Osborne “Ifield” Joseph, was born on the Caribbean Island of Dominica in a beautiful village called Wesley. He is a multi instrument player who started performing on stage at the age of four. His Grandfather, Steady Robin, was a musician and organist for the Wesley Methodist Church in Dominica in early to mid late 20th century. Together, Steady Robin and his Wife had fourteen children, most of whom played various musical instruments such as the guitar, Saxophone, Violin, Trumpet, drums and Osborne is a product of that linage.At the age of eight, he became a singer in the family band, his local primary school singing group, and the Wesley Methodist Church Choir. His parents were also devout Methodist and insisted that his music should stay centered within the gospel music genre. Osborne also loved the Caribbean mainstream music, such as Calypso, Reggae, Ska, Cadence/Kadas, but was forbidden to play them by his religious parents because of the stigma that was associated with those genres at the time. There were times when Osborne was practicing at home on the keyboard or guitar while his parents were listening and he tried to disguise a popular calypso melody song by using a slower Methodist kind of John or Charles Wesley feel, thinking that his parents would not recognize it, but they were also hip to the contemporary calypso and reggae music at that time and would call me out. In retrospect, that same approach to music would become a techniques used frequently in his music productions. He would later learn from his time spent at York University that the technique was similar to “cross breeding” music, a technique in which elements from one genre is fused with another to create a new style. Today, there is no limit to the gospel genre. Calypso and Reggae have become mainstream music played in many Caribbean churches on their worship days. At the age of twelve, Osborne formed a choir in the church with twelve young voices from advice from the church elders. Other churches took notice of their performances and they were invited to be the guest choir at several denominations around the country. At the age of seventeen he traveled oversea for the first time in his life to the island of Guadeloupe North of Dominica in search of more musical opportunities. That was a time in the Caribbean history when a musical revolution was taking place, “The Kadas Revolution”pioneered by the Dominican group called “Exile One” and the French Caribbean Islands. Guadeloupe was the epicenter for the change. Many Dominican musicians would migrate to Guadeloupe on canoes, planes, and what ever means was available in hopes of getting that chance to record since, Dominica at that time did not have a recording studio. read more…
They had their own night club, played every weekend and pay its members a salary which meant that the players could pay for an apartment, buy food, clothing, travel occasionally and do all the necessary things similar to that of Dominica’s civil servant. After his time with Swinging Stars was over, he teamed up with musicians from a number of former band such as “Exile One”, “Billomen” and other young and upcoming Dominican musicians to formed the group called Emphasis. The group was featured in Ebony Magazine from the US in 1980. The magazine was in Dominica to do a story of the Island post Hurricane David which badly destroyed Dominica the previous year. Later that same year, the young Emphasis group toured the US virgin and got great audience support as a result of publicity which came from the Ebony Magazine issue. As expected, the greatest of band only last for a number of years and so it was time to move to another chapter after the breakup of Emphasis. read more…