Vern Best is better known as El Verno Del Congo, the multi-talented musician and dancer and painter from Barbados. He has performed in countries as far-flung as Germany, England, Cuba, Bermuda, Switzerland, St. Lucia, Canada, Martinique, and Mexico, as well as in the U.S.A - where he was featured on both the Ed Sullivan Show as well as on the stage of New York's famous Radio City Music Hall.
Though now in the golden years of his life, El Verno's passion for the arts is still as vibrant as ever. In fact, as I speak to him in preparation for this article, I am simply overwhelmed by the depth and sincerity of his love and respect for the arts.
He speaks to me from the familiar comfort of his living room chair. To his left are two tall drums - a 60-year-old Cuban drum, a treasured gift to his daughter; and a Kinte drum, itself over 20 years old. And on the wooden walls around us hang beautiful pieces of his artwork, painted mainly in misty, introspective shades of purple, gray, and blue.
He leans a little closer, as he will often do during the course of this interview - his graying eyes searching mine as if to make sure that I understand him. "I was born in My Lord's Hill" - he starts at the beginning - "and grew up in a very musical family. My father sang 4-part harmony in the choir and my mother sang too. I left school at a very early age - before I was 12 or so - and entered the tailor trade. But I have always known that I was a creative person, and from an early age found myself involved in any and everything creative."
Though probably better known for his singing and drumming, it was El Verno's ability to dance the limbo that got him his first, big break.
"The first person I ever saw doing the limbo was a tall lean man from Trinidad named Stretch Cox. That was in the mid 1950's," he recalls.
"The limbo dance," he continues, "portrays struggle and eventual triumph, for as each bar drops the challenge gets harder, but you overcome." Traditionally, this dance is accompanied by drummers and chanters, and the beat and intensity increases as the bar gets lower and lower. "It is in fact a very symbolic and spiritual dance," adds the artist, and it was this dance that put him on the stage of the Radio City Music Hall back in 1962.
Later he went to Cuba and sang with a big band orchestra, and it is here that El Verno got seriously interested in drumming, or as he puts it, "That's how I became a drummer."
Today he believes that music is a therapy and says "the music of the drum is a magical thing" that has literally kept him alive. (El Verno has been on dialysis for 25 years as he suffers from serious kidney disorders). "The drum" he adds, "does not always have to be loud or festive", just honest and uncompromised in its message and expression.
El Verno has led a rich and colourful life as arguably Barbados' top drummer. "I worked very hard and trained even harder, and was always ready to make the best out of life's opportunities."
El Verno has enjoyed many good and exciting years as an artist and entertainer, and today he has 3 CD's available - including a compilation album entitled The Songs and Sounds of El Verno - a definite Bajan collector's item.
Article written in 2005 and compliments of "Ins and Outs of Barbados" Magazine
|
