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artist.....: Michael Boothman & Family Tree Feat. Andre Tanker
album......: Tabu
year.......: 2018
label......: Cree Records
CRS509
source.....: WEB
moodswing..: Funk
releasesize: 14.59 MB
tracks.....: 02
length.....: 06:22
encoder....: Lame
quality....: 320kbps
scenealized: 11.24.2019
Family Tree was a coming of age band
marking a change of consciousness for a
group of young musicians who had
started their musical careers at the
dawn of Trinidad and Tobago's
Independence from Britain in 1962.
They grew out of The Rockerfellars, the
first band spearheaded by the
internationally renowned guitarist and
songwriter Michael Boothman. The
successful 60s combo band playing rock
and roll based popular music had
reached the limits of its potential at
a time when the excitement of
Independence had given way to the anger
of the civil rights movement which had
been bubbling in Trinidad since 1967
and eventually spilled into the streets
of Port of Spain in 1970 in what came
to be known as the Black Power
Uprising.
It was with this movement as a backdrop
that the focus for Boothman and his
friends began to change.
The Boothman brothers also had the
benefit of coming from one of Port of
Spain's most respected artistic
families. Their uncle Geoffrey Holder
was already the toast of New York's
Broadway theatre scene, excelling as
both a dancer and actor. Their younger
uncle Boscoe Holder was on his way to
becoming one of Trinidad and Tobago's
most important visual artists.
Family Tree represented a new
generation re-discovering Trinidadian
folk music forms and giving them a
contemporary treatment. Under the
guidance of drummers like Andrew
Biddeau, Family Tree infused old Shango
rhythms in their new sound. They were
also the first to experiment with steel
pan, fusing it with the standard
instrumentation of the day.
In 1972 the band won Trinidad &
Tobago's 10th Anniversary Independence
Music Festival with best original
composition So Dey Say and they also
won the Best Arrangement of the
festival song Mighty Terror's Pan
Talent.
Tabu is a cover of a Cuban standard
made popular in Trinidad by 1950s
calypso musicians Cyril Diaz and his
Orchestra and So Dey Say was an
original composition by David Boothman.
Although they only ever recorded these
two songs, the band toured with Derek
Walcott's Trinidad Theatre Workshop and
forged long standing musical
connections with some of the country's
leading musicians.
Among these are Andre Tanker, who plays
the flute on Tabu. Tanker was another
of the musicians who had made the
transition from the more conservative
mainstream pop music sound to embracing
Trinidad's folk forms, inspired by
African, Indian and Indigenous
antecedents.
Family Tree consisted of the Boothman
brothers Michael on Guitar and David on
Keyboards; Wayne 'Barney' Bonaparte on
bass; Dennis Thomas on drums; Earl
'Biter' Edwards on African drums; Allan
Nightingale on percussion; Rawle
Mitchell on steelpan. Rawle Mitchell
was succeeded by Len 'Boogsie' Sharp,
then a 16 year old pan prodigy who went
on to become one of Trinidad's foremost
steelpan players and composers.
URL:
https://creerecords.bandcamp.com/album/
tabu
psst, more info at cree-records.com
01 Tabu 03:02
02 So Dey Say 03:20