Bermuda FA5374

BERMUDA
GOMBEY & CALYPSO 1953-1960

Les Bermudes

Découvert en 1505 par l’explorateur Juan de Bermudez qui lui laissera son nom, à plus de mille kilomètres à l’est des côtes de Caroline du Nord l’archipel des Bermudes est isolé dans l’immensité de l’océan Atlantique. Géographiquement à l’écart du reste du monde, ces îles magnifiques forment un petit territoire britannique d’outremer depuis 1609. L’ancienne capitale Saint George’s est même la plus ancienne ville anglaise des Amériques. À trois mille kilomètres à l’ouest des Açores, les rares marins de passage venaient y chercher de l’eau potable.

Bien qu’éloignées des Caraïbes et des États-Unis, les Bermudes partagent avec cette région une
histoire de colonisation, d’esclaves africains et de créolisation, fruit d’un mélange de cultures africaines et britanniques. Néanmoins, à l’inverse de la pauvreté endémique des Caraïbes situées plus au sud, au XXe siècle les industries de la finance et du tourisme (sans parler de l’absence d’impôt sur le revenu) placeront progressivement les revenus moyens des Bermudiens parmi les plus élevés au monde. À certains égards, les Bermudes ont donc plus de points communs avec des paradis financiers comme les îles Anglo-Normandes ou les Bahamas qu’avec les Antilles. Il va sans dire que dans les années 1950 lorsque ces morceaux furent enregistrés, les personnes d’origine africaine ne bénéficiaient pas des mêmes avantages que les Britanniques de la « mère patrie », souvent employés par les organismes financiers et sociétés offshore installés à Hamilton. La plupart des musiciens afro-américains ont dû attendre la mode calypso pour enfin trouver du travail. Dans les années 1950 plusieurs artistes de calypso ont commencé à travailler dans des soirées privées et des hôtels, qui demandaient aux artistes une ostensible « couleur locale » calypso avec chapeau de paille et chemisette à manches courtes bariolée de rigueur - un costume équivalent, pendant cette période, au masque des défilés et mascarades gombey d’autrefois. La musique populaire bermudienne redécouverte ici reste la forme d’expression artistique privilégiée de cette culture créole. On peut même considérer que ces premiers enregistrements de l’âge d’or du calypso des Bermudes constituent l’expression la plus significative de la culture créole de l’archipel, avant qu’elle ne se dilue dans les grands phénomènes musicaux des années 1960 et 1970 (James Brown, Beatles, Bob Marley, soca, disco, etc.). La candeur et le sourire entendus dans cette fusion de deux ou plusieurs cultures modernes différentes ont précédé le basculement dans la mondialisation culturelle à venir, où la diplomatie se confondra tout autant avec hypocrisie et connivence, et où les enjeux financiers se règleront encore et toujours cyniquement en coulisse. En cette époque où l’empire britannique s’effondrait comme un château de cartes sous les coups de boutoir des indépendances, aux Bermudes conservatrices et aisées la créolité souriante se tenait encore à l’écart d’une inévitable confrontation, celle des tensions nord-sud qui montaient partout. En ce sens, cet album est un vestige de la façade aimable prévalant à la fin de la pax britannica. Cette retenue sera suivie quelques années plus tard par l’arrogance des chansons de contestataires anglais comme Linton Kwesi Johnson, Steel Pulse ou John Lennon (qui séjourna aux Bermudes, où il écrivit des reggaes à la fin de sa vie) - et de la prise de pouvoir démocratique du parti de gauche, le Progressive Labour Party.

Bermuda - Gombey & Calypso 1954-1960

Le succès de Belafonte a naturellement frappé les Bermudes, comme en témoigne ici la reprise de Matilda par Hubert Smith. Les hôtels de l’archipel sont plus que jamais devenus demandeurs d’artistes calypso prisés par les touristes en quête d’exotisme. Une opportunité sans précédent pour les musiciens noirs, soudain à la mode. La petite marque de disques Bermuda Records pouvait développer un nouveau marché : celui des souvenirs pour touristes, comme c’était déjà le cas à la Trinité, aux Bahamas ou en Jamaïque.

Sidney Bean jouera aussi du jazz avec Rex Richardson, et rencontra Bill Cosby lors de ses nombreuses tournées aux États-Unis. Affable, souriant, il finira par jouer pour la compagnie navale Bermuda Cruises où il obtiendra finalement un poste important, chargé des croisières jusque dans les années 1990. Il vécut longtemps à Greene’s Guest House sur Middle Road Southampton.
The Talbot Brothers
À l’origine dans les années 1930 un groupe vocal « barber shop » sans doute influencé par les Mills Brothers et des « jubilee groups » comme le Golden Gate Quartet, c’est en 1942 que les cinq frères Talbot ont stabilisé leur formation avec leur cousin Mandy à l’accordéon. Ils avaient une image de troubadours. Solides musiciens et chanteurs formés par les chants d’église, ils n’auraient sans doute pas continué si le succès de leur ballade swing « Bermuda Buggy Ride » (l’enregistrement original, chanté par Blackie Talbot, date de 1934 environ) ne les avait encouragés à persévérer. La publication de quelques disques 25 et 30 cm sortis au milieu des années 1950 par la petite marque américaine Audio Fidelity, réputée pour la qualité de ses enregistrements (Audio Fidelity lancera le disque stéréo en 1957), contribua à leur assurer une carrière professionnelle au répertoire de variété assez disparate. Habillés en costume insulaire « traditionnel » (chapeau de paille et chemise à manches courtes), ils interprétaient notamment des ballades dans le style bermudien, des harmonies vocales léchées et quelques classiques du calypso comme le pot-pourri Mary Ann/Donkey City/Sly Mongoose inclus ici. Ce n’est qu’après le succès de Harry Belafonte en 1956 que les Talbot Brothers furent engagés par les disques ABC-Paramount, ce qui leur donna accès à une meilleure distribution. ABC les présenta comme un authentique groupe de calypso conforme aux stéréotypes de la mode en vigueur. Les frères publièrent deux solides albums de compositions originales dans ce style chez ABC. Le premier (1957) contient la chanson « Bermuda Affair » d’Archie Talbot, entendue dans le film britannique du même nom (1956) dirigé par A. Edward Sutherland avec Gary Merrill et Kim Hunter. Leurs autres titres inclus sur cette anthologie proviennent de leur deuxième album chez ABC, The Talbot Brothers of Bermuda (1958). Ils y font particulièrement valoir leur impeccable travail vocal (Sunset in Bermuda, Out a Me, You Can’t Tell the Old from the Young, Bermudian Blues). Comme le Yankee Subway de Kingsley Swan et le Freezin’ in New York de Reuben McCoy, Bermudian Blues chante le mal du pays et un retour imminent aux îles. Moins romantique, Old Time Cat o’ Nine exprime la nostalgie des frères Talbot pour le chat à neuf queues, un fouet réglementaire cruellement utilisé dans la marine et les prisons anglaises pour déchirer le dos des condamnés. Pour le chanteur Roy Talbot, c’était The only thing to stop these hooligans/Causing panic in the island, le seul moyen d’arrêter les « hooligans » qui répandent « la panique dans l’île ». Rappelons au passage que les punitions corporelles (notamment avec le chat à neuf queues fait de corde, moins douloureux que le fouet de cuir) n’ont été retirées des règlements en Grande-Bretagne qu’en 1948 mais ont continué informellement par la suite dans la marine et les prisons. Elles ont officiellement perduré en Jamaïque, Saint Vincent et en Afrique du Sud jusqu’en 1997, en Ouganda en 2001 et Fiji en 2002. En 2011, elles avaient toujours cours à Trinité-et-Tobago en dépit d’une condamnation par la Cour Inter-Américaine des Droits de l’Homme. Quant à Don’t You Call Me Boo Boo il reprend l’idée de « Mama Look à Boo Boo », qui n’était autre que le « Boo Boo Man » de Lord Melody enregistré en 1957 par Harry Belafonte et Robert Mitchum. 
 Petit ne me dis pas que je suis moche
 Car je ne suis pas ton père
 Tu as une tête de singe
 Et des oreilles d’âne
 Regarde-toi dans la glace tu verras
 Petit, tu ne pourras pas dire que c’est de ma faute

Vedettes locales aux Bermudes, les frères Talbot connurent un certain succès dans la région de Nouvelle Angleterre aux États-Unis. Soutenus par ABC, la mode calypso leur ouvrit les portes des télévisions américaines, comme le fameux Ed Sullivan Show. Ils comptent parmi les rares insulaires à avoir connu une carrière internationale. Ross est décédé en 2000, et le dernier des frères, Roy, le 15 mars 2009.
Lance Hayward
Les Bermudes ont été marquées par le jazz dans les années 1930. Mark Williams fut le plus fameux des pionniers de ce style avec son orchestre, qui fit connaître cette musique dans l’archipel. Jazzman de talent, Lance Hayward appartint à la génération du jazz moderne d’après-guerre. Il se décrit comme « un peu de George Shearing, un peu d’Oscar Peterson - et beaucoup de Lance Hayward ».
« Quand ils ont commencé à engager des Noirs pour jouer dans les hôtels, c’était pour jouer du calypso. Donc une fois de plus les musiciens sérieux n’avaient aucune chance. Un type pouvait attraper une guitare, apprendre quatre accords et quelques morceaux de calypso et ça suffisait. Il jouait en concurrence avec le groupe maison, qui était toujours blanc - Américain et par la suite Anglais. Ça poussait vraiment les instrumentistes à rentrer chez eux, à ranger leur instrument dans sa housse et à laisser tomber. Mais quelques-uns d’entre nous ont persisté obstinément. Tout cela s’est passé parce que les puissances au pouvoir ne voulaient pas de Noirs dans leurs hôtels. À un certain point il y avait dix groupes noirs avec sept ou huit musiciens dans chacun d’entre eux. »
Lance Hayward, cité dans Jazz on the Rock de Dale Butler.
 
À la saison d’hiver 1958, une fois de plus l’excellent pianiste de jazz et chanteur aveugle ne trouva pas de travail aux Bermudes. Il décrocha un engagement à l’hôtel Half Moon de Montego Bay en Jamaïque. C’est là qu’un jeune entrepreneur jamaïcain décida de financer ses premiers enregistrements, fondant du même coup une marque bientôt célèbre : les disques Island. L’album Lance Hayward at Half Moon en fut la toute première publication. Ce 30cm a été enregistré aux studios Radio Jamaica and Rediffusion (RJR) de Kingston par Graham Goodall et fabriqué à New York par les disques Olmsted Sound Studios. Alors âgé de vingt ans, le producteur en herbe Chris Blackwell lancerait bientôt les carrières internationales de Millie Small, Steve Winwood, Cat Stevens, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals, U2 et tant d’autres. Lance Hayward fut sa première découverte. Il interprète ici une composition de Baba Brooks, trompettiste jamaïcain de l’orchestre de jazz d’Eric Dean à Kingston. Brooks sera connu dans les années 1960 pour ses enregistrements avec les Skatalites et le grand producteur, chanteur de ska et de rocksteady Prince Buster. Le reste de l’album de Lance Hayward réunit surtout des standards américains du jazz (et sa composition « Julie »), mais le pianiste succomba lui aussi à la fièvre calypso avec ce titre dans l’air du temps. Il abandonna ensuite la chorale Mu-En qu’il avait fondée aux Bermudes et s’installa à New York, où il fonda les Hayward Singers et continua à jouer jusqu’à sa mort au début des années 1980. Les Bermudes ont connu plusieurs musiciens de jazz de talent, parmi lesquels le tromboniste Iris Burgess salué par Duke Ellington, le saxophoniste Clifford Darrell, le trompettiste Ghandi Burgess et le batteur Clarence « Tootsie » Bean, entendu ici accompagnant Hayward.

Limbo

Un autre jazzman marqué par le calypso n’est autre que Sonny Rollins, qui en juin 1956 enregistra sa composition St. Thomas pour son album Saxophone Colossus, un des chefs-d’œuvre du jazz moderne. Ce morceau calypso devint instantanément son plus grand succès et un standard du jazz dont le thème est repris ici sous le nom de St. Thomas Limbo par les Hamiltonians de Reuben McCoy.

Quand à Erskine Zuill, il a commencé sa carrière au ukélélé avant de passer à la basse et à la guitare. Il a longtemps chanté à bord du paquebot Priscilla, qui assurait la ligne New York-Hamilton. Ces deux titres originaux sont extraits de son premier album. Bon guitariste, compositeur original, il sera le premier calypsonien à se produire à l’ouverture du gigantesque hôtel Carlton en 1961. Donkey Wears Pants raconte l’histoire d’une fête pour animaux où un âne (allusion à un homme gourmand de femmes) n’est pas admis car il ne porte pas de pantalon. L’amusant Queen’s Canary a un goût d’insolence caractéristique des chansons folk du début des années 1960. Zuill y raconte avec style qu’à la suite d’une nouvelle loi punissant de six mois de prison le dépôt de toute ordure sur la voie publique, un certain Moses, coupable d’avoir déposé sur la chaussée « un bouquet de roses » sorti de son ventre, cacha son délit à l’aide de son chapeau à l’arrivée d’un policier. Celui-ci lui demanda ce qu’il cachait là-dessous et Moses lui répondit « le canari de la reine s’est échappé mais heureusement je l’ai attrapé ». Moses demanda alors au bobby de garder le canari de la reine sous son chapeau pendant qu’il va chercher une cage. Le policier accepta, bientôt rejoint par son supérieur, qui voulant toucher seul la récompense, envoya le policier en mission deux rues plus loin. Le gradé essaya alors d’attraper le canari en glissant sa main sous le chapeau.

Remerciements à Fabrice Uriac.

1. Écouter Bahamas - Goombay 1951-1959 (FA5302) chez Frémeaux et Associés.
2. Extrait du livre Rock Critics, éditions Don Quichotte-Seuil, Paris 2010.
3. Écouter Bahamas - Goombay 1951-1959 (FA5302) chez Frémeaux et Associés dans cette même collection.
4. Lire The Bermuda Gombey; Bermuda’s Unique Dance Heritage de Louise A. Jackson et Bermuda: Traditio­­ns and Tastes de Judith Watson.
5. K.E. Robinson, Heritage, p. 124.
6. Écouter Trinidad - Calypso 1939-1958 (FA5348) sorti chez Frémeaux et Associés dans cette même collection.
7. Écouter Harry Belafonte - Calypso Mento Folk 1954-1957 (FA5234) chez Frémeaux et Associés.
8. Écouter le volume Calypso (FA5339) qui réunit les meilleurs succès dansants du genre, venus de diverses îles, dans la série de vingt albums « Anthologie des musiques de danse du monde » parue chez Frémeaux et Associés.
9. Écouter « Limbo » et « Limber » par Bo Diddley sur « Bo Diddley - The Indispensable 1955-1960» (FA5376).
10. Écouter Trinidad & Tobago - Calypso 1939 - 1958 (FA5348) dans cette même collection chez Frémeaux & Associés.

Bermuda
Discovered in 1505 by the explorer Juan de Bermudez, the Bermudian group of islands lies isolated in the western Atlantic, some 600 miles east of North Carolina. These magnificent islands became a British territory in 1609; the capital, Saint George’s, is the oldest English town in the Americas, and passing ships used to replenish their reserves of drinking-water there, almost two thousand miles west of the Azores. From the early 17th century onwards the Bermudians were a sea-faring people, fierce nationalists anxious to rid their land of any who disputed its British sovereignty, especially during the English Civil War. Tourism only began to develop in the early 20th century, attracting visitors in splendid cruise-ships. American protectionism after the 1929 Depression made Bermudians turn to tourism; in 1948, cruise ships and aeroplanes opened regular lines to and from Bermuda, as the period saw calypso come into fashion…
Tastes for a somewhat cosmetic exoticism were strengthened by an increase in Afro-Caribbean immigrants from British colonies further south: the Bahamas and, to a lesser extent, Jamaica and, of course, Trinidad & Tobago, the calypso’s original home. Authority, however, remained in the hands of white Conservatives in the 50’s, and this was the social context which saw Caribbean calypso and Bahamian goombay1 take root in Bermuda, first amongst the impoverished Afro-Bahamian population (through musicians heard here), but also among other classes and tourists looking for exotic entertainment.

It goes without saying that when these pieces were recorded in the ‘50s, people of African origin didn’t enjoy the same advantages as British settlers and most Afro-Americans musicians had to wait for calypso to become fashionable before they could find work. The ‘50s saw several calypso artists starting to appear in private soirees and hotels where they were asked to provide «local colour» by wearing straw hats and bright shirts, the equivalent of the costumes worn in the gombey or goombay processions and masquerades of old. The first recordings made in Bermuda’s golden age of calypso can be considered the most significant expression of the archipelago’s Creole culture, before it dissolved into the great musical phenomena of the ‘60s and ‘70s (James Brown, Beatles, Bob Marley, soca, disco, etc.) In this sense, this album is a vestige of the amiable facade that prevailed towards the end of the pax britannica. This restraint would be followed a few years later by the arrogant songs of such English-nationality protesters as Linton Kwesi Johnson, Steel Pulse or John Lennon (who enjoyed a stay in Bermuda at the end of his life, writing reggae songs), and also by the rise of the left-wing Progressive Labour Party.

British music in Bermuda
British musical traditions were jealously guarded for a long time by Bermudians; they were perpetuated by the Salvation Army Young People’s Band in the ‘30s, not to mention the inflamed performances of Reuben McCoy or the Four Deuces, influenced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, whose titles owe much to the gospel tradition.The Bermudian tradition (a British-Irish legacy that also surfaced in folk and «old time hillbilly»), outmoded genres from the USA is here represented by the Bermuda title (with calypso hints) of Hubert Smith and Sunset in Bermuda by the Talbot Brothers. British popular music, thanks to numerous colonies, gradually succumbed to all sorts of Caribbean and American music, including jazz from 1930 onwards. The virtuoso British pianist George Shearing influenced Lance Hayward, the Bermudian jazzman heard on this album. Londoner Lonnie Donegan’s cover of Leadbelly’s «Rock Island Line» with the Golden Gate Quartet was a skiffle hit (originally an Afro-American folk genre also called jug band or washboard music, due to the mixture of vocals, washboards and single-string bass, usually strung on a broom tied to a washbasin or cardboard box etc.). This highly rhythmical «folk» piece made a deep impression on the Beatles when they were teenagers, preceding the English rock tradition with singers like Vince Taylor at the end of the ‘50s. The Talbot Brothers heard here used a skiffle bass with a big fishing-pole fixed to a meat-crate; called a «doghouse» (a kennel in other words), this big instrument bore the autographs of visiting «names». The exchanges weren’t one-sided: recorded American music also owed much to the calypso/folk blues/jazz fashions of the ‘40s and ‘50s, and many Caribbean artists appeared at the Marquee in London or the Cavern in Liverpool, long before the Stones or the Beatles made those clubs their own: «I’ve been listening to ska for years! It was the first music I ever saw being played onstage! At the Flamingo Club… it was Prince Buster with Georgie Fame, around 1958…» (Mick Jagger speaking to the author in 1980).2

Bermuda was British to the core – cars drove on the left, as Hubert Smith reminds us in Right Side of the Road – but didn’t escape Caribbean influences either. Calypso was gradually adopted to entertain tourists, but Bermudians’ closeness (geographical and cultural) to Caribbean music made them only more curious. Pioneer Sidney Bean had been a professional musician since the Thirties and the Talbots formed in 1942. They weren’t playing calypso yet, but the hits of Trinidadians like King Radio (1930-40) and then Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow and Harry Belafonte in the Fifties couldn’t fail to impress the islanders. The calypsos recorded in post-war Bermuda were directly influenced by Caribbean elements but remained less Afro and clearly more British than in other colonies like Trinidad & Tobago, the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands. The titles selected here are in the calypso style, but Sidney Bean and the Talbot Brothers especially had a much broader repertoire marked by British and American pop and jazz. Besides, if you exclude the clarinet in the Sidney Bean pieces and the saxophone on St. Thomas Limbo, the only wind instrument featured here is the accordion, a characteristic of the string-based Bahamian calypsos, whereas brass and winds were favourites of Jamaicans and Trinidadians. Necessarily «poor» due to the smallness of Bermuda, this northern calypso obviously derived from the style that came from islands with larger populations. But, even coming from a smaller region, and even if the accents of the Talbots and Sidney Bean owe little to the Caribbean, the recordings here possess remarkable technical and musical qualities.

Gombey
Slavery was abolished in British colonies in 1838, but occasions to celebrate the drum music and dance-traditions of Africa had been numerous long before then. On Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, Afro-Bermudians had been allowed to parade through the streets in colourful costumes, with participants asking bystanders for coins, and these spectacular occasions, called jonkonnu (or junkanoo or John Canoe in the Caribbean) were also common on other American islands (cf. the explanations given in the albums Jamaican Mento 1951-1958 and Bahamas Goombay 1951-1959 in the same collection). These practices remained after emancipation, and were called gombey, a word found in the neighbouring Bahamas with the spelling goombay.3 The term is a Bantu word meaning «drum», and here it refers to a mix of Afro-Caribbean and British festive elements, a medieval tradition handed down to today like «Mummers» at Christmas.

Traces of Bermuda’s gombey4 were lost in the 18th century, when it was also called gumbie or gumba. According to one source, «We entirely agree with our correspondent. The wild, meaningless exhibition of the Gumba practised by the idle has to stop, as it is unsuitable for our civilized community and dangerous for passengers in buggies.»5

Early in the 20th century, a wave of immigrants added the goombay masquerades of the Bahamas to
Bermudian gombey. As in Trinidad, masked narrators made reference to oppressors and developed a tradition of social commentary, ultimately removing their masks to perform their compositions openly; they became symbols of Bermudian culture and even appeared on postage-stamps. As often in the Caribbean, by the ‘80s these «protest songs» had taken on a reggae form. Today you can still hear gombey in local folk-music festivals.

Close to the macajumbies of St. Kitts (near Puerto-Rico), Bermudian gombey is distinct from the jonkunnu traditions of Belize, the Bahamas or Jamaica. In the post-war years when these songs were recorded, gombey dances and processions took root in popular events other than Christmas or New Year: at football matches, for example. Their exotic colour was popular in hotels (where Canadians and Americans stayed), and provided by «crowds» or troupes performing acrobatic dances featuring simulated fights accompanied by fifes and three drums, among them kettle drums (whose name recalled the sacred nyahbinghi drums of Jamaica’s Rastas, known as kette drums) or «mother drums» (which you can hear in College Holiday). Sometimes there was also a bass drum. Gombey dancers were led by a more elaborately-dressed «Captain» who gave his commands using a whistle. Two of the three drums were later replaced by modern snare-drums: you can hear one of these in the song Gombey Dance. Gombey rhythms also accompanied songs like those of Reuben McCoy, the most «Caribbean» singer in this anthology (cf. his splendid Chubby).

Calypso
As we’ve said, the calypso trend was above all an opportunity for Bermudians to find work. The success of pre-war artists like King Radio (who wrote and published the original version of Matilda in 1939), Young Tiger or Attila The Hun gave trinidadian calypso a reputation for humorous lyrics and sophisticated music, like those of Old Uncle Joe and Caroline, two «covers» by Trinidadian Wilmoth Houdini (who recorded them in the ‘30s), and the unavoidable calypso standard Mary Ann composed by The Lion (also from Trinidad) in 1941. Calypso, originating in the carnivals and «jousts» between singers and dancers representing different «tents» in simulated fights, was first recorded in 1914. There were many talents playing in this Trinidadian style, but they were confined to the Caribbean for years, only coming to the attention of foreign audiences in 1944 thanks to the huge «Rum and Coca-Cola» hit, a «cover» of the Lord Invader song by The Andrews Sisters from America.

After 1948, calypso6 was dominated by the prolific singer-songwriter Lord Kitchener, a giant in the post-war era who wrote four songs featured here: Red Head, Elsa, Nora and Landlady. This Trinidadian exile recorded in London and enjoyed many hits until his first serious «rival», Mighty Sparrow, had hit records himself in 1956. The year also saw the emergence of Harry Belafonte7, a New-Yorker of Jamaican origin who, after Matilda, recorded a series of Jamaican mentos with sumptuous arran­gements released on his famous album Calypso. Belafonte’s militancy – in an America still divided by racial segregation – helped giving rise to the struggle for civil rights and his international success contributed to provide a more positive image for African-Americans, both for the general public and for people of African origins themselves. Belafonte also launched an international calypso fashion8 which rivalled the Elvis Presley and white rock and roll phenomenon.
Bermuda - Gombey & Calypso 1954-1960
Belafonte’s success naturally reached Bermuda (cf. Hubert Smith’s version of Matilda). Hotels in the Bermudas actively sought calypso artists to provide exotic entertainment for visiting tourists – an unprecedented opportunity for black musicians – and the little Bermuda Records label, like its sisters in Trinidad, the Bahamas or Jamaica, could develop a new market: souvenir-records for tourists...

Sidney Bean
A remarkable composer, guitarist, bassist and singer with a delicious, deep voice, Sidney Bean – he died in March 2000 at the age of 92 – was a great pioneer of popular music in the Bermudas. He was also one of the most talented, judging by his surviving records, and the first Bermudian to perform abroad. Our Caribbean collection has already revealed such major (and lesser-known) talents as Blind Blake from the Bahamas, Count Lasher in Jamaica and Lord Kitchener in Trinidad, and this volume should contribute to do the same for the obscure Sidney Bean. Schooled in church, and older than the other artists present here, Bean was the first «local» musician to imitate Louis Armstrong, and he was just at ease with jazz standards (These Foolish Things, whose lyrics he adapted to the calypso universe) or his own gombey Collegiate Invasion, which related Bermuda’s «invasion» by rugby players on vacation. Bean’s taste for pigs’ trotters shows in Pigs Knuckle and Rice, not to mention his tale of mothers competing with their children in Mothers of Today. His Opportunity makes it clear that you only get one chance – if the woman next door asks you to change a fuse for her... Sidney Bean also played jazz, and he met Bill Cosby in the USA. His congenial personality led him to play for the shipping company Bermuda Cruises and they finally gave him a real job, putting him in charge of their cruises until the ‘90s.

The Talbot Brothers
In the ‘30s they were a barber-shop vocal quintet, no doubt influenced by The Mills Brothers and The Golden Gate Quartet, and in 1942 the five Talbot brothers became a stable band with their cousin Mandy on accordion. They had a minstrel-image as solid, church-trained musicians and singers, and they wouldn’t have continued if their swing ballad «Bermuda Buggy Ride» hadn’t encouraged them to persevere (the original recording, sung by Blackie Talbot, dates from around 1934). The release of a few 10” and 12” LPs in the mid-Fifties by the American label Audio Fidelity, reputed for the quality of its recordings (Audio Fidelity launched stereo in ‘57), contributed to ensure them a professional career, albeit with an ill-assorted repertoire. Dressed in traditional «island» costume (straw hat, short-sleeved shirts), they sang Bermudian ballads with slick vocal harmonies and a few calypso classics like the Mary Ann/Donkey City/Sly Mongoose medley here. In ‘56, ABC-Paramount signed them to a contract and presented them as an authentic calypso group, according to the reigning stereotype. They released two solid albums of original titles at ABC. Their other titles in this anthology come from their second ABC album, The Talbot Brothers of Bermuda (1958), and show their impeccable vocal work (Sunset in Bermuda, Out a Me, You Can’t Tell the Old from the Young and Bermudian Blues). The latter has sweet nostalgia, but Old Time Cat o’ Nine carries another kind altogether, referring to the whip used in the navy and English prisons even after it was officially banned in 1948: to Roy Talbot, it was «The only thing to stop these hooligans / causing panic in the island». (Whipping still occurs in Trinidad & Tobago today despite being condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights). As for Don’t You Call Me Boo Boo, this is Lord Melody’s «Boo Boo Man», recorded by Belafonte and Robert Mitchum in 1957: 
You have the face of a monkey
Big long ears like a donkey
Look in the mirror what do you see
Child don’t you blame it on me

Promoted by ABC, calypso opened the doors for the Talbots and they appeared on the famous Ed Sullivan Show. The last of the Brothers, Roy, died in March 2009.

Lance Hayward
Jazz reached Bermuda in 1930, and Lance Hayward belonged to the modern post-war jazz generation, describing himself as being «a little bit of George Shearing, a little bit of Oscar Peterson, and a lot of Lance Hayward».
«When they started hiring Blacks to play in the hotels, it was to play calypso, so that the serious musician again didn’t have a chance. A guy would grab a guitar and learn four chords and some calypso tunes and that was it. And they played opposite the house band which was always white — American and later British [...] it all happened because the powers that be didn’t want Black bands in their hotels.» (Lance Hayward, quoted in Jazz on the Rock by Dale Butler).
 
In the winter of 1958, this excellent blind jazz pianist and singer once again found himself out of work in Bermuda, and took a job at the Half Moon Hotel in Jamaica’s Montego Bay, where a young Jamaican entrepreneur decided to finance his recordings and founded the Island Records label. Lance Hayward at Half Moon was its first release, and soon the 20 year-old Chris Blackwell would launch the international careers of Millie Small, Cat Stevens, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals and... U2. Lance Hayward was his first discovery, and here he plays a Baba Brooks composition. Brooks was a Jamaican jazz trumpeter who recorded with the Skatalites and ska/rocksteady singer Prince Buster. The rest of Hayward’s album was made up of American jazz standards, but the pianist succumbed to calypso fever too (it was in the air!). He settled in New York and founded the Hayward Singers, continuing to play until he died in the ‘80s. Bermuda had several talented jazz musicians including trombonist Iris Burgess (Duke Ellington liked him), and drummer Clarence «Tootsie» Bean, who accompanies Hayward here.
Limbo
Sonny Rollins was another jazzman marked by calypso, and he recorded his own St. Thomas in June ‘56 for his album Saxophone Colossus, a modern jazz masterpiece. This calypso piece immediately became an international hit, and a standard. The limbo dance (actually a folk dance executed by one facing couple) is just one aspect of Trinidad’s popular music. It was extremely fashionable when it appeared in the 50s, with couples bent backwards as they passed under a (low) wooden bar to the accompaniment of music. The rhythm often associated with limbo dancing, well-known in West Africa, spread throughout the Caribbean, becoming the rumba in Cuba. It made Bo Diddley famous in America when he played it on the guitar. You can hear Reuben McCoy’s Limbo tune in this collection, which features two other versions, one by Jamaican Lord Tickler (on the Calypso volume of the world dance-music series, cf. (8)) and one by the Wrigglers with Ernest Ranglin on Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 (FA 5275).

Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders
Hubert Smith was born in Bermuda, a fisherman’s son whose story reads like a calypso resume, as he became one of the islands’ most famous singers. He collected instruments and made his first guitar when he was six; he started writing little stories, took violin lessons, left school at 13 and began singing for tourists on Front Street. He took up tap-dancing and then turned professional with Mark Williams’ jazz orchestra, taking composition lessons from him.
He turned to calypso when he was 18, and Green Ticket, one of his first tunes in the style, tells how a policeman gives a young woman a ticket because her shorts are too short... maybe it inspired Mighty Sparrow to write his own “Shorts Little Shorts”9. Smith founded his own group in 1953, the Coral Islanders, and they became stars. Their College Holiday is about schoolboys with bathing-shorts so new that they never got wet, preferring to dance the gombey or «listen to Sidney Bean» singing calypsos. Big Two Calypso refers to a Bermuda summit between U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Harold McMillan and his Canadian counterpart Louis St. Laurent in 1957. Smith also played for Queen Elizabeth II and other celebrities like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper & John F. Kennedy, and he remained a model for integration among Bermudians. Many recordings survive (he, too, appeared on a postage-stamp), and his most famous song was «Bermuda Is Another World», which the Royal Gazette considered as Bermuda’s unofficial anthem.

Reuben McCoy with the Hamiltonians
Reuben McCoy is one of the best singers featured on this album, yet little information has survived; his expressive, irresistible voice is marked by a slight Caribbean accent which only adds to the authenticity of his calypsos, and his well-written compositions have lyrics which are full of wit, like Freezin’ in New York, Chubby and Calypso Twist, which reveal a true talent marked by Lord Kitchener, whose Elsa he also takes up here. Unfortunately, these pieces seem to be the only rare traces of his singing career; the back cover of the 12” album Calypso-Twist-Limbo (1960) by Reuben McCoy with the Hamiltonians contains these few words by the local star Hubert Smith:

«I knew Reuben McCoy when he was very young – you could say I watched him grow up. The first time I saw him sing, he was doing rock ‘n’ roll with a local band. Listening to him, I thought, ‘This boy has a magnificent voice which would really suit calypso.’ I asked him to do one and of course he sang an extraordinary «Island in the Sun». I’ve been one of his admirers ever since. It’s been said that calypso could be sung by anybody, which may be true. Me, I think it takes a particular talent to tell a story in a song so that everyone can appreciate it. Reuben has that kind of talent, and this, his first album, presents the music of this young Bermudian accompanying himself on guitar. And I hope there’ll be others of the same kind.»
Sincerely, Hubert Smith Sr.

Al Harris and his Calypso Band
Al Harris was born in Bermuda in 1918 and played in hotels all over the islands before setting up his own orchestra of 12 musicians in 1945. He turned to calypso with a smaller group, and the pieces here are among the best-arranged and recorded in the whole anthology. He covers Lord Kitchener’s Landlady, a humorous account of his landlady’s irruption into his private life, and also the same artist’s Red Head, in which he resolves a dilemma: if you have to choose between a blonde and a brunette, pick a redhead. Taxi is a protest against the price of a cab, while Coo Coo and Flying Fish pays tribute to the national dish of Barbados (corn-flour and gombos). As for Bad Bad Woman, the song tells of a woman he covered with diamonds... before selling him the whole island.
Bruno BLUM
Adapted in English by Martin DAVIES
© Frémeaux & Associés

Thanks to Fabrice Uriac.

1. Cf. Bahamas - Goombay 1951-1959 (Frémeaux & Associés, FA 5302).
2. In Rock Critics, publ. Don Quichotte-Seuil, Paris 2010.
3. Cf. Bahamas - Goombay 1951-1959 (FA5302, Frémeaux & Associés).
4. Lire The Bermuda Gombey; Bermuda’s Unique Dance Heritage de Louise A. Jackson et Bermuda: Traditions and Tastes de Judith Watson.
5. K.E. Robinson, Heritage, p. 124 Bermuda’s Royal Gazette, 1837.
6. Cf. Trinidad - Calypso 1939-1958 (FA5348, Frémeaux & Associés).
7. Cf. Harry Belafonte - Calypso Mento Folk 1954-1957 (FA 5234, Frémeaux & Associés).
8. Cf. Calypso (FA5339) with the genre’s best dance-hits from the islands (in the 20-volume series «Anthologie des musiques de danse du monde», Frémeaux & Associés).
9. Cf. Trinidad & Tobago - Calypso 1939 - 1958 (FA5348 Frémeaux & Associés).

Discographie CD 1
1. Sidney Bean : These Foolish Things
2. Sidney Bean : Island Gal Audrey
3. The Talbot Brothers : Don’t You Call Me Boo Boo
4. The Talbot Brothers : Sunset in Bermuda
5. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : Chubby
6. Kingsley Swan & His Calypso Islanders : Yankee Subway
7. Kingsley Swan & His Calypso Islanders : Mary Ann/Donkey City
8. Al Harris & His Calypso Band : Coo Coo and Flying Fish
9. Al Harris & His Calypso Band : Bad Bad Woman
10. The Four Deuce : Nora
11. The Four Deuce : Four Day Morning
12. Sidney Bean : Straight Haired Gal
13. Sidney Bean : Pigs Knuckles and Rice
14. The Talbot Brothers : Bermudian Blues
15. The Talbot Brothers : You Can’t Tell the Old From the Young
16. The Talbot Brothers : Mary Ann/Donkey City/Sly Mongoose
17. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Bermuda
18. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Matilda
19. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Gombay Dance
20. Sidney Bean : Opportunity
21. Sidney Bean : Mothers of Today
22. Sidney Bean : Bloodshot Eyes
(1) (Eric Maschwitz, Jack Strachey, adapted by Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar). Released ca. 1955 (Bermuda Records).
(2) (Terence Perkins, adapted by Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar) and his Trio. Clarinet, acoustic bass, drums unknown. Released ca. 1954 (Bermuda Records BLP 2003).
(3) (Jack Hammer) Archie Talbot (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Austin Talbot (acoustic guitar, vocals), Roy Talbot (one-string acoustic bass, vocals), Bryan Talbot a.k.a. Dick (tipple - a large, ten-string ukulele, vocals), Ross Talbot (electric guitar, vocals), Cromwell «Mandy» Mandres (accordion, vocals). Released in 1958 (ABC Paramount - ABC 214)
(4) (Ross Talbot) same as (3).
(5) (Reuben McCoy) Reuben McCoy (vocals, guitar), saxophone, electric bass, percussions unknown. Produced by Quinton Edness. Recorded at Studios of ZBM Radio Bermuda. Released in 1960 (Bermuda BLP 408).
(6) Kingsley Swan) Kingsley Swan (vocals), piano, guitar, drums unknown. Released ca. 1953 (Bermuda BLP-2000).
(7) («Mary Ann» : Rafael de Leon a.k.a. The Lion/Trad.) Same as above.
(8) (Alfred Harris) Al Harris (vocals, piano), guitar, acoustic bass, maracas, harmony vocals unknown. Released ca. 1956 (Mastertone Records)
(9) (Alfred Harris) Same as above.
(10) (Aldwyn Roberts a.k.a. Lord Kitchener) Musicians : Kenneth «Sonny» Flood, Kenneth «Joe» Hayward, Robert «Duke» Joell, Cecil Emery. Released ca. 1953 (Bermuda BLP-2000).
(11) (unknown). Same as above.
(12) (Sidney Bean) Same as track 2. Released ca. 1956 (Bermuda Records).
(13) (Sidney Bean) Same as above.
(14) (Roy Talbot & William Francis) same as track 3.
(15) (Archie Talbot & William Francis) same as track 3.
(16) («Mary Ann» : Rafael de Leon a.k.a. The Lion/Trad.) same as track 3. Released ca. 1956 (Audio Fidelity AFLP 1807)
(17) (Hubert Smith) Same as (18), drums lay out.
(18) (Norman Span a.k.a. King Radio) Hubert Smith (lead vocals, guitar), Stan Seymour a.k.a. Lord Necktie (guitar, harmony vocals), piano, acoustic bass, drums, other harmony vocals unknown. Released ca. 1955 (Bermuda BLP 2003).
(19) (Hubert Smith) Same as track 18.
(20) (Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar). Released ca. 1955 (Bermuda BLP 2003).
(21) (Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar). Released ca. 1955 (Bermuda Records).
(22) (Herbert Clayton Penny a.k.a. Hank Penny) Same as track 20.

Discographie CD 2
1. Al Harris & His Calypso Band : Red Head
2. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : Calypso Twist
3. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : Limbo
4. The Talbot Brothers : Old Time Cat o’ Nine
5. The Talbot Brothers : Old Uncle Joe
6. Lance Hayward : Montego Bay
7. Sidney Bean : Bermuda
8. Sidney Bean & His Trio : Collegiate Invasion
9. Eddie Fough W/Sidney Bean & His Trio : Caroline
10. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : Freezin’ in New York
11. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : St. Thomas Limbo (instrumental)
12. Reuben McCoy & the Hamiltonians : Elsa
13. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Right Side of the Road
14. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : College Holiday
15. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Big Two Calypso
16. Al Harris & His Calypso Band : Landlady
17. Al Harris & His Calypso Band : Taxi
18. The Talbot Brothers : Out a Me
19. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Green Ticket
20. Hubert Smith & His Coral Islanders : Mary Ann
21. Erskine Zuill : Donkey Wears Pants
22. Erskine Zuill : Queen’s Canary

(1) (Aldwyn Roberts a.k.a. Lord Kitchener) Same as CD 1,
track 8.
(2) (Reuben McCoy) Same as CD 1, track 5.
(3) (Trad.) Same as CD 1, track 5.
(4) (E. Peres) Same as CD1, track 3.
(5) (Frederick Wilmoth Hendricks a.k.a. Wilmoth Houdini) Same as CD1, track 3.
(6) (Oswald Brooks a.k.a. Baba Brooks) Lance Hayward (vocals, piano), Norman Astwood (electric guitar), Max Smith (acoustic bass), Clarence «Tootsie» Bean (drums). Released 1958 (Island
/Olmsted Sound Studios OSS 2430).
(7) (Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar) with the Sidney Bean Trio. Clarinet, acoustic bass, drums unknown. Released ca. 1955 (Bermuda Records).
(8) (Sidney Bean) Sidney Bean (vocals, guitar), Eddie Fough (vocals, accordion), acoustic bass and maracas unknown. Released ca. 1953 (Bermuda Berm-2003).
(9) (Frederick Wilmoth Hendricks a.k.a. Wilmoth Houdini) Eddie Fough (lead vocals, accordion), Sidney Bean (vocals,
guitar), acoustic bass and maracas unknown. Released ca. 1953 (Bermuda BLP-2000).
(10) (Reuben McCoy) Same as CD 1, track 5.
(11) (Theodore Walter «Sonny» Rollins) Same as CD 1, track 5, except no vocals. Saxophone player unknown.
(12) (Aldwyn Roberts a.k.a. Lord Kitchener) Same as CD 1, track 5.
(13) (Hubert Smith) Same as CD1, track 18.
(14) (Hubert Smith) Released 1957 (Bermuda Records single).
(15) (Hubert Smith) Released 1957(Bermuda Records single).
(16) (Aldwyn Roberts a.k.a. Lord Kitchener) Same as CD 1, track 8.
(17) (Alfred Harris) Same as above.
(18) Roy Talbot & William Francis) Same as CD1, track 3.
(19) (Hubert Smith) Same as CD1, track 18. Released 1957 (Bermuda BLP 2003).
(20) (Rafael de Leon a.k.a. The Lion) Same as above.
(21) (probably Erskine Zuill) Erskine Zuill (vocals, guitar) with the Red Smith Trio. Produced by Eddie DeMello. Released 1960 (Edmar - ELP 001).
(22) (probably Erskine Zuill) Erskine Zuill (vocals, guitar). Produced by Eddie DeMello. Released 1960 (Edmar - ELP 001).

BERMUDA
GOMBEY & CALYPSO 1953-1960

Au pays des bermudas, on appelle gombey les musiques et danses aux racines africaines. Le calypso a aussi été adopté dans ce mystérieux territoire britannique d’outremer, haut-lieu du tourisme américain. Fabrice Uriac et Bruno Blum ont déniché les enregistrements essentiels de la grande époque du calypso, tels Sidney Bean, les Talbot Brothers, Reuben McCoy, Hubert Smith, Al Harris et le jazzman Lance Hayward… Les meilleurs artistes bermudiens enfin redécouverts sur cette anthologie unique en son genre. 
Patrick Frémeaux
In the land of Bermuda shorts, music and dances with roots in Africa are called gombey. This mysterious British overseas territory, a favourite of American tourists, also adopted the calypso. Fabrice Uriac & Bruno Blum have unearthed some of the essential recordings of calypso’s Golden Age, made by such originals as Sidney Bean, the Talbot Brothers, Reuben McCoy, Hubert Smith, Al Harris or jazzman Lance Hayward… A unique anthology that reveals the best artists in The Bermudas, finally rediscovered. 
Patrick Frémeaux