This Is The One The Montagu Three Plus One

 

Run Away

This Is The One

The Montagu Three Plus One

Album Design and Painting: C.H. Barkhaus

Bahamas Rhythms Ltd. Record No. BRH54

From the back cover: If the elements of the cover painting the Zodiacal Signs gleaming with pale fire, seem somehow oddly related, it is because they are those of the four musicians collectively known as the Montagu Three Plus One.

Martin Conliff, a Scorpio, leads the group again with a sure touch. Conliff's taste and special abilities at the keyboard are heard on this disc as never before. He weaves his music with a special texture underlaid with his own austere and economical philosophy, holding firmly to this while the truest kind of artistic integrity and avoiding the allure of a strayed imagination and the corrupting decoration or fantasy that could result. So thoroughly a professional outlook does Conlif have in his particular way, it is understandable that he instinctively brushes aside the superfluous and clings to his own hewn line with a tenacity that is utterly fascinating.

Born under the Sign of the Archer, Donald Butler, with a voice rich and vibrant, sings an especially attractive array of songs. Listen to "Ole Man River". It is difficult to think of a more honest rendition of this modern classic. Mr. Butler contributes a unique effect to this song with his Bahama-English pronunciation of the words, giving them their "g" in typical fashion. Butler, in this, his second album with Martin Conliff's group, exhibits a developing surety in his interpretive abilities. His performance here is most ingratiating.

In their usual stalwart fashion, Eugene Fitzgerald, Gemini's child, and Fred Henfield, whose July birthday put's him under the sign of the Crab, bring to this disc the rhythm and string motifs that are so much a part of the group's style. Old hands at the business of recording these two turn in sterling performances with professional verse and finesse.

Run Away

Sloop John B

Kingston Farewell

Dancing With An Angel

Brown Skin Gal

Hey There

Shadow Of Your Smile

Born Free

Secret Love

Yesterday

Woman In Love

Ole Man River