Encore Lovey! Encore Lovey!! Encore Lovey!!!
was the oft-repeated cry of dancers at the many engagements played by the Trinidad string band lead by violinist George Robertson Lovelace Baillie – 'Lovey. ' From the turn of the twentieth century Baillie led a string band in his island of birth that remained at the top of its profession until 1928, the final year of functioning. In 1912, twelve bandsmen (including their leader) made a trip to New York City for engagements in the Big Apple. Significantly during this stay they were recorded both by the Victor Talking Machine Company, and the Columbia Graphophone Company – the first waxings by a band from the English-speaking West Indies. The novel Spanish-American character of their instrumentation cemented the band's reputation, so much so that in the last days before the outbreak of the First Word War Columbia engineers visited Trinidad and recorded at least 50 sides in a series of sessions beginning on 31 July and ending on 5 August 1914.
This collection encores recordings that survive from the 1912 sessions and reprises forty of the fifty or more selections obtained in 1914. The repertoire reflects rhythms from several islands in the Caribbean as well as mainland South America.
Except for Cuba in the Caribbean, Argentina and Brazil, Lovey's is the earliest black ensemble music on records in the Americas. Though not jazz or ragtime, his band's was another hot dance music style with 19th century roots captured via sound recording for the first time.
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