Dear Editor,
The ‘concert’ at the Theatre Guild ought to be a treat for what, these days, is a fast dwindling generation of music lovers who remember well the mark that the Yoruba Singers have left on the local entertainment landscape of Guyana.
Indeed, after forty-three years there is much about the Yoruba Singers to remember beyond the value for money that they provided in local dance halls. The band will probably be even better remembered for the new benchmark it sought to set for things cultural in Guyana, rising above those other popular bands of its generation that rarely if ever departed from the genre of mimicked music that dominated the local landscape in those days.
During the early 1970s the band also capitalized on an aspect of local cultural awareness that included a generous measure of curiosity about its Africanness amongst a segment of the Guyanese population, so that the infusion of the drums and the flute into music that went beyond folk songs and the appearance of the band on stage in African dress struck a resonant chord with a large section of the Guyanese public.
If there are those who say that in those days the Yoruba Singers’ role as local and international ambassadors for Guyanese music was a function of the band being favoured by the political powers of the day, the truth of the matter was that their distinctive sound had earned them a level of popularity both at home and across the diaspora that transcended political favouritism, which was essentially why their international concerts in the Caribbean and North America were largely successful.
Over forty-three years the Yoruba Singers rose, then eventually, while never really falling, gave way to different generational tastes in music though there are those who argue that it was the failure of the Yoruba Singers to use its own distinctive sound to continually reinvent itself that has left it a somewhat jaded icon.
One of the most enduring figures in local musical entertainment, Eze Rockliffe, far more than anyone else, has, by his very longevity, kept the image of the Yoruba Singers alive. He is, however, the first to admit, that at the time when it mattered, the band simply lacked the tools to successfully market itself across the generational divide and that, above all else, is the reason why its various national and international accolades have not been attended by greater material accomplishment.
Even today, a contemporary Yoruba Singers, held together by the will of the man who has been its leader for all of its forty-three years, still provides a vibrant and energetic brand of music that evokes a compelling nostalgia and transports fans of a different generation down memory lane. At the same time the fact that the band’s music still turns some heads and sets some younger feet dancing more than four decades after it first took to the local musical stage, is as much a tribute to the significance of its offerings in the realm of entertainment as it is a reflection of its remarkable endurance.
Yours faithfully,
Arnon Adams
