Horace Andy's career is
one of the few reggae success stories. His instantly recognizable voice now
floats mysteriously through strains of
Massive Attack, bringing one
of reggae's key vocalists to a much wider audience.
Born Horace Hinds in 1951, in Kingston Jamaica, "Sleepy" got his start in
recording at Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label in 1970. His initial efforts did
not really hit, and getting Horace off the ground was a bit of problem. Coxsone
Dodd recalls, "When he came to Studio One
he was very laid back so you really had to groom him. It was a problem to get
him started, you know, with the musicians, 'cause they kept putting him off. So
I had to tell them to rehearse him because from the start, I knew something was
there..."
Dodd remembers Horace not being a great songwriter at the start, and so
"foreign" (American) tunes were used. Coxsone
"used to always pick the foreign music"
and in 1970 he chose Parliament. Their
"Omium" album was released in
that year, and the
George Clinton-penned
"Oh Lord, Why Lord" was
chosen as a vehicle for Horace, which proved to be a hit for Horace, brilliantly
arranged and sung in true Horace Andy style. By 1972, hits were coming fast and
furious for Horace, and he "bust out" with the highly memorable
"Skylarking,"
whose
topic (begging amongst unemployed youth) struck a cord with the JA record buying
public. By the time Horace gets to songs like
"See a Man's Face," he, the musicians, and the studio were well
on fire.
Horace grew and developed at Studio
One, and soon his distinctive, unusual, warbling falsetto
was delivering hit after hit - "See a
Man's Face," "Slacky Tidy," and his continuing successes with
covers often out did the originals, as was the case with
Cat Stevens'
"Where Do The Children Play"
and Paul Simon's "Mother and
Child Reunion"
Horace has resided in the UK for the last 10 years, and has teamed up with the
Mad Professor for
more studio work. Horace's coup-to-date has been his link-up with UK
avant-soulsters Massive Attack.
Massive Attack formed
their own record label, Melankolic,
in 1997. Its initial releases ("Spying
Glass") feature longtime pal Horace, who has also been taken on
the road as part of their touring line-up, where Horace has grafted the
Jamaican-composed "Man Next Door"
to the Massive Attack sound. Speaking on his successful relationship with them,
he commented that for years he had been wanting to do music in that vein, but
"there was no one in
Jamaica to
do it."
Horace Andy last played in Ireland in April
2004 calling in at Crawdaddy Dublin and The Half Moon Cork
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