Augustus Hinds (1906 – 1984), who performed under the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Bill Rogers, was a Guyanese singer and songwriter, credited with developing

shanto Shanto is a form of Guyanese music, related to both calypso and mento. It became a major part of early popular music through its use in Guyanese vaudeville shows; songs are topical and light-hearted, often accompanied by a guitar. The word "sha ...

music. He was the first Guyanese musician to record internationally.

Biography

Born in 1906, he grew up in the multi-ethnic Charlestown area of south Georgetown,

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

. As a child he joined in family shows put on by his sisters. He made his first stage appearance aged five, wrote his first songs aged 13, and then organised his own

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

-style group, the Merry Makers, who toured in

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. He made his first radio broadcasts in 1929, and also incorporated comedy and magic into his stage act. In the late 1920s, he developed the concept of "shanto" music, which he described as "an improvisation of words and music with an Afro-West Indian beat, with satirical comments on people, events and things...". His songs were aimed at, and commented on issues relevant to the everyday lives of, the

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

urban population of Guyana. David Horn and John Shepherd (eds.), ''Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 9: Caribbean and Latin America'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, pp.768-769
/ref> In 1934, he sailed to the United States. In

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

, Rogers recorded 34 songs for the

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

label owned by

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, backed by "Felix's Krazy Kats", a group led by Puerto Rican musician Gregory Felix who had been a member of

James Reese Europe James Reese Europe (February 22, 1881 – May 9, 1919) was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African Americans music scene of New York City in the 1910s. Eubie Blake called hi ...

's band. The songs included "B. G. Bargee" ("bargee" or "bhagee" being a type of dance rhythm); "The West Indian Weed Woman" (also known as "The Weed Song", later recorded by

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

), describing the use of local plants in medicine and cooking; and "Sugar, Cent a Pound", about sugar salvaged from a local shipwreck. "Augustus Hinds", ''Discography of American Historical Recordings''
Retrieved 19 April 2019 According to the ''Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', Rogers' recordings in 1934 "represent an incisive reflection on the issues that dominated Guyanese society during the late 1920s and early 1930s". During the 1930s, Rogers toured widely in

the Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, the US and Canada. His performances and musical styles were influential, and in 1937 he won the Trinidad calypso crown, becoming the first Guyanese to do so. He promoted his own shows, as well as "Baby Shows" and Scholarship Fairs, which aimed to give a higher standard of education to disadvantaged children by sending them abroad to study medicine and other disciplines. "An extra-ordinary Guyanese… Augustus Hinds, aka. ‘Bill Rogers’ – is Guyana’s first international recording artiste", ''Guyana Chronicle'', 11 July 2015
Retrieved 19 April 2019 Rogers continued to perform and tour. In 1952, he visited Britain, and recorded two

sessions Sessions may refer to: * Sessions (surname), a surname * Sessions (clothing company), an American apparel company * Sessions Clock Company, an American clock manufacturer in the early 20th century Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Sessions' ...

in London with producer

Denis Preston Sidney Denis Preston (''né'' Prechner, 16 November 1916 – 21 October 1979) was a British record producer, recording studio owner, radio presenter and music critic. He was particularly influential in the British jazz and associated skiffl ...

, one for

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

and one for

Melodisc Melodisc Records was a record label founded by Emil E. Shalit in the late 1940s. It was one of the first independent record labels in the UK and the parent company of the Blue Beat label. History Melodisc records was founded by Austrian-born A ...

, reprising some of his most popular songs.John Cowley
"London is the Place: Caribbean Music in the Context of Empire 1900-60, Sam Manning and Lionel Belasco Arrive in Britain — 1934"
in

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficion ...

(ed.), ''Black Music In Britain: Essays on the Afro Asian Contribution to Popular Music'', Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990. Melodisc released the song "Nice Woman, Ugly Man", on which he was backed by musicians including Freddy Grant and Mike McKenzie, as a single in the UK. He made further recordings in

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 ...

with

Louise Bennett Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the practice of p ...

, Sleevenotes, Bill Rogers, ''B.G. Bhagee'', ''Discogs.com''
Retrieved 19 April 2019 and again in Guyana in 1972. Rogers died in Guyana in 1984. His son, Roger Hinds, performs and records shanto music as "Young Bill Rogers". Ruth Osman, "The ride of Young Bill Rogers", ''Caribbean Beat'' #94, November 2008
Retrieved 19 April 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Bill 1906 births 1984 deaths British Guiana people Calypsonians