THE WORLD is full of them – law enforcement bands that march in formations so straight they make rulers look crooked, play so powerfully they challenge the siren on a fire engine, and entertain so regally you’d think they were royalty in uniform.
But there’s no band anywhere quite like our band right here, the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band (RBPFB). Maybe I am just prejudiced--being Bahamian and proud--but as much as I love and respect everyone who can play anything beyond a radio, there’s just nothing quite like the sight and sound of the RBPF Band.
So, in the heat of the political season and with an urgent need to breathe in, breathe out, I decided to turn off the partisan barb channel and tune in to pure music, which led me to explore what makes this group so special.
First, the basics.
The RBPF band is actually the oldest division of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. It’s one of the very first in the world, founded in 1893. That was just 10 years after the first known such band--the Glasgow Police Pipe Band--was formed in Scotland, and five years before the first police band was founded in the United States. That band was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the result of a member of the force who simply thought putting together a few officers who could play an instrument and make a bit of music was a good idea.
At the age of 133, the RBPF Band has made its mark. It has performed in nearly every country on the globe and has earned a coveted spot on the flip side of a $1 bill.
That’s not to say the Defence Force Band or Prison Band are not excellent. They absolutely are, and there are a few voices in the Defence Force band that would rival some of the most popular singers of all time.
Maybe it’s partially the uniform of the police band – the sharp white tunics with red aiguillette, the navy trousers, the white spiked helmet -- that sets them apart. Maybe it’s the strut of the drum majors marching erect, leading the precision band, the mace held just so, a show of steadfast, solid leadership.
The numbers have been larger at times, but today’s RBPF Band has 50 members, including three drum majors. There are 10 women. Among them, the first female drum major, Constable Aaliyah Mackey. She joined the band in 2023 and, like others, chose the police band over other music options because of the exposure. The band practices six hours daily and averages three performances a week. Like tourism, the band has its high season when there are lots of holiday official and private events. Divisions of the band may play at two more events in a single day.
On Sunday, they will play at St. Paul’s Catholic Church just outside the gates of Lyford Cay. They expect the concert, which will feature a more classical style than they have been playing lately, will be sold out. But, as of this writing, limited tickets are available.
While the full band marches and plays for major events – the Changing of the Guard, Beat the Retreat, state funerals – smaller divisions, including the pop band, entertain at many private events.
Their fee is a small charge. Funds go right back into the coffers for instruments, scholarships, and additional musical training.
A somewhat surprising number of members have degrees or associate degrees in music. A few are legacies, like Constable Ryan Pratt, who is currently studying at UB and is a third- generation member. He plays tuba, keyboard, guitar, drums – there’s hardly an instrument he can’t play, a result, he says, of growing up in a household where music filled the air. He says he never considered another career outside the police band.
It is, perhaps, the level of education that is most surprising. Well over half the band holds a college degree or has studied music in earnest at some point.
Sergeant Rhon Adderley earned his Master’s degree in Music Composition at the University of West London.
“There’s such a rich heritage to the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band and I am proud to be part of it,” he explains.
Constable Sinclair Winston holds a Bachelor’s in Theology from Everett University in Virginia.
Drum major Sergeant Daniel Saunders completed his Bachelor’s degree at UB in 2024. He joined the band 18 years ago, and--like Constable Pratt--it was the sole dream he carried with him.
“When I was in primary school, the band came and played at my school and I knew then that was what I wanted to do when I grew up,” he says. He is also a member of a musical family – his cousin is the late Timothy Gibson, the Eleuthera native who composed the National Anthem, March On, Bahamaland.
Sergeant Denise Richardson and Constable Taneka Storr say there’s nowhere else a musician can practice all day, constantly improve their talent, travel the world, and be booked to perform multiple times a week.
Some of the band members sing in their churches. Together, in smaller groups, they play at every primary school.
“During Police Month, which just passed, we performed at a few senior citizens’ homes,” says Band Director Supt. Whitney Bastian. And although there are many high energy, electrifying moments in most performances, it’s a more subdued memory from one of those homes that he will always cherish.
“We went into one old folks’ home and there were two former police officers there,” Supt. Bastian says. “One was having a birthday, and we sang happy birthday to her. The other asked if he could play the saw. We gave it to him. He looked up, he started playing, and he was just grinning, so happy. We will never forget that moment.”
As for the origin of the phrase “music soothes the savage beast,” it comes from a poem by British poet William Congreve. Like most derivatives, it ventured a good distance from its original wording, but remained close to home in its meaning. The 1697 poem was called The Mourning Bride and it went like this: “Musick has Charms to Sooth a Savage Beast…”
The Royal Bahamas Police Force Band may not set out to soothe, but what it does may be a whole lot better. It instils a sense of pride, of belonging, of joy. When the band plays on, we forget, for a moment, the colours of partisanship and the issues that divide us.
While the band plays on, we are one. One Bahamas.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.