Cindy BreakspeareWe conclude our three-part series on Cindy Breakspeare this week. Next week Sunday, another Miss Jamaica.
Chaos, Freelance Writer
I THINK I've been very fortunate. I think I've had a very interesting life, especially within the context of Jamaica culture. When Bob and I got together, uptown girls weren't going out with Rastafarians and they certainly weren't having babies for them, so we'd go out every week - you know that, I know that and it's has been widely acknowledged since then. But it wasn't just about that, it was Uptown coming together with Downtown and Rastafarianism emerging as a very strong subculture in Jamaica at that time and all that it meant to Jamaica and still means today.
"So what is interesting about it too is where it has taken me in Jamaica. I guess under normal circumstances I would be considered a white person, even though I have black blood and I'm mixed - I don't know how much it shows - but in terms of my association with Bob, I had an entry into every echelon of society and the people would immediately feel if I go into Trench Town that they can relate to me, because if I could have related to Bob, then they immediately know something about me."
"Have you done that?" I asked.
"Yes. I've been everywhere, everywhere, and feel very comfortable in so doing. I don't feel threatened at all to go anywhere because, to be honest, really all I have ever received from Jamaican people is great love and affection. And I understand very clearly how that has come about and it is because - a great portion of it - because of my relationship with Bob, because there is Damian who still keeps that union alive, keeps it vibrant in peoples' minds, that our relationship was such that we produced a wonderful young man."
"Wasn't it difficult at times?"
"It was difficult at the time, because the doctrine was very much very focused in those days and there was a lot of intolerance. And I really was the antithesis of everything Bob should have been looking for in a woman, because you have to parade yourself on a stage and for bodybuilding it's a bikini, not even a one piece, so there's maximum exposure.
"So that was definitely frowned on and the make-up--you know, the whole Rasta culture is all for 'matroness' and modesty. The emphasis was very much on that at that time, so we were kind of on the furthest ends of the spectrum that either one of us could be.
"But we had certain things in common, - a love of physical fitness, ambition, absolute desire to succeed at whatever it is we're doing. We had a lot in common in terms of our character, so we managed to find common ground."
"And the 'uptown' perspective?"
"I kind of just set it aside. I kind of just created my own circle of friends and gravitated towards people who didn't have a problem with it. I certainly wasn't looking to force myself into any area where I felt there was major disapproval. I mean, what's the point in that? I do know that a number of mothers backed their daughters into a corner and said: 'Now listen, you see what Cindy Breakspeare has done, don't even think about it!'" she says, laughing heartily.
"Funny enough, at the time, it just felt the right thing to do. You know what I am saying? It just felt like the right thing to do. It's not a dress rehearsal, it is your life you're living, so if you're just going around doing what comes naturally, what feels right, whatever, then that's it."
As most people will know, the ever-restless Cindy Breakspeare embarked on another chapter in her eventful life, as a singer. How is it going and how does she describe herself as a singer?
The next chapter
"I have been married to Rupert Bent coming up two years now and he's a wonderful musician so we work together a lot. He writes music and sometimes he just writes out everything for the musician and deal with that process and I just open my mouth when it is time for me to do that.
"I describe myself, you see, as somebody who is no great singer. I'm just someone who who is allowed to get away with it. It's something I love to do and I guess it doesn't make you feel like when somebody is drawing their fingers on the blackboard - I get by! (she laughs delightedly).
"I'm no great singer. It's a form of communication that I really enjoy. There's nothing nicer than being able to sing a song with wonderful musicians and you can relate to the sentiment of the song and being able to somehow pass that on--."
Any album plans?" I ask.
"I've released 5 singles and we're now about to Rupert has started working on the album and that we think it is going to be a combination of instrumentals and vocals. Because I tell you, for a long time he had said that we should have an album, but what do you do with it? The kind of songs that I do are so old, Gershwin and way old standards - they're not going to appeal to the Jamaican mass, which is not to denigrate, it's just not what they listen to."
"What about internationally?"
"But the competition out there is so stiff, so unless you have a really excellent product and you are a superfine musician, somebody like a Diana Krall who plays the piano and is a musician and you know, it takes a lot to compete out there internationally. So I think that while you enjoy your life and do the things that you want to do, you have to be realistic and that is not to say that you couldn't have a song that does really well or put together an album that's gonna do really well too, but I just don't feel as driven to do it as I did at one time.
"What I really love to do is to perform. That is what I really, really enjoy."
"Are there any 'combinations' with Jana Bent (Rupert Bent's daughter who had had moderate success with the pop-like song You So Fine) in the works?" I ask.
"No. They are different genres of music altogether."
What has the response to her singing career been like?
"I would consider myself very lucky. I feel that people go through their lives in Jamaica and they don't really know half of Jamaica or three quarters of Jamaica. It's very insular, very much in one section and I guess maybe there is nothing wrong with that, but it was never my destiny and I'm actually very glad that it wasn't. There is nothing more that I love than to throw on my clothes and I'm gone to a show at the arena or I'm gone to George Nooks at Mas Camp.
"I actually went to George Nooks at Mas Camp, his birthday bash, and all the artistes, Capleton was on it, Freddie McGregor, Richie Stephens - everybody - and I know all of these people because of my involvement in the music business. So when I find myself among these people, I just feel like one of the crowd, you know. But somebody observing from a distance that night, another journalist, I won't call his name, a TV journalist (in others words an idiot - Chaos), I noticed him kind of staring, so I asked 'What happen?' 'I just find it surprising how comfortable you are in the middle of all of this' he said. Because I was supposed to feel uncomfortable for some strange reason and I just don't. I feel very much a Jamaican, I feel very embraced anywhere I go and just very comfortable and have a very strong sense of who I am."
How does she keep going, where does her seemingly inexhaustible drive come from?
Laughing "I have a lot of young friends in their 20s, full of life and expectation and I guess some of it rubs off on you, they're less jaded and I'm flattered that they can relate to me. I'm still at the gym and you can't be at your mental best if you're not at you're physical best.
"My children are on their way to becoming successes and I can't tell you the pride I get from that as a parent."
In closing, Cindy Breakspeare says: "Dreams are attainable, dream them, never stop. I still dream - there are things I still want to attain and I try every day. Do whatever it is you are doing until it is a success, to whatever degree."
Which says it all really.
Not quite from rages to riches, living in and for the moment, creating her own persona in a world where convention is not only expected, but practically a law; entrepreneur, beauty queen, wife, mother, trend-setter, restless energy personified, ambition, living life the way she wants to, she is Cindy Breakspeare.
'The One'.
