Bernyce Henry's kumina group from Port Morant, St. Thomas performing at 'Falla Backa Mi' at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday October 1, 2005. - FILE
THE CD Ettu, Mento, Revival, Kumina ... Recordings from the Jamaica Folk Music Collection was launched at the amphitheatre of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts on Thursday evening.
Vivian Crawford, member of the College's board and master of ceremonies for the occasion grounded the launch in officialdom, highlighting the importance of the occasion. The CD is a sampling of the Edna Manley College's folk collection from research work done by Dr. Olive Lewin and Marjorie Whylie in their turns as head of the folk research department.
COPIE FOR DISTRIBUTION
500 copies of the CD are slated for distribution to the nation's schools. The copying and distribution was funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the CD is not yet available to the public. In his address, German Ambassador to Jamaica Volker Schlegel noted that the work done so far was very important but that the next step was to make the work more generally accessible, an effort to which he was committed.
The production and distribution of the 500 CDs is the second phase of the initial move to preserve the important work done by Lewin and Whylie. The extensive collection of numerous analogue tapes was transferred to CD between 2000 and 2001 under the supervision of Dr. Wolfgang Bender and Dr. Markus Coester. Coester noted that by that stage, the tapes, which were originally made between the mid 1970s and early 80s were at the end of their lifetime and so the preservation was a very timely effort.
JAMAICAN CULTURE
Director of Culture, Sydney Bartley, representing Minister of State Noel Monteith, pointed to the strength of Jamaican culture but noted that we have not done enough to document and preserve our work on that culture. He argued that the collection should not be made into an "archival construct" but instead should be engaged by ordinary Jamaicans not put on a shelf like special crockery to be used only by visitors.
Former leader of the Opposition, Edward Seaga, who had originally commissioned the work, was the evening's guest speaker. He gave an overview of Jamaican folk music and its development through a process of "mixing and blending" of African rhythms and songs and European ballroom dances and ditties as well as the migration and repatriation of Jamaican labourers to and from countries such as Panama and Cuba.
OLE TIME
As such he moved from the plantation to the creation of Mento, which he said was eventually "crowded out" and styled as "ole time" through the dominance of North American music brought back by migrant labourers and available over the airwaves. His presentation also included samples of Mento, including the Silvertones' 'Reincarnation' which had the audience laughing heartily.
The evening also featured performances by the Lionel Town Burru Group, the Lititz Mento Band and A. R. Bedasse, one of Jamaica's oldest recording artistes. Burru bears similarities to Jonkunnu in the use of masquerading dancers. Four of the characters were represented on Thursday night, Cow, Horse, Horsehead and Mother Lunde.
- T.B-S
