Inspired by the earlier Bahamian recordings of Sam Charters, Jody Stecher (now a renown singer and multi-instrumentalist of traditional music) traveled with Peter Siegel to the Bahamas in 1965 to record the rhyming singers whose songs were, even then, beginning to disappear. Rhyming, a distant relation to rap, seems to have come from communities of sponge fishermen off the west coast of Andros. Mostly the songs are spirituals though there are occasionally ballads and anthems. In this unique Bahamian vocal development a singer intones verses, called "rhymes" (though the verses don't necessarily have to rhyme), in rhythmic cycles usually supported by bass and treble harmonies. The best known of the singers on this extraordinary recording is Joseph Spence with, of course, the Pinder Family. A close cousin of this music can be found on the recordings of the Sea Island Singers. We're talkin' roots here. |
