“Why is it that a lawyer can eke out a living, or a doctor or an engineer or whoever, but the artiste is left to be devoured by the wolves, by something called piracy? There are artistes who are literally starving in this country who have made a significant contribution to our music and culture, but are literally living on the streets.”-Eze RockcliffeBy Michael JordanA day that sticks indelibly in my memory was the time I attended a one-hour concert by a group of musicians clad in colorful African garments, a group with throbbing drums that transported you almost mentally to the motherland.Patrick ‘Eze’ RockcliffeThe lone female among them, a woman with the sensual beauty and bearing of an African princess, was belting out a Mariam Makeba song.And in the midst of that group of drummers and guitarists and singers was this heavy-set, bearded, bass-voiced man with energy to spare,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, singing folk songs, throwing in a bit of soul and a song by Blood, Sweat and Tears. He even did some stand-up comedy.That was some 35 years ago, and that band, Guyana’s famous Yoruba Singers, and their leader and founder member Patrick ‘Eze’ Rockcliffe, are still making a significant contribution to creating a unique brand of Guyanese music.Eze Rockcliffe was born in Perth Village, Mahaicony on December 9th, 1950, to Oscar Richmond and Glendora Rockcliffe.Though the family left Mahaicony to live in Kitty when Rockiffe was just five, he returned often to visit close relatives.“I used to spend holidays there. I used to go and swim in the trenches, at the koker, I used to spend time with my paternal grandmother and my great-aunt on mother’s side sometimes. My great-aunt was a great cook so she used to make a lot of bread and cakes and sell in the village. While we there we would help her to knead bread and distribute cakes me and my brothers.”He first attended the Mahaicony Scott’s School and later the Redeemer Lutheran School after moving to Kitty.He was born into a family with a love of music and it was perhaps inevitable that the young Rockcliffe would follow in those footsteps.“I understand that my great grandfather, Proston Halley, always had choirs in the village, and that they (the Halley family) had a brass band. They would also say that when my grandfather was singing that you could hear him from over three miles away.“My mother used to perform at church concerts, so I guess that it was from that string that I got my musical talent.”Members of the Yoruba Singers, both past and present. At right of Rockcliffe is his wife- Joycelyn Allison Rockcliffe.The strong social consciousness of the sixties and seventies would also play a part in shaping the sort of music Rockcliffe would later compose and the inimitable blend of African-Guyanese rhythms of the Yoruba Singers.At that time, he was a member of both the Young Socialist Movement (YSM) and the African Society for Cultural Relations with Africa (ASCRIA). The ASCRIA group he attended met in a school hall in Barr Street, Kitty.Black Movement“We joined ASCRIA to get a greater awareness of what was taking place on the Continent of Africa.? A lot of African nations were starting to get independence in the 50s and 60s. There was also the Black Power movement in the US…so the movement to back consciousness was hot at the time. Cultural expression of dress and hairdos were paramount.“They (ASCRIA) had various groups, and they would do lots of concerts around the country,Cheap Jerseys From China, and we (the Kitty group) felt left out.”He remembers that before these meetings started, one group member, Odari Small, would sing while another member, Sam Robinson,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, would drum on a desk.“So one day Odari borrowed a hand drum for a man named Bertie Green and we started to do folk songs, pop songs and also writing our own songs.“We formed this group called the Kitty Young ASCRIANS, and about 12 of us started performing around the country. We became the most popular group in the organization. No concert could go on without the Young Ascrians.Yoruba Singers in performance“Six months later, we were told by the same Bertie Greene (who had lent us the drum) that because we were moving all around the country, as the early Yoruba people did, we should call ourselves the Yoruba Singers.”Yoruba SingersAnd so, in 1971, the Yoruba Singers, with Eze Rockcliffe as its leader, was formed.The early members were Wilfred Lashley, Keith Profitt,NCAA Baseball Jerseys, Odari and Eddie Small; Rudulph ‘Buckie’ Brandt; William Bascom, Gregory Omallo ‘Jo Jo’ Felix, Rudolph Torrington, the late Abiola Caesar, Ingrid Barton,? Sam Robinson (drummer), Aulburn Rockliffe and ‘Bafa’ Watson .Some of the members were former steel band players. One of the guy