Review: Prilly Hamilton - U

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

Milton ‘Prilly’ Hamilton first started singing in 1968 with Hell’s Angels, while he was still pursuing his secondary education at Kingston’s Excelsior High School. Initially, that band included soon-to-be musical stalwarts like Wayne Armond (of Chalice), Courtney Robb (of Byron Lee’s Dragonnaries) and Bentley Rae (Pluto Shervington’s band).

By 1971, then enrolled in a first degree programme at the University of West Indies (Mona), he became the lead singer for the band Inner Circle. At the time, the band, along with Now Generation Band and Hell’s Angel’s, ruled the local entertainment circuit as premier show/backing bands. Inner Circle maintained a heavily booked schedule, touring all over the island, playing in clubs and hotels and even scored big as the core of Michael Manley’s band wagon, produced by Buddy Pouyatt, which took the island by storm.

Back then, Inner Circle’s sessions at Holiday Inn’s Witches’ Hideaway Club and Casa Monte Hotel’s poolside were signature events for teenagers and adults alike. Their party music drew from all genres- from jazz, ballads, rhythm and blues and soul to calypso, Reggae and rock. Then, the group consisted of Funky Brown, Douglas Guthrie (sax), Ian and Roger Lewis, Carrot Jarret, Ibo Cooper, Cat Coore and Carl Barovier (drums).

In 1973, Prilly, Cat and Ibo left Inner Circle to become the nucleus of the Third World Band, with Darren Green as their road/business manager. Prilly possessed a particularly distinct ballad sound, which he brought to Third World, and this has been maintained in the band since. The tracks Sette Messegana, Slavery Days and Sun Won’t Shine, from Third World’s self titled debut album released in 1976, on which he sang lead, exemplify this point well.

While not much was heard from Prilly in the interim years, he has consistently displayed a very principled, progressive, even circumspect image coupled with a great respect for his talent. He scored a major hit in late 1990 with the single Missing You which lasted until 1991. In 1995, V Records released his debut solo album, Heaven Sent, which included Missing You, as well as the other charting singles Night Doctor, Too Many Hearts and a version of Color Me Badd’s I Wanna Sex You Up.

Although it has been too long in coming, Prilly’s second solo project U is on the horizon. Evidently the result of years of creative work, this cd album is now. Commendable is the fact that the work has a broad (age demographic) appeal, which Prilly himself states in the liner notes is credited to his son and collaborator Kimani Hamilton aka He-Brue whose “youthful flavour…gave this project the right energy and sound”.

Possessing a new wave ballad format, the album features Sly Dunbar creating and setting the mood and groove for all the songs. The constant Reggae beat is buoyed by the excellently arranged melodies of Robbie Lyn and Mikey Chong, and evenly inspired by a crossover of soul and hip hop stylings. All of the fourteen songs feature Prilly’s smooth vocals, with six of these complimented by Kimani’s rap verses. Kimani stands out especially on track # 6, a cover of Stevie Wonder’s Living For The City. His lyrics and interpretations on this song are brilliant, ratcheting it up a couple of notches.

“…Living in the belly of the beast, you better believe, Is like living in the Tale Of The Crypt, right, Fright Night is the place where the bills bite, Where people hustle and struggle in the street fight, Bloody city ain’t looking pretty to squeeze tight, Nitty gritty ain’t no pity in paradise…”

Songwriting credit is given to Prilly for 12 of the 14 songs, with assistance from Kimani, Earl Grant, Robert Sutherland, Carl James and William Stewart. Little G (track # 4) is a beautiful ballad.

“…Go away little girl, Please don’t stay little girl, You’re not supposed to be along with me. Run along little girl, sing a song little girl, Someday you’ll be a woman just wait and see. Learn your ABC and your 1,2,3, Little Girl you should be in school. Learn to read and write, Learn what’s right from wrong, Don’t grow up to be nobody’s fool...”

U (track # 5), fittingly the title of the album, is a ballad that has a very easy sing-along chorus, and is arranged by Mikey Chong.

“…You are my everything, You turn my grey skies blue, All I want is you, You brighten up my smile, You’re my guiding light, You are the joy within my tear, Always want you near, All I want is you…”

It has seemingly familiar strains of Luther Vandross’ hit, Dance With My Father (Again). Despite this, along with Little G, these two tracks have the greatest mass appeal and stand the best chance of charting. All In This Thing Together, written by Gamble and Huff and made popular by the O’Jays, is the only other cover on this album and is done in collaboration with Innocent Crew. Sly Dunbar’s distinctive drum programming and arrangements stand out, as does Mikey Chong on guitar, Paul Henton and especially Robbie Lyn on piano/synthesizer, bass.

Given Prilly’s professional background in printing (Gentle Printery), it is not surprising that the presentation of this cd album is superior to many of the current products, even those being put out on the market by large distributing companies. There are however, two glaring omissions in the liner notes worth mentioning - as clip on Prilly’s career achievements and due credit to the music arrangers.

© 2005 Charles H.E. Campbell.