Krista Henry, Staff Reporter
Dave Spence, a long-standing member of the Jamaican Folk Singers, shares a joke with Dr. Olive Lewin.
The Jamaica Folk Singers can easily be described as the most accomplished group which specialises in performing folk music. With 39 years of performing the group is set to blaze the scene again with their upcoming concert season.
According to Christine MacDonald, the musical director of the group, "The Jamaican folk singers started in 1967 under the leadership of Dr. Olive Lewin. She had been doing research into Jamaica's heritage and music. It was
partly through the memory bank that she was encouraged to share the information with others. We are Jamaica's first major folk singing group, non-profit."
She continues, "We started with eight members and have now grown to 26 members. We don't meet for the sake of singing alone, there's a kind of spirit in the group. The love of Jamaica, Jamaican people and Jamaican music drives us. There are even people who can't sing who are still in the group, it's a family."
The group's aim is to expose and preserve the music. MacDonald states, "We do solely folk music, when we do churches we have songs for that but the majority is folk. Our aim was to unearth and expose the beauty of our folk music. We got our music from doing research from older folk, who would talk to her and sing to her. A lot of the younger Jamaicans don't really know music beyond the JCDC things and that's restricted to a certain time of year. Dr. Lewin used to go around doing talks to get a better understanding."
Christine MacDonald continues, "Too many people kind of downplay the significance of Jamaica's folk culture. They don't take folk music as a serious thing. When we present it, as it is arranged by Dr. Lewin, we take it to a whole new level. People listen to it and say 'wow, the beauty in it.' We have given it more worth, we have been touring for years, they won awards all over the world. People are amazed, they think it's the most beautiful thing. A number of songs have been recognised, our focus is to preserve."
External factors
However, the group has not been having the regular touring and concerts that they were once used to, due to external factors. MacDonald elaborates, "In the earlier years we had regular concert seasons. The last ten years we haven't had a lot of them, organisations contact us. We're coming back after five years outside of the theatre. For the past 12 years we have been focusing on our folk show called 'Pepperpot' in collaboration with the Jamaica Library Services. Part of our mission is to help the children of Jamaica. We help the library services to raise books to help the kids."
When they do have concerts, it is something special to watch. MacDonald states, "When we go over the island, its like the people are not getting enough of this. Our concert season could be a chance to do so on a larger scale. The season starts September 8-10 at the Little Theatre."
She continues, "We have not been consistently out there, we have kept busy, we have not been out there for the entire Jamaica as we should have been. However, we have something special
to offer, we have a spirit. Open up to the music is what I tell the group. We
perform with sincerity."
The group is looking forward to their concert season and is inviting Jamaica to come and watch what they describe as a truly spectacular event.
