Customer Reviews

Real Bahamas 1 & 2

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those who love the blues, for those who like the gospel, for those who want to discover the roots of rock and reggae, the Real Bahamas is a great treat. The Real Bahamas reproduces some twenty-eight Bahamian songs recorded in 1965 and 1977 by Peter K. Siegel and Jody Stecher and released respectively in 1966 and 1978.
These songs, performed by extraordinary singers and musicians such as the Edith Pinder, Frederick McQueen, Sam Green, Bruce Green and Joseph Spence, are more than beautiful, they are intriguing. They seem to combine the gospels from the Southern plantations with the colors and the brightness of the Caribbean. They sound as if they were coming out from a watercolor by Winslow Homer. They bear the traces of African music, and yet anticipate in many ways the future developments of Caribbean music.
Joseph Spence's guitar in Won't That Be a Happy Time and in Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend are probably the most memorable parts of this great record and show that Spence was as good as some of the best blues guitar players.
There is a lot of magic in this music and this is a record worth having.

This recording contains a number of essential tunes by Spence and by the Pindar Family that are not available on his other records: Spence's "Won't That Be a Happy Time," and the Pindar Family's "Numberless Are the Sands," a simply amazing a capella performance that begins in topical lyrics but then drives deeper into a wild farrago of pure sound and emotion. This album was a high point--indeed, one of the highest--of my education in real music, and I'm sure it will be one of yours, as well. Not--I repeat--NOT to be missed.

This is a rare jewel. Simply some of the best music ever recorded - of any genre. This contains marvelous Joseph Spence along with the Pidar family and other artists. It includes a recording of what someone called "the most beautiful song ever recorded". This is 'I Bid You Goodnight'. It is a collection of various Bahamian artists performing mostly religious music. This is difficults for many people and on first listening the music is rough around the edges and primitive. With repeated listening one can understand why Ry Cooder and other artists have found great inspiration in these works. It is truly a CD you must have in your collection. The fact that the label has combined both parts 1 & 2 into one CD is a plus. Don't listen to this music to be eclectic - do it for your true self! Not enjoying this music is symptomatic of a hole-in-the-soul.

This music, recorded in the 1960's in an impromptu jam session, is earthy, soulful, and inspiring. The voices harmonize in an imperfect, yet hypnotizing, rhythmic, moving collage of sounds, bringing out a real human quality in music.

As for the music, I can only agree with the other reviewers; it's magical, joyful music, and for me it's remained a touchstone of listening pleasure even as other great musical pleasures come and go, ebb and flow. Joseph Spence guitar playing (and for me at least, his singing/croaking as well) is really a singular pleasure.

A note about the edition above:
This older (first CD?) single-disc issue of REAL BAHAMAS 1 & 2 seems to contain all the material that would later be re-re-issued as two separate CDs (Vols. 1 & 2, respectively) by Nonesuch (when they reissued much of the Explorer Series in jewelcases with cardboard slipcases with brightly colored design), EXCEPT for two tracks from VOL. 2: Lyndall Albury's peformances of "King Canute" and "The Little Black Moustache". I didn't do a close discographical comparison, but I think that's the only difference. If you can find this old CD edition cheap, it might be more convenient than having two very short CDs around.

Find and hear this music, by all means!

Hard to believe this is no longer available. If anyone from another planet wondered what music is, this recording pretty much spells it out. Mainly acapella, mainly gospel and folk songs, all performed with the maximum amount of improvisation, intensity and heartfeltness. Hopefully this is a fluke and all can joyfully add it to their collection.

I had this record as a kid - and wore the vinyl down. This is the first time that I've bought one of my old albums as a CD, and it's like meeting an old beloved friend after many years.
The collection contains everything that I could dream for in music: treamendous sophistication, yet modest and unassuming, sweet simplicity and honesty. These people are really singing about their lives! And not about the findings of some market survey.
Sweet, soulful and intreaging.