The Belizean music and cultural fraternity has lost one of its most recognized, famous and decorated members, when Wilfred Peters, Sr., “King of Brukdown,” died of a heart attack while hospitalized at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital around 2:20 Wednesday afternoon.
Peters, who was 79, had a distinguished career in pioneering and perfecting the sound of Brukdown with classic tunes for young and old, from “Solomon Gone” to “Shell-eye Baby” to “Run, Peters, Run.” He was hailed in an award-winning DVD, “The Three Kings,” as member of the titular trio including Paul Nabor, parandero, and Florencio Mes, marimba master.
This past Sunday, he had been rushed to the KHMH as a result of a persistent asthmatic condition, and his heart briefly stopped as the doctors worked to stabilize him.
They succeeded (see story in Amandala #2431, “Wilfred Peters stable at KHMH; rushed in for asthma condition, on page 27), and after briefly being on a ventilator to help his breathing, he was taken off early Wednesday morning, according to his son and namesake Wilfred, Jr.
Wilfred, Jr., told us that he and family members visited with his father around 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, during visiting hours at the hospital, and he appeared to be in fine spirits, talking strongly, joking and agreeing to have his famous Boom and Chime Band play, without him, at an engagement at Old Belize this weekend.
They left around 1:00. No sooner had the party arrived home than, around 2:30, the hospital called, asking that they urgently return.
By the time they got back, “Mr. Peters,” as he was known to one and all, had died.
The suddenness of his passing has shocked his son, who told Amandala on Wednesday evening at the family residence on North Creek Road that, “As much as we knew this had to happen, it’s still a shock. Even now, I still can’t believe it.”
Mr. Peters was preparing to record again with Ivan Duran of Stonetree Records.
The Mr. Peters Belize and the world knew – the master performer, story teller and bandleader – was at home a doting dad, sometime farmer (he had a farm at St. James’ Boom, off the Northern Highway at Mile 14 ½ in Sandhill) and inveterate salesman of his records, but in either persona his genial, loving nature was manifest, according to his son.
And now that he is gone, it is no sure bet that the music he created will carry on, as according to Wilfred Jr. the future of the Boom and Chime Band is at best uncertain.
What is certain, according to Wilfred Peters, Jr., is that Mr. Peters’ original accordion – as essential to his music as the guitar was to Jimi Hendrix, the trumpet was to Louis Armstrong and the hips were to Elvis – at least has a resting place, at the Bliss Centre for Performing Arts.
Mr. Peters is survived by his wife of 55 years and efficient assistant, Mrs. Martha Peters; son Wilfred, Jr.; 8 daughters, fourteen grand-children and seven great grand-children, among other members of his family.
Funeral arrangements are yet to be planned, as four of his daughters in the United States are preparing to come home, but Wilfred Jr. told us Belizeans can expect to see the Imperial Band leading the procession and Mr. Peters’ favorite song, “Amazing Grace”, being played. The Government of Belize has indicated that it will be an official state funeral, to be held early next week. He will be buried in Lord’s Ridge Cemetery.
Music and culture fraternity reacts: ‘Brukdown will live on’
Those who will most feel the brunt of Mr. Peters’ sudden passing are his fellow musicians. One example is bredda David Obi of Stann Creek, who was visiting the family on North Creek Wednesday.
Bredda David told Amandala that Mr. Peters had helped him get his start in music many years ago, and since then they had grown close.
But he had only just heard about his friend’s hospitalization today from a son-in-law of Peters and determined to visit him after conducting some other business.
Before he could make it to the KHMH, he was told that Wilfred had died, and he detoured to the family home instead.
According to bredda David, when warned about his resumption of activity after a long illness earlier this year, Mr. Peters reportedly told him, “Ah have to mek mi money.”
Mr. Peters is one reason bredda David and punta rocker Peter “Poots” Flores, Belize’s Cultural Representative to UNESCO, is pushing for a pension plan or means of compensation for Belizean musicians and artists who dedicate their lives to Belizean music with little profit coming their way.
Tony Wright, board member of NICH and the Association for Belizean Artists First (ABAF), recalled for Amandala the moment he found out that Mr. Peters and he were first cousins.
“It was after Soundfest a couple years ago, and we headed out to Orange Walk to do a festival there. I told him that my uncle was one of the first persons to drive a truck from Belize City to Corozal, after Lindy Rogers. He asked, who is your uncle? When I told him, he said, Boy, do you know that we are family?… We hung out together that night and he blew away the crowd…”
Wright recalled that Mr. Peters was one of the first recording artists in Belize, “Solomon Gone” and “Eleven Bocotora” being released on the old “45” records and being played on jukeboxes at local clubs in the mid-70’s.
Mr. Peters did not look back after that, joining the Medwood Group (forerunner of the Boom and Chime Band, which he formed afterwards) and continuing to tour the country and later the world with his music. Even in his twilight years he continued to participate in Soundfest and usually put on a show and dance for the adoring public.
Gregory Vernon, Director of the Institute of Creative Arts (ICA) and another family friend, recalls the old days with the Belize Arts Council (forerunner of NICH) when Mr. Peters and a number of contemporaries were honored at a 1997 ceremony.
“Mr. Peters was a character all by himself… if it was a rainy day, and you met Mr. Peters, his personality would bring out the best in everyone… he always had a joke, a smart comment, for everyone he met.”
So, will his music live on?
Vernon thinks so. “The music remains alive, but not enough people are practicing it. Brukdown is not a dying form… (nevertheless) it is a huge loss for Belizean music. There will never be another Mr. Peters. He was one of a kind.”
He went on to say that of all Belize’s touring artists, only three – the late Andy Palacio, Bredda David and Mr. Peters – could hold their own with anyone in world music – and that Mr. Peters in particular got encore and invites to the main stage at every festival he played.
Because Belizeans have for the most part not pushed the boundaries between the public/professional and private/personal lives of our musicians, Mr. Peters has not been tarnished by the kind of gossip and scandal that have downed bigger stars before him, Vernon told Amandala.
The other part of that equation was Mr. Peters’ own attitude to his craft. “He did not see himself as a professional or music as a business, playing a job. He had a passion for music, and when he played, he went to bram, to have fun. He took his music seriously, but he had fun doing what he did,” Vernon said.
Even when it got him into confrontations with the likes of Junie Crawford and piano master Frankie Reneau, when the latter was conducting an all-star cast for the “Celebrations” project, as Vernon recalled: “when he finished his piece and (Frankie) told him he had to do it over, (Wilfred) told him, ‘Ah done do it my way, now lef it lone.’ Frankie was a perfectionist, but once Peters was satisfied with his work he didn’t want to do it over. That was the kind of person he was, but he took his music seriously.”
NICH has plans to teach the accordion to interested musicians – Vernon told us there were only a few accordionists still playing in Belize, most in the rural areas – and the annual Brukdown competition will continue in Mr. Peters’ honour.