Founder and coordinator of Creole Heartbeat, Leroy “Wadix” Charles, has called for a platform for Midnight Groovers to teach Calypso music to children. Charles said Calypso music is dying, and that Midnight Groovers must pass on the music to the younger generation. He said the Midnight Groovers are living legends that have a legacy to pass on to posterity.
Charles made this disclosure while unveiling a billboard that pays tribute to the Midnight Groovers in Grandbay. The billboard was erected by Creole Heartbeat in partnership with Sign Man, the Grandbay village council, and the parliamentary representative for Grandbay. In requesting for a suitable avenue for the Midnight Groovers to use, Charles said they are considering a place in South City.
“I would like the authorities to create some place where these brothers can teach the children to play their kind of music,” Charles said. “You see the type of music they play, give them a budget, we have some place in South City we can do that. So we do not have to go to town. Let us continue to honour them and one of the best ways I think we can do that is to allow them to teach the children.”
The Creole Heartbeat coordinator expressed gratitude to Midnight Groovers’ members Marcel Komak and Phillip “Chubby” Mark among others for the personal sacrifices they have made over the years in promoting Calypso music. Chubby on his own part lamented that several genres of music in Dominica have been bastardized and not suitable for children to hear or dance to. He said musicians now place a higher value on money than the cultural and spiritual values of music.
In lending his voice to the Gospel Jubilee event scheduled for August 4-7, PM Roosevelt Skerrit urged Dominicans to embrace and promote Cadence Lypso as a way of advancing the traditional and historical heritage of Dominica. He stated that Dominica is partly on the international map because of the influence of Cadence Lypso, and that most genres of music on the Island owe their emergency to Cadence Lypso.
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