IT had to be a Wednesday night at a picnic at Kakado (not sure of the spelling) on Croal Street, in the 70s. The poster advertisement with the Yoruba Singers and Mischievous Guys was on every pivotal lantern post along the old South Georgetown area (old south Georgetown is originally from Hadfield Street to Ruimveldt, before South Ruimveldt was developed). The door man was Baba Gulling, so I didn’t have a problem, he whispered to me and my girlfriend that “Yoruba singers ent deh here yuh know.” I replied, “Deh ent come yet?” Baba smiled “Nawh is just M-Guys, Yoruba ent deh hayh tonight.” That was the game of the day, and almost every promoter did it: nail a poster on a GEC (now GPL) post with an act that was not going to be there. Mischievous Guys was the top band that captured the local grassroot interpretation of the early 70s Jamaican hit ‘Beat Down Babylon’ by Junior Byles. The age of the tight shirt and the big, check fat pants, and the Ribbon Bow girls; Mischievous Guys had emerged out of Curtis & the MGs, owned by Curtis Archer of Charles Town, managed by Desmond Fraser, Lionel Abel who wrote ‘Lonely man’ started with the MGs as a drummer, another band member Patto Gonsalves wrote ‘Honey Honey.’ But, Yoruba Singers were and are a different cup of tea. Most of our original ‘Folk songs’ were composed and emerged pre and post-Emancipation, many of them were Queh-Queh songs, and the Shanto music that Pork-Knockers sang. The identity of the composers are lost in time in that period. Luckily Vesta Lowe began a preservation movement, with possibly the first Folk LP that halted the disappearance of our folk music, like folk music worldwide, much later Folk was arrested on wax with an entertainment swag by the legendary son of Charlestown ‘Bill Rogers’ in the sixties, following him was the tremendous talent of ‘Ram John Holder’ who crooned our folk music into the hearts of most Guyanese, continuing to shape the Guyanese ‘Identity’ but it was the Yoruba Singers who became the torchbearers in the post-republic era.

The band emerged out of the dynamic Afro-awareness (Man know thyself) ASRE movement founded by Elder Eusi Kwayana. The core of the band lived in Kitty at that time of the formative era of the band, so they were called the Kitty ASCREIANS. As a group, they travelled to other locations and played. It was the mystical Berti Green of Kitty Public Road, proprietor of the then-popular tailoring establishment Evergreen, who gave them the name Yoruba Singers, after that West African tribe that was believed to have travelled far and wide, even to the Americas before Columbus. The band did not only perform popular music but produced original songs with a folk air that became dance hall favourites. One of their first was ‘The Masakuruman’ based on a folklore character, was written by William Bascom ‘Syrup’ in 1972. It was recorded at Gems Recording Studio that was located at the back of Gems Record Bar on Robb Street, Eze Rockcliffe the Band leader did the vocals. Robb and Wellington Streets were a hive of creative souls, hustlers, gamblers and streetfighters, top talents like Billy Moore whose Christmas song ‘Happy Holidays’ is still popular, names like the singer Billy Wade, Morris Fenty and Gordon Critchlow sign artists, and many others are the spirits of yesterday’s Robb and Wellington Street. Yoruba Singers produced five Albums as follows; OJINGA’S OWN in 1973 in Suriname, FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL 1981 – in Barbados, AWE LIKE DEM SONG DIS’ and SONGS WE LOVE TO DANCE, featuring popular cover tunes in 2010. The missing album is BACKAYARD HUSTLE that was never released.

In 1980, Eze received the ‘Medal of Service’ and travelled to the Magdalenenburg historic area up the Canje River home of the 1763 revolution to celebrate the anniversary of the Guyana National Service. Eze has profound memories of that experience, he explained that those locations were very spiritual, those recollections still live with him. In 1984 in New York the band recorded ‘BRIGHT LIGHTS’ but as the business goes only a 45 was released, the theme song on one side and Awe Music on the other, unusual back then in the wax industry where the main tune was accompanied with what was called the ‘version,’ an instrumental rendition of the vocalised song. One of the most popular Yoruba Singers dance hall favourites was the sultry song ‘Danger Water’ sung by Abiola Caesar. She joined the band in 1972 and rocketed to incredible popularity, but the rush was too much for her other half; it was short-lived as she was lost in a fatal romantic tragedy in 1975. In 1982 the band made their first tour to North America, the U.S.A and Canada. They were booked for the Mother’s Day concert in 1983 in Madison Square Garden with he Mighty Sparrow, Kitchener and Arrow, and were booked for the next year for the same event.

The incredible temerity of the creative force of the Yoruba Singers is the folk roots of Eze Rockliffe, its founder, who credits it to Mahaicony, his birthplace. And the team that embodied what I refer to as the movement of the Yoruba Singers, an experience my generation evolved with when it came to homegrown entertainment and inspiration, that had enveloped and defined the ‘creative self’ of a generation across the arts. I must reflect on that cadre of local musicians from Sid and the Slickers to Rudy and the Roosters, Mischievous Guys, Sound Dimension, the Telstars and the Jazz groups from the late 60s, 70s from school short pants to drain pipes. The atmosphere that these musicians produced internalised the creative perspectives for all the national systemic failures, we still do and continue to generate creativity reflective of who we are. For this, I say thank you; to Eze for guiding me through this article and to the Yoruba Singers for enduring the restless tides.