Here’s a coincidence: in 2016, as Guyana reaches 50 years as an independent country, the Tradewinds band is also 50 years old. The two things are not connected. It just happened to coincide that I was looking to start a band to play primarily Caribbean music, featuring my own songs, and that finally happened in 1966 in Toronto where I had been living for about 10 years.
In fact, I didn’t even realize the coincidence until about six months ago, looking at some plans for the Jubilee celebration, that it hit me.
Looking back to the beginnings of the band, with two Trinidad musicians, Glen Sorzano and Kelvin Ceballo, who had migrated to Canada about the same time as I, I had been playing music professionally, with my