Roykey & His Creo Roots

From virtuoso session star to mature album artist

with personality and charisma - that has been the way for Roykey Wydh, who nowadays just calls himself Roykey.
After Roykey had come from his home, the carribean island of Aruba, to Europe in the early eighties he almost instantaneous became one of the most requested live- and studio guitarists on the continent. During these years he played countless recording sessions and some wisely selected tours for internationally established acts such as Patrick Gammon, Lionel Ritchie, Brian Auger or Linton Kwesi Johnson. But his successful career as a sideman didn't completely fulfil Roykey's need for his own musical expression.
His first solo album 'Secret Message', recorded in 1984 with guests such as Larry Coryell and Alphonse Mouzon, was dominated by a virtuoso jazz-rock approach, but Roykey soon felt that he had to go back to his musical roots to really unearth what he had to say. Going back to his roots meant to deal with the creole culture of his home island, especially since Roykey has indian, egyptian, african and french blood in his veins.
Aruba, an island near the cost of Venezuela and governed by the dutch, is with its racially mixed population of some 60.000 people a tiny melting pot of african, south american and european cultural traditions. 'It became clearer and clearer to me, that my sound had to reflect that, and thus it had to be a combination of all that', explains Roykey, who over the years developed his very personal blend of afro-, reggae- and blues-sounds. Today he calls it Creo Reggae and sometimes Creo Blues. It goes along with politically, emotionally and philosophically committed lyrics, which combine English with Papiamento (the creole language of Aruba, composed of dutch, african and english elements).
In 1993 Roykey released his first album with his new band CREO ROOTS, simply titled 'Creo Roots', which was followed by a CD that captures the magic spirit and joyful power of his widely acclaimed live performances. 'It Smells Live' was recorded on various occasions throughout Europe, it presents Roykey leading his international band (musicians from Aruba, Ghana, Nigeria, Greece and Germany) through a powerful set of creo reggae tunes. Half of the material stems from the 'Creo Roots' album, the other half is comprised of new Roykey-originals, never recorded to disc before.
In the tracks of the album 'Look Arong' Roykey again criticizes the bloodthirsty spirit of our times, deals with the manipulation of news and media and the relations amongst people of different colour. It should be noted and understood that, whenever Roykey uses the English language instead of Papiamento, he uses the kind of English he learned on the streets of Aruba. Roykey states: 'It's not the kind of language you learn in books or in language classes. You learn that kind of language in the University Of Life! It is streetsmart, it carries the truth!'

Roykey died on 9.12.2017 in Munich, we have lost an extraordinary musician and friend!

Discography:

with Snowball "Follow The White Line"
with Passport "Talk Back"
with Passport "Running In Real Time"
with Larry Coryell "Secret Message"
with Jolly Kunjappu "Warm Embrace"
with Creo Roots "Creo Roots"
with Creo Roots "It Smells Live"
with Creo Roots "Look Arong"
with Creo Roots „The Guitar Man“
with Creo Roots „CREO“