Johnson (Joaozinho) and his Jolly Boys undisputedly held the music stage in Goa for many years - pre-Potuguese as well as after 1961.
Here was Goan dance music at it's most entertaining. He must have been good at music or else his would not have been the pre-eminent dance band of Goa at that time. I cannot comment on the music quality itself as I have no professional music background but as a teenager and young adult enjoying his Portuguese and Goan style music I saw no parallel. His band members were salt-of-the-earth Goan. They were probably all village Church maestro taught, but boy could they make people dance. As Mervyn and Cornel mentioned about the Goan bands playing on the Mombasa-Bombay trip, Goan bands get better as the evening progresses. I remember vividly a family relative and icon on the Margao Club Harmonia scene of that time, Emilio Alvares, giving Johnson the necessary push to quicker step. That meant passing a feni or whisky bottle to the band on stage diring the breaks. Emilio, would start off by telling Johnson "arre Joaozinho, kitem re, kai fuski nam tujem muskan (Come on Johnson, there's no bite to your bark). Whereupon Johnson would make a wry face giving the necessary indication that the band needed 'gasoline'. One botlle and the tempo would decidedly change. The music got quicker, the beat more lively and the improvisation climactic. After that there was no holding back. One more botlle more improvement and so on. I remember there was a blind guitarist in the Band from Assagao. I knew this because my Dad would step up to him and talk about Socolvaddo and how things were since his last trip to Goa. Then my dad who would make a good twosome with Emilio, would supply more bottles and add to the fun. The crowd would tire out at about 7 am with the activity of the entire night, but Johnson would not. He had to be persuaded to finish off and play his last piece which would inevitably be "Good Morning, Good Morning, ...)" The neighboring cocks heralding the morning on one side and the band in full belt on the other. Oh, what a scene - only in Goa. Johnson after 1961 got some competition with the Tuna Sparks, an upcoming group that relied on electrical instruments rather than wind, brass and persussion. They were good but with the electricity going off every few hours, they were no competition to Johnson who having no electrical necessity whether of instrument or amplification, other than the electricity provided by alcohol which was never in short suppy, always triumphed. Roland. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
