Goombay

Not to be confused with Goomba.
Junkanoo masks and Bahamian musical instruments: three goombays in front (oil cans with skins attached), air horns and cowbells on the wall, are seen.
Music of the Anglophone Caribbean
Genres
Regional music
Local forms
Related areas

Goombay is a form of Bahamian music and a drum used to create it. The drum is a membranophone made with goat skin and played with the hands. The term Goombay has also symbolized an event in the Bahamas, for a summer festival with short parades known as ‘Junkanoo’.

The goombay name has also evolved to become synonymous with local Afro-Caribbean music related to calypso. In The Bahamas, its most famous practitioner in modern times was Alphonso 'Blind Blake' Higgs, who performed at the Nassau International Airport for many years.[1]

The Goombay Dance Band help to popularise the musical style in the West in the early 1980s. Their single, "Seven Tears", reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in March 1982.[2]

  1. ^ Kaliss, Jeff. "Junkanoo and Sloop John B.". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 317-324. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
  2. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 232. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.