Dominican Cadence legend Gordon Henderson will celebrate 50 years on stage at the 21st World Creole Music Festival (WCMF). Henderson will take the stage at the music festival with other music pioneers in the country as well as former members of his Exile One band. The musical concert will take place at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium in Roseau between October 25 and 27.
Born in the north-west coast of Dominica, Henderson attended the Saint Mary’s Academy for his primary education where he won the Calypso award. He wrote and sang his own compositions from primary school and joined with several bands in the early 1970s. He travelled to Guadeloupe in 1971 to become a part of the Vikings Guadeloupe musical band where he wrote the songtrack, Love, which propelled him to instant stardom in the French West Indies.
Following his popularity with the Vikings Guadeloupe band, several budding Dominican artistes such as Fitzroy Williams, Julie Mourillon, Vivian Wallace, Oliver Cruickshank, Kremlin Fingal and Guadeloupean Pierre Labor, joined with Henderson to form a band and develop a new brand of music genre which came to be known as Cadence-Lypso. The name of their band is Exile One.
The new group recorded several studio albums, perform live concerts, and created popular Creole anthems that inspired several up-and-coming musicians in the country to release outstanding music that shaped the entertainment industry in the late 70s and 80s. Some of Henderson’s popular hit-tracks include Nou Twavay pou Anyen, Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You, Jumbolo, Aki Yaka, Fresh/Fraiche, Rosita, Viel ou La, Diamant Kweyol, and many others. Together with Ophelia, Dominica’s Lady of Song, Henderson also recorded several great songs.
At the upcoming WCMF, Henderson will be taking the stage with Fitzroy Williams on keyboards and Alex Sty Larocque on drums, to do what he does best. Old musical colleagues from his Exile One era will also join with him, and others such as Linford John and Ophelia Maria among the notable Cadence-All-Stars team will be on hand to perform distinctive Creole music and song renditions that gave Henderson his legendary, world-class music stature.
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