Artist: Josephine PremiceLP: Caribe: Josephine Premice Sings Calypso
Song: "Two Ladies In de Shade of de Banana Tree"
[ listen ]
Song: "Two Ladies In de Shade of de Banana Tree"
[ listen ]
While driving across Vashon Island sometime last year on the way to visit my folks, I saw a big antique store with a "going out of business" sign above the door, so I stopped to have a look. This terrific Josephine Premice LP (sounds kinda' like Marianne Faithfull singing calypso!) was one of the unlikely things I found there, tucked amongst lots of dingy LPs by Crystal Gayle, Dan Fogelberg and the like. Josephine Premice was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926; her Haitian aristocrat parents had fled their home country after taking part in an unsuccessful coup to oust the current Haitian dictator. Young Josephine showed signs of musical talent, so her folks gave her dance lessons. She studied with Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham before performing at the First African Dance Festival in 1943 at Carnegie Hall. She went on to appear in musical shows on and off Broadway, earning Tony Award nominations for "Jamaica" in 1958 and for "A Hand Is On the Gate" in 1966. Though her popularity waned in later years, she did make an appearance as Louise's sister on "The Jeffersons" in 1979. You can read more about the fabulous life and career of Josephine Premice here, and notes from the back of this LP are included below.
[ Josephine Premice: July 21, 1926 — April 13, 2001 ]
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