In the fifty-plus years since I started the Tradewinds band in Canada, I have been frequently asked about the direction of the group, which was a Caribbean band, formed in a Canadian city, but with a completely Caribbean focus. There were a number of factors in that decision – among them my own drive to succeed, a resolve that I perceive as coming mainly from my mother Zepherina Barcellos, who had a calm, low-key, but very determined streak in her that definitely rubbed off on me. But on the purely musical side, my decision to give Tradewinds a distinct Caribbean focus, was based largely upon on my own love for this exhilarating Trinidad music I had come to know in Toronto from Trini friends living there.
