His name is Clayton. He is 92 years old. He is the last surviving member of the 1962 Dominica Government Band photograph — a line of men in uniform who played on the Queen's Birthday, June 2nd of that year. When Clayton goes, the living memory of that era goes with him.

That is why I am here.

My name is Francis E. Richards. I have spent four decades inside the Dominican musical tradition — as a trumpeter in the 1970s dance bands, as a 39-year member of the Dominica Government Band (Drum Major, retired), as the founder of the Dominica Cadet Corps Marching Band. Music is not my subject. It is my life.

For the past several years, I have been doing something that has never been done before: documenting the complete history of musical bands in the Commonwealth of Dominica, from the colonial brass bands of the 1930s through the emergence of bouyon in the late 1980s and beyond. The result is The Rhythm of a Nation — a two-part monograph, a digital archive at dominicamusicarchives.org, and a 42-interview oral history collection.

Watch the video above to hear me discuss this project on DBS Radio's Connecting the Dots.

Here is what has already been done:

• A total of 291 musical entities over the period 1930’s to present categorized into (202 bands spread over the 10 parishes •27 Diaspora bands • 13 Choral/Gospel bands • 24 Traditional bands • 25 Steel bands) 45oral history interviews — senior musicians, bandleaders, calypsonians, cultural practitioners • A fully operational digital archive website, now live at www.dominicamusicarchives.org • Nine completed chapters — the first comprehensive study of its kind • Academic engagement with scholars at UC Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, and UWI • Featured on Dominica News Online and DBS radio ‘Connecting the Dots’ radio talk show

Here is what your support will fund:

• Professional editing and peer review of the completed manuscript • Publication of Part I (The Band Era) — targeted for early 2027 • A limited-edition coffee-table book launch at the World Creole Music Festival 30th Anniversary, October 2027 • Completion of 11 remaining oral history transcriptions • Audio narration of all nine chapters • Launch and distribution through institutional channels

Gordon Henderson — the man who created cadence-lypso and carried Dominican music to the world, SACEM Sociétaire Définitif honoured in Paris in 2024 — said this to me:

"Dominican music history has too often survived through scattered memory rather than organized archival preservation."

This project is the organized archival preservation.

I am not asking you to fund a dream. The work is done. I am asking you to help me share it with the world.

Every contribution goes directly to research, publication, and preservation. Every donor is recognized. Every level of support comes with meaningful acknowledgement — from your name on the donor wall to a signed, numbered, limited-edition copy of the coffee-table book for our Founder's Circle members.

Clayton is 92. The window is closing. Let's make sure it doesn't close before the world knows this story.

Mèsi anpil. Thank you.

Francis E. Richards, MSc Founder & Lead Researcher — Dominica Music Archives www.dominicamusicarchives.org