Baba brooks biography

Biography.
Oswald "Baba" Brooks was a trumpet player who played jazz in the 1950s with the Eric Dean orchestra and recorded during the 1960s original Jamaican ska era for producers Duke Reid, Sonia Pottinger and her husband Lindon, King Edwards, and Prince.
Baba Brooks Biography by AllMusic.

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BABA BROOKS

Oswald "Baba" Brooks aka Baba Leslie (born c.1935) was a trumpet player who played jazz in the 1950s with the Eric Dean orchestra and recorded during the 1960s original Jamaican ska era for producers Duke Reid, Sonia Pottinger and her husband Lindon, King Edwards, and Prince Buster.

Brooks was born in Kingston, Jamaica c.1935. He played trumpet on recording sessions from the late 1950s onwards, often uncredited, and formed his own band in the early 1960s, having a hit in 1962 with "Independence Ska", which ce ...

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Oswald Baba Brooks started his musical career as a trumpet player with the Eric Dean Orchestra in Jamaica in the 1950's. The Jamaican bands played mostly Folk, Afro, Jazz, they played at clubs, big hotels and sometimes on local radio. This was an exciting scene at the time but began to die out towards the end of the fifties.

Band members began to move into the recording studios in Kingston that were emerging at the time with the advent of the Sound Systems. The records that were produced kept the musicians well-employed. Most big bands began to die out and only a few managed to survive into the sixties and beyond. One such band was Byron Lee, they became the Islands premire band and established many talented musicians including Baba Brooks. He soon became a popular session man working for many of the top record producers and featured on many of the great Ska tracks during the golden period from 1963 - 1967. He was riding high in '63 with three hits in the Jamaican charts, Musical Communion, Bank To Bank and his version of Watermelon Man. This was a year before the Skat

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Baba Brooks

Baba Brooks (b. Oswald F. Brooks) started his career playing trumpet with the Eric Dean Orchestra in the 50's. Baba Brooks would later on play with Byron Lee with whom he was to become quite established as a musician. He soon would become quite a popular session man recording for producers such as Leslie Kong, Duke Reid, Sonya Pottinger among others during the years '63 to '67. In '63 heh ad three hits in the Jamaican charts with »Musical Communion«, »Bank To Bank« and a version of »Watermelon Man«.

For Duke Reid he recorded several records released on Reids Treasure Isle and Dutchess labels. On the song »Alcatraz« from '66 he had Count Machuki deejaying over the tune.

Baba Brooks also worked with King Edwards for whom he recorded »Shank I Sheck« in '65. Baba would also record for Lindon Pottinger and his wife Sonya Pottinger (released on the LOP label and respectively the Gay Feet and High Note labels). In '66 Baba Brooks also had a hit with the song »This Is Thunder« produced by Sonya Pottinger.

He would record and play along many of