Folk Singers bring ol' time Jamaica to Little Theatre

The Jamaican Folk Singers presents its 2011 Concert Season at The Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue on Friday. The season is to end on Sunday.

The Jamaican Folk Singers take a journey down memory lane, through areas of Jamaica's folk-music culture, including school days, traditional folk fairs, work, plantation life and the spirited Kumina experience.

The group, which was founded in 1967 by Dr Olive Lewin, has strived through the years to remain true to its mission, which includes unearthing and exposing the beauty and artistic worth of Jamaica's folk-music heritage. It has been 44 years of overcoming challenges and helping to keep alive the folk foundations of Jamaica's music, being a bridge between the senior citizens who have nurtured the values and lore of old Jamaica and the youth, who are the hope and architects of tomorrow.

The Jamaican Folk Singers began as a group of friends who were invited by Lewin to share her enthusiasm for Jamaica's folk music, which developed with her experience in collecting and researching Jamaica's folk music. From the group's first public performance to this 2011 concert season, the group maintains respect for Jamaican tradition and for the people who have kept them alive.

With a repertoire of over 200 songs arranged by Lewin, the group has sung to enthusiastic audiences in Jamaica and several other countries including Martinique, Barbados, Cuba, Mexico, The United States, Germany, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Argentina.

As exciting as it has been to win gold medals and other awards internationally, nothing has been as rewarding as being welcomed by Jamaicans in the nooks and crannies visited on the group's island tours, the latest being the Mother's-sponsored tour of 2009/2010, singing in markets, parks, churches and on streetsides.

Uplifting Jamaica

The 2011 concert season represents another opportunity for the group to use Jamaica's folk music and its messages to uplift Jamaica - highlighting the values of "old Jamaica" - respect for self and others, being polite, disciplined and, overall, loving neighbours as you would yourself, with the music encouraging respect and understanding among people of different backgrounds.

On Friday and Saturday, the show begins at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at The Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue; Music Mart, Twin Gates Plaza and Monarch Pharmacy, Sovereign Centre.

The Jamaican Folk Singers operates with a belief that music greatly helped the country's forefathers cope with the realities of their harsh living conditions without becoming excessively bitter, and believe that today it can bring and hold people together when all else may have failed.