WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2003
Old Bahamian musicians How times, music, have changed WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2003
Although Nassau's musical scene has evolved over the last half century, some veterans are still making music around town.
Before 1949, when the Bahamas Musicians and Entertainers Union was formed by the late Charles Fisher, most hotels imported musical talent from the US, and were off limits to Bahamian musicians. When hotel entertainment finished at 10 or 11pm, tourists would head in droves downtown or over-the-hill to Bahamian night spots. "The Fifties and Sixties were the golden era of over-the-hill Bahamian nightclubs, which proliferated due to the rising spending power of the Bahamians and the rapid growth of tourism," says a 1977 Bahamas Handbook story.
Big names came "The new nightclubs were, nonetheless, important social crossing places," say Gail Saunders and Michael Craton in their comprehensive history Islanders in the Stream, "not just for tourists but for different levels of local society, where authentic native music and dance were sustained and developed."
Freddie Munnings Jr, whose father owned the Cat and Fiddle on Nassau St in the heady days of the 1950s, recalls some of the big names who were frequent guest stars at the club.
"Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Nat King Cole were a few of the many that performed at the Cat and Fiddle. Even though we appreciated our musical guests, the show would not be complete unless a Bahamian group took the privilege of sharing our culture through song and dance," said Munnings at the reopening of the British Colonial Hilton hotel in December 1998.
Entertainment complex "The Cat and Fiddle was more than a nightclub; it was an entertainment complex when my father opened up the Ghana Room to commemorate Ghana's independence in 1959, and then the Lion's Den, where many young entertainers got their start."
In those days entertainment in the larger hotels like the Royal Victoria, Emerald Beach, Montagu Beach and the British Colonial usually centred around dance bands. The Royal Victoria had Lil Joe Winder with his steel band playing on a platform in the huge silk cotton tree that dominated the hotel's garden. Guitarist and singer Eloise Lewis and her trio were performing at the Emerald Beach. Singer Vince Martin headed the Montagu Three plus One at the Montagu Beach Hotel, and trumpeter Lou Adams, now at Lyford Cay, lead the smoothest orchestra in town at the British Colonial. Music in the big hotels generally stopped at 10pm. Then the nights came alive.
Nassau supported about 40 nightclubs in the 1960s. They were usually full. Tourists loved the music and dancing that often went on into the morning hours. Many of them were open-air courtyards, with dancing under the stars. They featured native variety shows that usually included a limbo dancer, fire dancer, singers, guitars, goatskin drums and dance music. Among the high-profile performers were limbo artist Sweet Richard, and dancers Abbie Lefleur and Peaches.
Downtown nightspots included The Big Bamboo, downstairs on Bay St at East St; Blackbeard's Steakhouse, a Bay St restaurant where George Symonette used to entertain and the Andre Toussaint Trio provided after-dinner music; and the Junkanoo Club.
The Bucket of Blood, in the infamous Charlotte Hotel on George St, dated back to prohibition days.
"Among its patrons were the tall, dark and handsome shipbuilder Capt Bill McCoy and his frequent sidekick, bootlegger Gertrude ÔQueen Cleo' Lythgoe," according to a story in the 2001 Bahamas Handbook. "McCoy's honesty in providing uncut liquors spawned the phrase Ôthe real McCoy.' Ironically, McCoy neither smoked nor drank."
The hotel was initially called the Nassau Hotel and later the Charlotte, before it was destroyed in the devastating downtown fire of 1942.
Cafe society Dirty Dick's on Bay St was a frequent winter hangout of John "Shipwreck" Kelly, former University of Kentucky backfielder (1929-31) who set a university one-game rushing record of 280 yards in 1930. Jack Hennessey, who ran Dirty Dick's in its heyday, recalls the self-styled "Knights of the Round Table," a phalanx of New York caf? society types. The celebrities included Jinx Falkenburg, international swimmer, cover girl, actress and comedienne. She and her husband, Tex McCrary, divided their time in Nassau between nightclubs where they partied and Nassau Yacht Haven where they kept their boat.
Age Ain't Nothin' Franklyn Ellis, almost 80, has been entertaining Bahamians and visitors for half a century. Although best known as a Calypso musician he is also an accomplished composer, as well as drum, bass, guitar, keyboard, sax, trumpet, trombone and steel drums musician.
While attending the New York School of Music in 1956 he won the Caribbean Song Contest and earned the title of Count Bernadino. His other song writing or collaboration credits include My Dingaling, Time Marches On, Who Put the Pepper in the Vaseline? and Red Shoes.
Returning to Nassau in1959, he worked at the British Colonial hotel and many clubs. Sir Stafford Sands, chairman of the Development Board (later Ministry of Tourism), recruited the Count as a goodwill ambassador and sent him on promotional tours to major cities in Europe and North and South America.
Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number, a huge hit for Ronnie Butler, was composed by the Count in collaboration with Fred Ferguson. It could have been written for the Count himself, whose career goes back to the days of the Cat and Fiddle and Flowers Night Club which he managed on Quakoo St. It was widely known for its Bahamian food and was often frequented by Sir Stafford Sands, and winter visitors troubadour Burl Ives and actor Raymond Burr.
Internationally acclaimed dancer Paul Meeres owned Chez Paul Meeres, a combined theatre and nightclub on Fleming St. This was where young Berkley Taylor got his start as a drummer in the late 1940s. Taylor's diminutive stature earned him the nickname "Peanuts." He later beat his traditional bongo and conga drums at the Jungle Club in Fox Hill before opening his own Drumbeat on Market St. After a decade, the Drumbeat became the last of the over-the-hill nightclubs to fold, and Peanuts moved his show to the Nassau Beach Hotel in January 1975. He later opened his Drumbeat Club on the Western Esplanade. It closed about 10 years ago.
The Confidential Club in Chippingham featured the Kemp brothers, dancer David and singer Jonathan, Count Bernadino and smooth crooner Richie Delamore, who performed in the late 1950s and early '60s. Delamore returned from his current home in Florida for a reunion of sorts at the reopening of the British Colonial hotel in December, 1998. That reunion also included Ronnie Butler, Ronnie Armbrister, Count Bernadino, King Eric Gibson and a host of other music veterans.
Folk classics Blind Blake (Blake Alphonso Higgs) composed many Bahamian folk songs that became classics. They include, among others, Conch Ain't Got No Bone, Jones Oh Jones, Never Interfere with Man and Wife, Love Alone, which he wrote for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Run Come See, a tragic story of three sloops at sea during a hurricane in 1929.
Blake played at most places around town, including the Imperial Hotel, the Royal Victoria (for 30 years), the Bama Lounge, the garden of the old Olympia Hotel on West Bay St and, more recently, in the arrivals area of Nassau International Airport.
The Zanzibar on Blue Hill Road and King St, owned by Felix Johnson, had a reputation for bringing in big acts, including Roy Hamilton, Dinah Washington, Hazel Scott, Jackie Wilson and James Brown. It featured quality jazz, blues and popular music as well as calypso. A rejuvenated version of the old nightclub opened about four years ago under the ownership of Michael Stuart and his father Levoin "Bowe" Stuart.
Banana Boat Beat One of the most popular clubs was the Club Mambo on Horseshoe Dr. It later became the Banana Boat, run by Frank Manaya, and was the setting for a movie called Banana Boat Beat. The movie featured several other clubs as well. Popular groups such as Count Bernadino and the Bacchanals, and the Polkadots, including Colin Scavella, Mickey Thompson and singer and guitarist Ezra Hepburn, performed there.
The Lemon Tree on Thompson Blvd was run by singer Richie Delamore. Other popular late-night spots included the Silver Slipper Gardens on East St, the Yellow Bird on Wulff Rd, the Conch Shell Club on Blue Hill Rd, operated by Gene Toote, and Lenny's Playboy Lounge on Crawford St. Others were Club Crazee and The Skylark Club, featuring female impersonator "Chickie" Horne.
The Mermaid Tavern on the waterfront at the end of Deveaux St featured Paul Hanna and the T-Connections in the spacious Show Club lounge.
King Eric Gibson was part of Cap'n Kidd Trio that played at Cap'n Kidd's Inn at Frederick and Bay Sts. The club became a popular hangout for teenagers and, when the owner left the island, the trio moved next door to the Bama Lounge and became King Eric and His Knights.
When the Doubloon Club on West Bay St became available in 1973, King Eric moved in, renaming it King & Knights. It burned down in 1985. Today, King Eric and His Knights performs a native show at Cable Beach, along with Count Bernadino.
Ronnie Butler ran Ronnie's Rebel Room on West Bay St, behind what is now the Holiday Inn, from the early 1970s to the early Ô80s. It later became Club Valentine, operated by the Bahamas Musicians Union. Butler is still an active member of Nassau's music scene.
Ronnie Armbrister, now vice president of the Musicians Union, is a still-active vocalist who used to perform with Kenny and the Beach Boys at the Nassau Beach Hotel, and at the old Sugar Mill Pub in the Sonesta Beach Hotel, now SuperClubs Breezes.
Female entertainers were an integral part of the native over-the-hill shows. Eloise Lewis was an accomplished guitar player and vocalist. The Eloise Trio performed at nearly every major hotel in Nassau and most of the clubs. Naomi "The Jungle Queen" Taylor-Caesar was a pioneer exotic fire dancer in the early days of Bahamian tourism. She later became a Christian missionary and died in 2002 at 85.
Legendary goatskin drummer John "Chippy" Chipman probably graced every nightclub on the island and his wife, Rebecca, better known as Becky Chipman, was a dynamic fire dancer, often billed as the "Tropical Tempest." Chippy still performs daily, welcoming visitors from cruise ships on Prince George Dock.
Chippy is right up there with the Count in terms of energy and years, but, as the song says: Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number.
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WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2003