alseales

AL SEALES Caribbean Carnival

It was the year 1930 in Georgetown, Guyana when a young man named Hulbert Newton Seales,nicknamed Al, appeared on the music scene playing banjo with the Washboards Orchestra..Filled with ambition and determination he soon learned how to play the Tenor Saxophone and was sitting in as first tenor sax and band leader by the end of the decade.During the war years, Al Seales and the Washboards became very popular with the U.S Military stationed at Atkinson Air Base. This was his introduction to big band orchestration and where he developed his stomping shuffle rhythm and big band sound. After the Americans left,Al introduced this new type of big band sound to the local dance fans but was snobbed at first. Since the locals were going for the lick-up Creole sounds from his all time rival Tom Charles and the Syncopators the competition was hot but Al was a visionary and as I said earlier he was determined to succeed. He knew that good arrangement and orchestration combined with new rhythms and percussion,he could create new sounds,sounds that neither Demerara nor the Caribbean had ever heard. With his new sound based on Latin Samba and Bee Bop,Al had created a style that some great American musicians like Dizzie Gillespie for example,would later perfect and call Afro-Cuban jazz. He and his Washboards Orchestra took this new sound to the dance fans and started a musical revolution.

By RAY SEALES

AL SEALES 1930

COOL DIVE

Some older Guyanese and Barbadians will remember that infamous big Band competition held in the Promenade Gardens in Georgetown..The finalists were the Washboards and a Bajan Big Band.The judge"s decision infuriated the local music fans who felt the winning Bajan band was no match for the Washboards and this started a riot which ended with one fatality. This unfortunate incident affected Al for quite a few years. For some reason, he felt responsible but life goes on and the music continued.
As the 1950's approached,the record industry was now full blown and Al ,the visionary, who was at the peak of his musical career,was ready to make his contribution.In doing so,he started one of the earliest recording companies in the British Caribbean called GEMS with his record label Caribbean Carnival.He recruited the best musicians in then British Guiana for his studio band which he called "The Caribbean All Stars".He was now ready to record history.His very first commercial recording was "Jumbee Jamboree" by Lord Cristo.It was during this period that Fitzroy Alexander, known as Lord Melody,appeared on the scene.Melody signed up to record eleven songs with GEMS CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL which included BOO BOO MAN,The DEVIL,Creature from The Black Lagoon,Knock on any door and HAPPY HOLIDAY.These are well known songs ,arranged by Basie Thomas and Al Seales and featured Harry Whitaker on saxophone doing solos in Calypso music with a jazz flavour.This really made American jazzmen pay more attention to Caribbean Carnival.Al also performed a marvellous feat by producing,arranging and engineering his recordings.

Al Seales and The Washboards

It was during this period,Harry Whitaker and Al Seales teamed to do Al's composition COOL DIVE
duelling Tenor Saxes. This is the most beautiful jazz piece to come out of the Caribbean to date.Then their was Francisco Slinger known as the Mighty Sparrow.Some of his early contributions with Caribbean Carnival were "Clara Honeybunch",No Doctor No", Goaty, and Jean and Dinah to name a few.This was the period of the great Sparrow/Melody calypso feud.Al had high regards for Lord Melody and would say "I love a man who could make fun of himself".
As the fifties came to a close,Al was still looking for that one big hit and came very close to having it with "Melvina",performed by Norman Beaton and the Four Bees.This recording topped the charts in Trinidad making it the very first outside recording to do so in the history of Trinidad's Carnival.There were at least four other versions that followed.Al was very proud of his accomplishment,but also saddened by the fact that the local stations had banned his recording.Al's confidence in radio broadcast in Guyana was lost since he felt that this medium should have been used to equally promote local music and talent and not only upper middle class productions,most of which were substandard and reflected some other culture rather than our own
As the fifties ended,so did the big band era, and Al
Seales retired from the dance hall..

Al Seales and the Washboards,doing
their annual St.Georges dance.

Al Seales meets Paul Gonsalez

Al never left his Lovely Guyana but his music was heard worldwide and musicians from North America and Europe came to Guyana to meet the man who created CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL and opened the doors to new sounds and rhythms making it possible for performers throughout the West Indies to be heard.
Al Seales passed away in 1995 at age 86.
We have a lot to thank him for.

Jamz From GEMS

Musical Instruments

GEMS A/V for sound vision