Featured in the Belize Pavilion at the 2016 Jazz Fest. Belize Creole Drum. Talla Walla Creole Drummers Wilford Felix and Musa Shaeed were both apprentices of master creole drummer Emmeth Young, founder of the Maroon Creole Drum School in Punta Gorda, Belize, whose mission is to present, preserve and further develop Creole music within Belize. They learned the secrets of creole drumming and drum making at an early age and have since facilitated numerous workshops to teach Belizean youth. Belizean Creoles, also known as Kriols, are descendants of African slaves and English and Scottish log cutters. Nurtured in the logging camps, a new syncretic style combining African rhythms with Western instrumentation emerged in the late 19th century, known as brukdown. Unique to Belize, brukdown designates both a drumming rhythm and a musical style, which combines banjo, guitar, accordion, drums and the jawbone of an ass. Wilford Felix and Musa Shaeed illustrate this rhythm and tradition while demonstrating the process of making creole drums out of cedar and mahogany.
