WATER FROM A BELIZEAN MUSICAL WELL!

The story of the brilliant and legendary Belizean musician, Bill Belisle,has been long overdue since yours truly of “Belizean Legends” spoke to his brother, Chauncy Smith, Jr., a year ago right here in Los Angeles where Smith lived. Before that we wondered about what the life of this prolific Belizean artist was like, especially for those of us who were too young to have heard the legendary Messengers play, with Bill Belisle flanked by the outstanding saxophone player and bandleader, Pete Matthews.

It so happened that a musically-inclined Bill Belisle who was named off his father, Chauncy Belisle, would be raised by Pearlie and Barney Kemp of Belize, though his mother, Claudia Leslie, was in his life. His mother worked with the Kemps,who were a prominent Belizean family from the South. Mr. Kemp also played music and was a Belizean musician before Bill’s time.

Sadly, the Kemps died in a traffic accident, and the young Bill Belisle had to move on with his life that took an artistic turn into music. He learned how to read music and, though an asthmatic, Bill played music in Belize with a great degree of excellence.

He later joined The Messengers, a dynamic Belizean band in Belize City that featured the classic and soulful Belizean artist, Ulloyd Henderson, as lead vocalist.

Because Bill suffered from asthma, he used marijuana a great deal as a herbal remedy in the 1960s in Belize, and his stepfather, Chauncy Smith, Sr., assisted him with musical training by placing him in music school in Belize. Blessed with the gift of melody and harmony, Bill’s musical life began to blossom, described by his brother Chauncy as, “Magic!”

Bill played with Latin bands in Mexico before returning to Belize in the late 1960s and 70s. He then began playing with Belizean bands at the time, like Glenn Bood & The Telegrams, Lord Rhaburn Combo, and later, the Messengers.

Having lived with music around him through Mr. Kemp’s musical life as a musical artist who played with other legendary Belizean musicians of the time like trombone player, Giffy Moss and others, Bill Belisle began to carve out a class act of his own in the Messengers. In those days, many Belizean musicians were playing by ear. But Bill could read music and wanted to play a more significant role in the band. Because the Messengers were already led by the awesome Pete Matthews, Bill humbled himself while Matthews had to write out the music for the other members of the Messengers who could not read music like Bill.

“Bill was very humble,” stated Smith. “He was a top musician in Belize but didn’t have problems with Pete Matthews as the leader of the Messengers.”

The incomparable Belizean artist, Bill Belisle, began playing with a Mexican band named, Los Latinos. The band came to Belize and began staying at the house where Bill lived in Belize City. Though Bill wasn’t that fluent in Spanish, his mastery and skills in the music spoke another language for him that connected well with his Mexican band buddies.

“The music spoke its own language,” said Smith. “Bill got by well though he spoke just a little Spanish to get by.”

Though Smith remarked shyly that Bill tried to teach him music when they lived together at the house where they both grew up, it was Belizean football that thrilled the younger Chauncy Smith, Jr., that has come to tell the inside story today of one of Belize’s most outstanding musicians of all time.

At the time Ulloyd Henderson became a very good and popular singer in Belize. He could sing the best of Otis Redding and other classic American R&B singers of the era.

The Messengers used to play at a club called the Ritz in Belize City that was close to the liquor store across from the Belize Police Station. The Ritz also owned the Flamingo Hall on New Road in Belize City. It was these popular spots that birthed what can be called the Belizean musical renaissance of the 60s and 70’s.

After 1973, the Messengers’ leader, Pete Matthews, joined the Belize Police Band. That was most surprising to many of the Messengers’ members who did not like the Belize police. Many of the best Belizean musicians used to hangout and play in clubs that the Belize police used to harass because of these musical artists’ use of marijuana.

Like many musicians around the world at the time, Bill Belisle’s wild side was also a part of his swagger that thrilled and attracted many a Belizean fan to his music. He drank a lot and sometimes walked barefooted around the streets of Belize City.

“He also played music barefooted sometimes,” said his brother Chauncy Smith, Jr. “Bill copied that hippie style from the American 1960s hippie movement!” It became a kind of wild and free behavior, and coupled with the drinking and use of marijuana, it may have came across as rebellious to upper class Belizean folks at the time.

Apart from his musical talent, Bill Belisle was also an artistic painter, and would paint psychedelic scenes and signs for the Foreman Bus Service of Belize in the 1960s.

The legendary Bill Belisle died of a heart attack, just as his late mother before him. Being that he was a heavy drinker, that may have contributed to Bill having serious heart problems.

“Whenever Bill would have an asthma attack,” Chauncy Smith remarked,”he would roll a weed to smoke that eventually opened up his lungs.” After that, the Belizean musical idol would play some of the most John Coltrane and Charley Parker-like jazz lines you could imagine. He was the unique and incomparable, Bill Belisle.

(Photo through the courtesy of Evondale Coburn and Clinton “Pulu” Lightburn)