Horace Andy and Dawn Penn at Yaam Berlin / Friday, 15.05.2015

Just a a year on from his last appearance on Berlin dance-hall veteran Horace Andy returns to the stage at the finest reggae club in town, Yaam where he is this time also joined by another of Jamaicas brightest stars Dawn Penn who will perfom a very special live concert. All of which makes for one mighty double bill.

Dawn Penn is one of the original queens of reggae music. A native of Kingston, Jamaica, she grew up in a musical family, studying piano, classical violin and performing with her sisters Pat and Audrey in churches. Her first recording was “When I’m Gonna Be Free” was in 1966. She then recorded for the legendary Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and her first hit came in 1967 with the title “You Don’t Love Me – No, No, No”, one of the most famous reggae hits of all-time which has been covered by countless artists around the world including Beyonce, Rihanna, Sean Paul, Wu-Tang Clan, Eve, J Millz and Lily Allen.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=weFxKPsYTf4

An original star of the dance-hall scene, Horace Andy makes a special live appearance at Yaam in Berlin this May. Andy has been active since 1967 and more recently he gained mainstream attention through his work with Bristol trip-hoppers Massive Attack.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Hinds recorded his first single in 1967 for producer Phil Pratt. “This is a Black Man’s Country” failed to make an impact, and it wouldn’t be until 1970 that he achieved a breakthrough. After unsuccessfully auditioning at Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One as a duo along with Frank Melody, he successfully auditioned on his own a few days later. Dodd decided Hinds should record as Horace Andy, partly to capitalize on the popularity of Bob Andy, and partly to avoid comparisons with his cousin, Justin Hinds, with whom his singing style at the time showed a resemblance.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=RCHTAu4In70

“Got To Be Sure”, the song he had auditioned with, became his first release for Studio One. The following two years saw the release of further singles such as “See a Man’s Face”, “Night Owl”, “Fever”, and “Mr. Bassie”. One of Andy’s most enduring songs, “Skylarking”, first appeared on Dodd’s Jamaica Today compilation album, but after proving a sound system success, it was released as a single, going on to top the Jamaican chart. The next few years saw Andy regularly in the reggae charts with further singles for Dodd such as “Something on My Mind”, “Love of a Woman”, “Just Say Who”, and “Every Tongue Shall Tell”, as well as singles for other producers such as “Lonely Woman” (for Derrick Harriott), “Girl I Love You” (Ernest and Joseph Hoo Kim), “Love You to Want Me” and “Delilah” (Gussie Clarke), and “Get Wise”, “Feel Good”, and “Money Money” for Phil Pratt.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=sfh5HDlbitc

Andy had a second Jamaican number one single in 1973 with “Children of Israel”. Andy’s most successful association with a producer, however, was with Bunny Lee in the middle part of the 1970s. This era produced a series of singles now regarded as classics such as a re-recorded “Skylarking”, “Just Say Who”, “Don’t Try To Use Me”, “You Are My Angel”, “Zion Gate”, “I’ve Got to Get Away”, and a new version of “Something on My Mind”.