Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel, Volume 2 explained

Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel, Volume 2
Type:studio
Artist:Lance Hayward
Cover:File:Lance_Hayward_at_the_Half_Moon_Hotel,_Volume_2.png
Released:1960
Studio:Radio Jamaica and Rediffusion Studios, Kingston
Label:Island Records
CB22
Producer:Chris Blackwell

Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel, Volume 2 is a 1960 studio album by Bermudian jazz pianist Lance Hayward. It is the follow-up to his 1959 debut Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel and is the second-ever album released on Chris Blackwell's Island Records. Whereas the first album had called the pianist "Lance Haywood" incorrectly, on this album he is identified properly.

History

Lance Hayward had performed in Jamaica during the winters of 1957-58 and 1958–59, and during the 1959–60 season was hired to lead the house band at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay.[1] It was likely in late 1959 that Chris Blackwell made his first recording of the group.[2] The second volume of Hayward's recordings for Blackwell was released in 1960. The lineup is the same except for guitarist Norman Astwood, who replaced Frank Rabain. It is unclear when this recording took place. According to the album's liner notes, the selections are "the most requested numbers in the Hayward repertoire, during their winter engagement at Half Moon," which suggests the recording was done in the spring of 1960. "Old Devil Moon" features Jamaican singer Totlyn Jackson, who joined the group for its summer 1960 residency at the New Windsor Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda.

The cover photograph of the band at Sunset Beach, Montego Bay was taken by Horst Ebensberg. The cover design was by Blackwell's cousin Barbara DeLisser, the daughter of the Half Moon Hotel's owner, Harold DeLisser.

Personnel

Notes

  1. Gordon Robinson, "The origin of Island Records," Jamaica Gleaner (21 February 2017), A4.
  2. Chris Blackwell, The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond (New York: Gallery Books, 2022), 29.