BARE ESSENTIALS – BIOGRAPHY
The name, Bare Essentials is the refinement of the bare necessities which one member felt summed up the equipment they had when the band first started rehearsing at the Kingston YMCA.
Shortly after its formation, the band was contracted to perform at Epiphany nightclub in New Kingston every Wednesday night. Sometime during that first year (1971) the owner of Club Caribbean heard the group and offered them a weekend gig at his hotel in Runaway Bay, St Ann. For the next four years Bare Essentials played Epiphany nightclub Wednesdays and Club Caribbean every Friday and Saturday night.
After that came extended weekend stints at the former Jamaica Hilton in Mammee Bay, the Runaway Bay Hotel, and a 3-year contract at the Jamaica Grande where Thursday night became Carnival Night with the Bare Essentials.
During its over 30 years existence, Bare Essentials has featured singers such as Lorna Bennett, Karen Marr, Maria Myrie, Funky Brown, Richard Kirkwood, Dwight Richards and Richie (Canary) Robinson. Well known Jamaican instrumentalists such as Willie Lindo, Wigmore Francis, Tony Green, Richard McDonald and Junior Big Bird Baillie, have all been members of the Bare Essentials at some time in their career.
Errol Lee is the only member who was there from the beginning and while he admits that he is not as agile as he used to be, he still credits the exercise he gets from being an Essential for his youthful looks and trim physique.
The band has grown from seven members to ten including a three-piece horn section and three singers. Its repertoire leans heavily towards Jamaican rock steady, ska, roots reggae, soca, and R&B.
Bare Essentials has recorded numerous singles and 5 albums. Its latest release is Hurricane Love on the JAAVA Compilation, written by Errol Lee and performed by Dwight Richards and The Best of Bare Essentials – a compilation of 16 songs from 30 years of recordings. Our biggest hits are “Back a Yard”, the story of a rebel cricket tour to South Africa by West Indian cricketers, “Umbayaya”, a song about village life in Africa and “Miss Jamaica”, a commentary on our beauty contests.
The band performs regularly in Kingston and has toured Europe, the UK, the USA, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Most recent overseas gigs include performances in Belize, New York for Jamaica Outreach, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Knox College Past Students reunion, and the annual Jamaica Independence Ball in Miami.
I can also be seen at www.myspace.com/errolleebareessentials
Who I'd like to meet: Old and not so old friends and acquaintances, particularly those who remember the Bare Essentials from places like Epiphany nite club, Club Caribbean, the Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios and Hedonism 2 in Negril. Jamaicans in the diaspora who want to rekindle memories of the good old days when rock steady, ska and soca would swing the party. Ask anyone in Washington DC, South Florida, New York and the tri-state area and they'll tell you, Bare Essentials is still the band to make you fete till you wet.!!
