Oswald "Baba" Brooks (born c.1935) was a

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

player who played jazz in the 1950s with the Eric Dean orchestra and recorded during the 1960s original

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

era for producers

Duke Reid Arthur "Duke" Reid CD (21 July 1915 – 1 January 1975) was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner. He ran one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s called Reid's Sound System, whilst Duke himself was known as The Troja ...

Sonia Pottinger Sonia Eloise Pottinger OD ( Durrant; 21 June 1931 – 3 November 2010)Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 316 Prince Buster Cecil Bustamente Campbell (24 May 1938 – 8 September 2016), known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary ...

Biography

Brooks was born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

, around 1935.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 38 He played trumpet on recording sessions from the late 1950s onwards, often uncredited,Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 335 and formed his own band in the early 1960s, having a hit in 1962 with "Independence Ska", which celebrated Jamaica's break from

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

. He also performed on several sessions with

the Skatalites The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including " Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many othe ...

. He had further hits in 1964 with "Bus Strike" and "Musical Workshop". The band followed this in 1965 with "Guns Fever", recorded at Studio One. Brooks and his band continued to play on recording sessions until the early 1970s.

Albums

;Songs *"King Size",

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to the Saints' 'Brown Eyes'Colin Larkin - The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music 1561591769 1995 -- Volume 1 - Page 561 "Baba Brooks played trumpet and in the early 60s had his own band whose recordings included the celebratory 'Independence ... to be a ska interpretation of 'Making Whoopee' and originally surfaced as the b-side to the Saints 'Brown Eyes'."

References

External links

Ska2soul.net: Oswald Baba BrooksDiscography at Discogs
Jamaican trumpeters Island Records artists Living people Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica 21st-century trumpeters Year of birth missing (living people) {{trumpeter-stub