King of the steel pans… Guyanese musician, Rudy ‘Boyzie’ Bishop is a ‘Special Person’

Mar 07, 2021 News, Special Person

---

“I have been working to resuscitate the band and take the social venture to another level, so by the time COVID-19 is over, we can do much greater work.”

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – The alluring symphony of the steel pans is what drew Rudy Bishop into a musical career, one, which he dedicated most of his 75 years on earth.
Today, Mr. Bishop, who is known by many in his close circle as “Boyzie,” is passionate about the art as the day he started playing the steel pans – a skill that brought him recognition at home and abroad.
Coming from the most meager of beginnings, he said that the steel pans brought him a satisfied life, one that he could not have imagined even if he tried.

At the peak of his career, Mr. Bishop graced the stage of renowned venues like the Apollo Theatre in New York and opened shows for several well-known Caribbean bands and singers including Byron Lee and the Dragonaires and the renowned Grenadian calypsonian, “The Mighty Sparrow.”
His work earned him respect, locally and internationally. Fact is that Mr. Bishop holds several accolades for his service, including the Medal of Service, Sunshine Award and Hero Award.
His work locally comprised building steel pan bands for various schools and organizations throughout the country, and internationally, he entertained many distinguished audiences across North America, the Caribbean and Russia.
He told Kaieteur News that having already made his mark as a renowned pannist, he is more focused now on leaving a musical legacy for the younger generation to follow.
And although this week’s ‘Special Person’ is now in what many would call his “golden years,” he reassures that he still has a lot more to add to the development of the socio-cultural facet of the nation.
At present, he wants to continue training and putting together steel pan camps for as many communities and schools as possible.
“At my age I still have more to contribute to the music and social welfare of the people,” Bishop told this publication during a recent interview.
MEMORY LANE
Obviously, proud of his accomplishments as a musician, Bishop, during a trip down memory lane, disclosed that not only had he come from a very humble beginning but his family was one of the largest clan in Pike Street, Kitty.
“We were so big that almost every house on the Street had a Bishop,” he said reminiscent of his youth.
“I had 13 siblings; we were a poor family but very religious. Both my parents ensured we attended church and went to the Anglican school,” he said as he continued the conversation on his childhood.
According to him, his parents, particularly his mother, Urie Bishop, was so strict about ensuring her children had a solid Christian upbringing that they attended Mass at St. James – the -Less Anglican Church, at least three times a week.
“She was a strict Anglican woman who took care of the house and children; ensured that we went to school and got involved in the work of the church, while my father, Clarence, was a carpenter by trade, but he sold greens on a donkey cart for many years to help support the family,” Bishop said.
He noted that his mother had planned on having him follow the footsteps of his father once he had finished school before something else caught his attention— the steel pans.
According to him, it was on the way to one of the weekly choir practice at the church that the sound of the steel pans caught his attention. He noted that it was either he had never heard or paid attention to the sound before but on this particular day, it gripped him.
So instead of going to choir practice, the young Bishop found himself wondering down a slim alleyway to investigate the alluring sound.
“I remember the band was playing musical renditions to tunes that I knew and so I began humming along,” he said with a glimmer of fascination in his voice.
According to the musician, this was the first time he witnessed the “El Tora Steel Band” in action.
“It was so captivating for me as a youngster that I would leave for choir practice and end up there in the alleyway, among some other youths, who like myself, were watching the guys play,” he said.
Bishop recalled that he could catch the band almost every day because they were training for a competition.
“I would stand for hours and watch the band as they played. They were prepping for the Christmas Road Tramp,” he said, recalling the moment he was invited to join the band.
“Archie, the arranger of the band was becoming increasingly frustrated because the bass player kept forgetting the notes. I was standing there watching them all the time and whenever they left I would jump on the pans and practice…so I volunteered to fill in for the bass guy. Archie asked me “you sure you could play?” and I said yes. I was confident and he handed me the sticks. Well, the rest of the story you could say was history. I got into my first steel pan band,” Bishop stated.
He noted that it was not long after that he became a permanent member of the band and played his first solo.
“It was a popular 1963 tune, called, Sparrow come back home, sung by the Mighty Sparrow,” recalled Bishop.
He told Kaieteur News that he remained with the band for two years until Peter D’Aguiar, the Guyanese businessman renowned for the D’Aguiar Park brewery beverage fame, started a band of his own.
“I joined D’Aguiar’s band in Charlestown along with some other steel pan players. I was still a youth living with my parents so I took the opportunity to travel all over the country and play,” he said, adding that he later joined a band controlled by a popular public servant named Victor Thomas.
“That band was called the Texacons and playing for them helped me develop the confidence to join the Bell Boys, “he said that the Bell Boys band quickly became popular which made way for them to “play out” at weddings, parties and other public events.
By then, he said the band had garnered a reputation of its own to open for major musical acts coming to Guyana.
The pannist recalled specifically the show with the renowned Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires; for it was then “Boyzie,” his childhood nickname he had developed, became popular in musical scene.
Bishop then played in several other bands leading up to joining a steel orchestra called the Skylarks which was popularized in the 1960’s until they finally broke up after performing at Guyana’s independence day celebrations on May 26, 1966.

ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The musician said that by then he had matured and was looking to play a more refined classical music.
He said, “The guys had a falling out and we said we wanted to do something more sophisticated. Pan Am North Star had just collaborated with Winifred Atwell to produce Ivory and Steel, a mixture of piano and steel pan music. That is what I wanted to do to capture the atmosphere of blending classical music with the modern music.”
As such, the band often met at the seawalls and practiced with the sound of the ocean in the background.
Bishop took a cue from his surroundings and called them ‘The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.’ The name stuck and the orchestra went on to win several competitions participating in several notable local and regional events.

By 1972, the band had won a competition for best arrangement in the first Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta) and was chosen to perform the winning piece for the documentary that was produced afterwards.
Talent and sheer determination propelled them forward into becoming the undefeated national champion of the Steel Band Competitions from 1975 to 1981.
Shortly after, the Brazilian ambassador saw them perform and invited Bishop to carry the band to Brazil.
Following his initial trip, Bishop organized a contingent of 45 persons –musicians and members of the National School of Dance, led by Guyanese dancer, Daphne Rogers.
Playing in major cities like Rio de Janeiro, Bella Horizante and Sao Paulo, they captivated audiences at every performance including those at the world famous Coco Cabana beach. The tour of Brazil lasted three months.

Next, the orchestra was invited to tour the USSR and participated in the Tchaikovsky Festival in Moscow in Kiev, Lenin Grad and other cities in Russia. They were later featured at New London Theatre in England, where they played for a special function to honour the captain of the West Indies and Guyanese Cricket hero, Clive Lloyd.
The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra had made a name for themselves and soon they embarked on an American leg of their tour, making special appearances at the United Nations General Assembly, the Beacon Theatre on Broadway and Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of New York.
The Orchestra also appeared in other cities in the USA including performances in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago.
He said a high point of their tour was being invited to spend a day at the home of the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali, and having a cameo in a self titled documentary “A day in the life of Muhammad Ali.”
It was on this tour that the Orchestra made its first recording of two long-playing albums entitled “On Tour,” and “Christmas Festival.” Three more dynamic albums followed – “Weekend Party,” “Through the Ages” and a “Touch of Class,” all of which can now be had on CD and Audio Cassette.
Then the orchestra, at the invitation of the then Mayor of Ottawa, Marian Dewar, left the United States to tour Canada.
They made a special guest appearance at the Canadian House of Parliament.
NEXT GENERATION
The band later dispersed after they flew to the USA for a United Nations function and could not return after part-sponsor, Guyana Airways, folded, leaving the band holding return tickets in the name of an airline that no longer existed.
Bishop said that some of the members married and settled down in the US, while the others got help from family to return home.
He however, continued to work and put together a steel band in Brooklyn called the Young Entertainers.
He said that it was a Jamaican pastor, who discovered the young entertainers online. He contacted Bishop to do something similar for his increasingly restless young church members and ‘The Young Acolytes’ was born.
The Acolytes made a name for themselves all across New York City and Bishop received two citations from the area assemblyman for his community work and for spreading the ‘Gospel of the Pan.’
The Young Acolytes Symphonic Steel Orchestra, headquartered in St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church on Newkirk Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Bishop said that he trained hundreds of teenagers to play the pan, and says virtually all of these students have gone to college — many of whom returned to perform with the group.
These days, Bishop, who is back on his home soil, remains more focused on the resuscitation of the legendary band and assisting members of his community through the work of his social venture, the Camptown Youth, Sports and Culture Organization.
The group has continued to do outreach work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, providing hampers to the elderly and the less fortunate.
The musician is also hoping to take his social work and music to the next level after COVID. He is looking to collaborate with private and public entities to train some youths in the art of playing steel pans.
“I have been working to resuscitate the band and take the social venture to another level, so by the time COVID-19 is over, we can do much greater work,” he said of his future plans.

 

---

---