Years active 1950s–present Genres Jazz, Folk music Origin Kingston, Jamaica | Role Musical Artist Name Marjorie Whylie | |
Associated acts Jamaica Big Band, Whylie Wrhythm Books Our Musical Heritage: The Power of the Beat, Folk Songs of Jamaica Similar Wynton Marsalis, Monty Alexander, Slide Hampton, Jon Faddis, Ira Coleman | ||
Marjorie whylie
Marjorie Whylie OD is a Jamaican pianist, percussionist and educator who was musical director of the National Dance Theatre Company for 45 years.
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Jackie mittoo drum song ft marjorie whylie
Career
Whylie began playing piano at two and a half years old and had formal lessons from the age of six. She performed in public from the age of five, attended St. Andrews High School from the age of nine, and as a student at the University of the West Indies (UWI) played steelpan.
She taught Spanish at Kingston College and began teaching music. In 1962 she was part of the "Roots and Rhythms" dance production set up to celebrate Jamaican independence and worked with Eddie Thomas and Rex Nettleford, who went on to found the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC). She joined the NDTC in 1965 as a pianist and went on to become leader of the NDTC singers, and was musical director of the NDTC for 45 years before retiring in 2013. She also studied dance and for nine years, ballet.
Her interest in traditional Jamaican and African music was reflected in her work with the NDTC, with Nettleford describing Whylie's understanding of traditional music as critical to its artistic direction, and her enthusiasm for Jamaican rhythms has been influential in Jamaican music generally.
She worked with the National Pantomime before becoming a household name in Jamaica via her performances on children's television programme Ring Ding between the early 1970s and 1982. She went on to become acting director of the music department at the UWI and head of the Folk Music Research Department at the Jamaica School of Music. She has lectured outside her homeland in Europe and North America.
She performed for many years as part of the Jamaica Big Band, playing piano and congas, is leader of the band Whylie Wrythm, which has performed internationally, and has performed with Cedric Brooks.
Whylie was awarded the Order of Distinction - Officer Class by the Jamaican government, and in 2015 she was named as a recipient of the Commander Class (CD) for her outstanding contribution to the arts. In 1997 she was inducted into the Jamaica Jazz Hall of Fame and in 2004 received the Prime Minister's award for Excellence in Theatre and Music.
Her brother Dwight Whylie (1936–2002) was a journalist and broadcaster.