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The Hiltonaires |
Page last revised: 6/10/2012
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"Big Bamboo" is The Hiltonaires' most popular LP. It features classic rural instrumentation, including what sounds like a bamboo saxophone (though only a regular sax is ever pictured on an LP jacket) and sometimes augmented with a little electric guitar. In 2001, I found a CD version of this 1966 release in Manley airport in Kingston. Not surprisingly, the CD has better sound quality than my old LP. As middle period LPs go, this one is fairly easy to find inexpensively at used-record stores, on-line dealers and on eBay. But which version will you wind up with? |
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Here's my LP on WIRL. It
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Here's the CD version, on Sonic Sounds, which I found 1. Island Woman
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Courtesy of Steve Brentford |
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Again, courtesy of
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My favorite Hiltonaires song comes from (every variation of) the Big Bamboo LP. Although some of the terminology heard in "Chinese Baby" is politically incorrect by today's standards, you have to feel for the singer, who is black, as is his girl who keeps producing Chinese babies. This is a popular theme that continued into the reggae era. The Hiltonaires recorded this track more than once, as it also appears on Seven Bells and on Ska-Motion In Ska-Lip-So. But the version on Big Bamboo is my favorite rendition of my favorite Hiltonaires track. Here is a sound clip of Chinese Baby. [Click here for notes About the Audio Clips On this Site.]
Yet again, courtesy of Steve Brentford, here
are three more Hiltonaires LPs. These are a little harder to find
than Big Bamboo, but as mento records go, not very difficult or
expensive to acquire. |
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Hold 'Im Joe |
Seven Bells
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A similar sound to the Big Bamboo LP
described above, but Hold 'Im Joe features covers of several American
folk-pop songs in addition to songs from the mento repertoire.
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The cover promises "Calypso - Ska - Mento", but the music is really mento, even if a couple of tracks have electric guitar playing a ska chop and a few more have something of a calypso beat. Two singers share lead vocals duties. An email from Robert Sterle of |
All mento this time, though more tracks
feature a more subdued rhythm, lead by the strum of acoustic
guitar. Line up info is included and reads as follows:
Neville Chambers - leader
& banjo player |
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Argentina alerted me to the fact that one of the singers sounded very much like Lord Tanamo. Brian Keyo confirms that it is Tanamo, singing ion such songs as "Yellow Bird", |
useful
vocalist |
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"Big Bamboo" and "Day O". This is a surprise, but not a shock, as Dan Neely has already documented that The Hiltonaires provided instrumental backing on some of Tanamo's mento recordings, as mentioned on the Lord Tanamo page. |
A Hiltonaires
45 from 1965 on Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label: "Wings Like A Dove" backed with "Ethiopia"
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A Hiltonaires
45 from on WIRL:
"Obeah Wedding" (covering Mighty
Sparrow's Trinidadian hit) "Take It Easy" |
The track "Jamaica", from "Meet Me In Jamaica with Sunshine", was included in the 2004 compilation, "Trojan Jamaica Box Set". "Island In The Sun" and a version of "Chinese Baby" are included in the 2006 the CD compilation "Dip And Fall Back
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