Some of you will love this 1994 Sabres Of Paradise single, all slink and skank and lust for life. The vocals were by Wonder, who was one half of yesterday's postees Secret Knowledge. At Cream nightclub, Liverpool, one night in 1994 a scheduled dj appearance in the backroom by Mr Weatherall failed to materialise- transport problems I think. The resident dj and co-owner Darren Hughes stepped up to the decks and played an advance copy of Wilmot. A whole room of people went from dancing to house/techno to doing the reggae dance. The video has Sabres men Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, and a troupe of majorettes dancing through London at dawn. Magic.
I found out recently that this 1931 calypso song, Black But Sweet, by Wilmoth Houdini provided a good part of the inspiration. Listen to the horn line...
Wilmoth Houdini also went under the names Frederick Wilmoth Hendricks, Edgar Leon Sinclair and King Houdini. He emigrated from Trinidad to New York, was a major player on the calypso scene in the 30s and 40s and lived there until his death in 1977.
6 comments:
Put this on for the first time in a couple of years just yesterday. That track was on some compilation - that may have come with a magazine - that I have at home. Somehow adds to the track rather than diminishes it.
Love this one. I always think it sounds like the old Kia-Ora adverts gone voodoo.
That calypso song is a great find, Adam, thanks!
i played the 10" version (wilmot's last skank) a lot in the late 90s.
later i discovered that shantel used a very similar horns melody on his bucovina hit and got told that this is a very old melody from romania. not sure about that, but i know that shantel was a few times in the club where i played wilmot. :)
Just got this CD - which is brilliant. So thanks for that, Adam. Then because I'm a completist (apparently) and an aesthete, ahem, I've ordered up the LP of the same, which has such a lovely cover. I must unconsciously like turquoise.
Have a good holiday all Swiss Family Bagging Area.
As a fellow completist and aesthete I'm glad to have been of service Max.
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