The Hiltonaires: Ska x Mento

The confluence of sounds that wound up making Jamaica one of the most unique musical destinations in the world began a long time ago. It was actually probably around 1492 or whenever that Italian guy made it to the Caribbean, even if he thought it was just India.

Regardless of the dullards that claimed to discover land that people already lived on, the resulting cultural incursion yielded some unique results. At the moment when previously cloistered societies get an injection from elsewhere, there’s bound to be some sort of change that runs through a place. Jamaica may not be a sprawling nation, but it did possess its own history. With the coming years of slavery, sugar cane and subservience, a new music emerged.

The folk stuffs that were already in place on the island were augmented by a new clutch of settlers and the slaves that were brought over. Of course, it’s difficult to properly track the trajectory of this all occurring, but eventually, there was mento. Even that, though, was slowly changed with the tourist element that wanted a music to move to while vacationing.

The Hilton Hotel, which was obviously geared towards an American tourist base, served as the focal point for a few things. There was a great deal of money in those halls and everyone was keenly aware. Because of that, there was a bustling entertainment industry that grew up around the hotel. Some of the biggest names in latter day ska performed at one time or another. The house band, though, was a group that took its name from the hotel itself – the Hiltonaires.

It seems as if the group was basically in it for the business considering the name they took and given that its albums more and more catered to tourists as opposed to the Jamaican citizenry. The band, though, issued a good deal of material. And while it’s on the more folksy side of the JA music spectrum the band wasn’t exactly the Jolly Boys.

Either way, with the release of Ska-Motion In Ska-Lip-So it was apparent that the band sought to take in any sort of audience it’d be able to wrangle. Recorded during 1965, the disc actually serves as one of the earlier ska workouts. Yeah, Laurel Aitken was busy during the late ‘50s, but the Hiltonaires remain an example of the nascent meshing of styles. Of course, just a few years later, the skinhead reggae thing would take over. But during the time that the Hiltonaires were at its peak, the band utilized such a great swath of standard songs as to make the ska appropriation an interesting work of post-modernism.

Amongst the litany of familiar songs from the Hiltonaires, “The Dove” reminds listeners that freedom songs didn’t start with Bob Marley, but were a part of a musical tradition that dates back prior to Jamaican’s having the ability to record music for themselves. Tossing off renditions of “Tom Dooley” as well as “Shame and Scandal” make Ska-Motion In Ska-Lip-So an easy disc to get through. What’s better, what’s best? There’s more to hunt down.