#Informer snow patois series#

This program showcases the cultural influences of religious songs and choruses including Caribbean, African, revival, folk, spirituals, and вЂњold tymeвЂќ Jamaican favourites.В Over the past number of months, I attended several practices as I learned a repertoire of over 30 songs. I began to sing in January, about a year after my surgery, as we prepared for their musical showcased called Hallelujah Pepperpot. But what about my crazy, busy life? What about my recovery, work, planning of a wedding, creative writing classes, working out at the gym, and my other commitments? How could I fit in the Heritage Singers? How could I not fit in Heritage Singers? After my first choir practice, the answer became quite clear. This means that I could sing with this group in the city I live. вЂњWhat? I thought, you were based in Jamaica!вЂќ It turned out that the Heritage Singers are not based in Jamaica but in Toronto and they have been going for almost 35 years strong. I was so excited and stayed to watch them perform. Sometime in fall 2011, news got around that the Heritage Singers were coming to perform one afternoon in the library of my school where I teach for the older students. They were singing real Jamaican folk songs with not only Jamaican accents but Jamaican patois, too. I thought, wow! I was finally seeing the Heritage Singers all the way from Jamaica. (My sister Nyisha had since moved to New York City.) They performed beautiful and old favourites while outside on a stage in Ann Tindal Park as we sat on green grass. I thought it was so exciting that this group was coming from Jamaica to perform and I loved folksongs, so of course I told my dad about it and we went to see them.

#Informer snow patois series#

Then a few years ago, while browsing through the summer cultural series at the Harbourfrontcentre, I noticed that a group called the Heritage Singers was scheduled to perform traditional Jamaican folksongs.

The children loved these songs especially the use of Jamaican patois. I was so excited and began to share some of these songs with my students when I began to taught. My love of Jamaican folksongs reemerged anew. Since then, I have learned the lyrics to most of the songs which I would eventually share with my students and also relatives at a family reunion. I was so happy to have found this book that I purchased it immediately and excitedly took it home. Unlike our own Canadian accent, I wanted the Jamaican folk songs to be sung withВ authenticity and real Jamaican accents.ДЄbout fifteen years later when I was studying to become a music teacher while I was at a conference for music teachers, I saw Mango Spice with its original cover in a bin at a publisherвЂ™s display. I was intrigued by the discovery of these songs but a little disappointed. The callers in the call and response songs like Coconut Woman, Hill and Gully Ridah,В and Sammy Dead OhВ had a distinct and unmistakable English accent. Because the tape was recorded in England the audio recording, as the publication of the book, British school children sang the songs. Then eventually at the library, we discovered the Mango Spice cassette tape to accompany many songs in the book. As we struggled to sing these songs, both of my parents sometimes chimed in, recognizing these tunes and filling in the gaps for us so we could figure out what it was supposed to really sound like. As I sightread these new scores, plunking on the keys, traditional folk melodies like Tingalayo,В about a Trinidadian anthropomorphic donkey, gave way to tunes that were new to us like Sly Mongoose, вЂDis Long Time Gyal, and Jamaican Alphabet. Because many of the tunes had were of mento genre which is quite syncopated, I found it difficult to play both left and right hand simultaneously and so I focused on the right hand where the melodies were found. Being that I started piano lessons at the age of five, I could fumble through a brand new piece but my tries at these tunes were far from perfect. My sister and I took the book and eagerly tried to learn the tunes as I plunked them on the piano.

I was really proud of this outfit which I wore with a long red skirt and my Jheri Curled hair (a bit overprocessed I see but these were the eighties, so I had some permission). Me around the time when I discovered Mango Spice.