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Beres Hammond 'gets away' at Aquarius
published: Tuesday | November 20, 2007
Mel Cooke, [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Freelance [COLOR=orange! important]Writer[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]
Beres Hammond during his performance at Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest 2007 Zenith in [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Montego [COLOR=orange! important]Bay[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]. - File
When we left off the Beres Hammond story he had moved into Kingston from St. Mary, done well in the Merritone talent expose and was on the brink of starting his [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]recording [COLOR=orange! important]career[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR].
With Dennis Brown, Culture, Burning Spear, Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington and Ken Boothe among the prominent singers, Beres Hammond was being urged by producer Willie Lindo to get into recording.
But Hammond was not ready. "Me jus' a go round an a observe. Them can't get me sing," he said.
He was singing live with the band Zap Pow, which he had joined in 1975, but the opportunity he wanted was not in front of the crowd.
Then it came.
Learning by observation
"The guys up at Aquarius Records, the Chin-Loys, they had this big old studio in Half-Way Tree sitting down not doing anything. Herman Chin-Loy did know my voice," Hammond said. And he knew Willie Lindo. The offer was made "and true I know there was nobody there ...".
Wanting solitude was not a matter of being shy. Beres Hammond was learning by observation.
"Is not everything a man have to tell you," he said. "Approaching the microphone is a whole different world," he said, one of the things he observed being how the experienced singers turned their heads side-on to the microphone for a high note.
He demonstrates with a note that, in another setting, is worth a couple hundred female yelps and maybe a half-swoon.
"We did not go to do a whole album," Hammond said. "This is the 70s. Reggae was the thing. Just before I did a thing with Zap Pow."
A genesis of songs
"I figured I would be a little bit different, because is a whole heap of wicked reggae singers out there. I didn't think I could compete."
They started out recording reggae, but when they got to the soul of Got To Get Away and You Don't Have To Lie To Me the people at Aquarius Record Store, who were downstairs, heard it and requested an entire album, which they would fund.
And that was the genesis of the songs which will be presented with orchestration as done originally on Sunday, December 30, at the National Indoor Sports Complex in a 'Moment' with Beres Hammond and some guests.
Aquarius said "we have provided the recording facilities, now we will pay the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]musicians[/COLOR][/COLOR]. You get whoever you must get. Don't hold back".
"That's how we ended up getting the strings. We said the songs require the live sound," Hammond said.
Hammond laughs merrily as he remembers the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]classical [COLOR=orange! important]musicians[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coming to the studio, their serious demeanour and their discipline towards their craft. "Them man no play in T-Shirt," he said.
"It was a nice experience," he said. And what has remained with him is the observation that "Jamaican people are great people".
"We had a brass section and I said this sound big," Hammond said. The hornsmen included Cedric Brooks, Glen DaCosta and David Madden.
"That is when Stephen Stanley just started learning the thing. He was like an apprentice on it (the album)," Hammond said.
Tremendous experience
The album entitled Soul Reggae, Hammond's full-length debut, came out in 1976, and he says that the same week it was released "the people started taking an interest. Then my troubles just start. After a month and a half the album took off".
The first time he heard his music from the speakers outside Aquarius in Half-Way Tree was a tremendous experience which he remembers to this day as "the feeling still fresh".
One Step Ahead was not on the album, which did not have a single. Got to Get Away was considered, but Hammond said no. It was back to the studio with a very special musician - pianist Harold Butler, who built on the lyrics that Hammond already had.
He says that Harold Butler "is the greatest musician I know to this day. He has something special and different, me no know."
One Step Ahead was not alone, as Hammond wrote Oh I Miss You for the record's B side. "People love it. Both sides. It shot to number one and could they move it?" he said, smiling. Next: A little more soul and rockers.
published: Tuesday | November 20, 2007
Mel Cooke, [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Freelance [COLOR=orange! important]Writer[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]
Beres Hammond during his performance at Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest 2007 Zenith in [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Montego [COLOR=orange! important]Bay[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]. - File
When we left off the Beres Hammond story he had moved into Kingston from St. Mary, done well in the Merritone talent expose and was on the brink of starting his [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]recording [COLOR=orange! important]career[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR].
With Dennis Brown, Culture, Burning Spear, Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington and Ken Boothe among the prominent singers, Beres Hammond was being urged by producer Willie Lindo to get into recording.
But Hammond was not ready. "Me jus' a go round an a observe. Them can't get me sing," he said.
He was singing live with the band Zap Pow, which he had joined in 1975, but the opportunity he wanted was not in front of the crowd.
Then it came.
Learning by observation
"The guys up at Aquarius Records, the Chin-Loys, they had this big old studio in Half-Way Tree sitting down not doing anything. Herman Chin-Loy did know my voice," Hammond said. And he knew Willie Lindo. The offer was made "and true I know there was nobody there ...".
Wanting solitude was not a matter of being shy. Beres Hammond was learning by observation.
"Is not everything a man have to tell you," he said. "Approaching the microphone is a whole different world," he said, one of the things he observed being how the experienced singers turned their heads side-on to the microphone for a high note.
He demonstrates with a note that, in another setting, is worth a couple hundred female yelps and maybe a half-swoon.
"We did not go to do a whole album," Hammond said. "This is the 70s. Reggae was the thing. Just before I did a thing with Zap Pow."
A genesis of songs
"I figured I would be a little bit different, because is a whole heap of wicked reggae singers out there. I didn't think I could compete."
They started out recording reggae, but when they got to the soul of Got To Get Away and You Don't Have To Lie To Me the people at Aquarius Record Store, who were downstairs, heard it and requested an entire album, which they would fund.
And that was the genesis of the songs which will be presented with orchestration as done originally on Sunday, December 30, at the National Indoor Sports Complex in a 'Moment' with Beres Hammond and some guests.
Aquarius said "we have provided the recording facilities, now we will pay the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]musicians[/COLOR][/COLOR]. You get whoever you must get. Don't hold back".
"That's how we ended up getting the strings. We said the songs require the live sound," Hammond said.
Hammond laughs merrily as he remembers the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]classical [COLOR=orange! important]musicians[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coming to the studio, their serious demeanour and their discipline towards their craft. "Them man no play in T-Shirt," he said.
"It was a nice experience," he said. And what has remained with him is the observation that "Jamaican people are great people".
"We had a brass section and I said this sound big," Hammond said. The hornsmen included Cedric Brooks, Glen DaCosta and David Madden.
"That is when Stephen Stanley just started learning the thing. He was like an apprentice on it (the album)," Hammond said.
Tremendous experience
The album entitled Soul Reggae, Hammond's full-length debut, came out in 1976, and he says that the same week it was released "the people started taking an interest. Then my troubles just start. After a month and a half the album took off".
The first time he heard his music from the speakers outside Aquarius in Half-Way Tree was a tremendous experience which he remembers to this day as "the feeling still fresh".
One Step Ahead was not on the album, which did not have a single. Got to Get Away was considered, but Hammond said no. It was back to the studio with a very special musician - pianist Harold Butler, who built on the lyrics that Hammond already had.
He says that Harold Butler "is the greatest musician I know to this day. He has something special and different, me no know."
One Step Ahead was not alone, as Hammond wrote Oh I Miss You for the record's B side. "People love it. Both sides. It shot to number one and could they move it?" he said, smiling. Next: A little more soul and rockers.
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