Mr. Peters' Boom & Chime

The King of Brukdown, Mr. Wilfred Peters is a Belizean national icon and one of the country's best loved musicians. After over 60 years of playing, he continues to define and invigorate Belizean Creole culture through his distinctive brukdown music style.
Brukdown music reflects the journey of the African slave into the mahogany camps of Belize. It uses syncopated rhythms and call and response patterns firmly rooted in Africa, harmonies borrowed from Europe and lyrical themes colored with the Belizean Creole language and experience. Brukdown became the music of the people, whether urban or rural.

As one of the few remaining brukdown accordion masters, Mr. Peters learned to play the instrument from his father on the family farm near the Sibun River in Belize, where music was the main form of entertainment in his household and when farmers and loggers gathered.

"We had no radios or cassettes then, only what we could play. And with some white rum and wata, people would dance through the night," Mr. Peters said.

Performing with accordion and guitar since the age of seven, his reputation grew, and by his early teens he found himself in demand throughout Belize. His popularity never waned, and he and his band continue to be a steady fixture at dances, holiday celebrations and events around Belize.

Now , at 70 years of age, Mr. Peters also continues to tour major music festivals in Mexico, France, Spain, the Caribbean and North America.

As a tireless bandleader, Mr. Peters has over the years refined the Boom & Chime Band into what is undoubtedly the most recognizable and dynamic representation of Belizean Creole culture.

— Courtesy Calabash Music