythms from southern Belize.

We recorded Mr Peters and his raucous musicians at Festival Grand Market, a huge street party held at Belize Technical College. It looked remarkably like a tropical gone-to-seed version of Jazz Charlotte. We also recorded him at a club date, a rather exclusive hotel club, where we had the luxury of some indoor recording space. Just prior to our visit, Mr Peters' Boom and Chime were invited to Trinidad to perform at that nation's massive CariFest. 'They loved us', Mr Peters said excitedly. 'They said we were the best band there.'

Listening to Belizean radio was an experience as well. Though Mr Peters has nothing good to say about them, Radio One, the government run radio station plays just about anything, except Mr Peters of course. Besides some locally produced music, you could hear Kriss Kross's Warm It Up over and over, along with lots of rap, reggae and soca. African reggae star Alpha Blondie got plenty of air play. Country music is surprisingly popular and gets much attention as does both white and black gospel. Lydia Villanueva, who rented us part of her house in Placencia, told us that her favourite artist is Jim Reeves, including both his gospel and country tunes. Sure enough you can sometimes even hear Jim Reeves on Belize Radio One.

So Belize is no longer the end of the road. You might be surprised to know that you can even drive there from the US or Canada. Just drive to Texas, drive through all of Mexico, take a right turn when you reach the Caribbean, head south, and there you are. Take plenty of spare tyres, a good radio and don't forget to say hello to Mr Wilfrid Peters and his Boom and Chime Band in Belize City.

Lew Herman

Article MT115

Thursday, April 23, 2009

adventures of a wandering fiddler

Belize City and the King of Brukdown!

We left the hotel at 4:15 am, feeling a bit sick to our stomachs, and shortly before our flight departed, Sarah and I simultaneously arrived at, shall we say, a resolution of the problem. (Please no jokes about twin fiddling.)

But we made it through the flight to San Salvador and by the time we arrived in Belize city we both felt better. This tour is a fascinating combination of the harsh and the luxurious. Luxurious: five embassy people met us at the airport and whisked us through the passport lines, and carried all our bags out the the van. Harsh: our early check-in rooms had somehow been given away and wouldn't be ready for a while. Luxurious: fancy hotel rooms with balconies. Harsh: $11 for internet access for one night.

Before we left, I wikipedia'd "music in belize" and ended up reading about Wilfred Peters, the King of Brukdown. To quote Wikipedia, "Brukdown is a Kriol mixture of European harmonies, African syncopated rhythms and call-and-response format and lyrical elements from the native peoples of the area." (Not too different from old-time music, I might add.) Mr. Peters had a well known group called "Boom and Chime," and I looked for music online, but couldn't find it.

Today, when Denise from the embassy mentioned that some local artists would be coming to see us and play for us, Sean (who's been to Belize before and knows a fair amount about the music) lit up and said "Mr. Peters?" "Oh, I don't think so....He's in his late 70's now, and doesn't get out much anymore. But I can try." Denise said.

When we arrived at the show, Denise told us that she had tracked Mr. Peters down, and he would be coming with his son! They came in while we were sound checking "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," and when we sat down to eat dinner with them before the show, he told us that he also loves to sing that song....so of course we invited him to join us in the concert.

We said we'd also love to play a song of his. So we had a little impromptu rehearsal right there, just before the performance. The washboard player is Wilfred; he didn't bring his boom drum, so Sean lent him a washboard, which he was playing for the first time. Our Belizean sound man, James, joined in on (Sean's) bones as well.

When it was time for the show, we began with a few of our own songs, then invited Mr. Peters and Wilfred up to join us. Taylor beautifully introduced Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Mr. Peters immediately dove into an original song. We joined him, smiling. As soon as the applause ended, Mr. Peters started a second song. We played along with that one as well. I leaned over to him when it ended: "Will the Circle be Unbroken now, yes?"

We played it, but something had gone wrong with his accordion pickup; strange and terrible sounds were coming out of the speakers. Meanwhile, our sound man had gotten so committed to his bones-playing that he didn't seem to notice the accordion problem. Still, we were having fun. We asked for a round of applause for Mr. Peters and told him we were going to play some of our songs now. "Let's sing Amazing Grace together!" he said. This segment of the concert was getting long, and the accordion was making painful electronic noises, but how could I say no to Mr. Peters? "Amazing Grace," I called to Sean and Sarah.

The words were hardly out of my mouth when Mr. Peters began playing - not Amazing Grace, in fact, but another original song. We all started laughing. He got us. And who can complain? It truly was a privilege to play with Wilfred Peters and Wilfred Peters Jr. After the show, we bought them each a drink.

Wilfred Peters

The King of Belize Brukdown Music , Mr. Wilfred Peters passed away in Belize City today 9 June at age 79 after a brief illness. A Belizean national icon Mr. Peters was one of the country’s best loved musicians. After over 60 years of playing, he defined Belizean Creole culture through his distinctive Brukdown music style.

Brukdown music reflects the journey of the African slave into the mahogany camps of Belize. The music genre born in the 17th century uses syncopated rhythms and call and response patterns firmly rooted in Africa, harmonies borrowed from Europe and lyrical themes colored with the Belizean Creole language and experience. Brukdown became the music of the people, whether urban or rural.

One of the few remaining Brukdown accordion masters in modern Belize, Mr. Peters learned to play the instrument from his father on the family farm in his home town of Gracie Rock Village near the Sibun River in Belize, where music was the main form of entertainment in his household and when farmers and mahogany loggers gathered.

“We had no radios or cassettes then, only what we could play … and with some white rum and water, people would dance through the night,” Mr. Peters said in an interview.

Mr. Peters toured major music festivals in Mexico, France, Spain, the Caribbean and North America. As a tireless bandleader, Mr. Peters had over the years refined the Boom & Chime Band into what is undoubtedly the most recognizable and dynamic representation of Belizean Creole culture.

In 1997 Queen Elizabeth II awarded him with an MBE for his outstanding work and cultural contributions.