Beggar & Co and The Original Light Of The World

Bio:

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KENNY WELLINGTON, DAVID BAPTISTE, BREEZE McKRIETH, PETER HINDS, JEAN PAUL 'BLUEY' MAUNICK AND OTHER FOUNDER MEMBERS OF LIGHT OF THE WORLD CURRENTLY APPEAR UNDER THE NAME BEGGAR & CO FEATURING THE FUNK JAZZ COLLECTIVE. RECENT RECORDINGS INCLUDE THE RELEASE BY EMI OF THE CLASSIC ALBUM 'ROUNDTRIP' FOR THE FIRST TIME ON CD INCLUDING 10 ADDITIONAL TRACKS FROM BEGGAR & CO AND THE COLLECTIVE, WITH SLEEVENOTES FROM KENNY WELLINGTON, AS WELL AS THE KENNY WELLINGTON SOLO CD 'KIND OF BLACK', AN IN PROGRESS SOLO CD FROM SAXOPHONIST/FLAUTIST DAVID BAPTISTE AND A NEW CD FOR THIS PROJECT CALLED 'BRASS, STRINGS N' THINGS'.AS WELL AS A NEW STUDIO ALBUM WRITTEN BY KENNY WELLINGTON, BREEZE McKRIETH, DAVID BAPTISTE, JEAN PAUL MAUNICK, PETER HINDS AND OTHER MUSICIANS PLAYING WITH THE COLLECTIVE, INCLUDIND CAMELLE HINDS, TOBY BAKER,FAYYAZ VIRJI, KEVIN ROBINSON, BILLY OSBORNE AND ORPHY ROBINSON.
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PAUL WILLIAMS TRIBUTE: © David Toney 2007 © Yonni Wilson 2007
LIGHT OF THE WORLD FOUNDER MEMBERS (THE ORIGINAL BAND) AND BEGGAR & CO BIOGRAPHY.

The 1999 recording from Light Of The World, 'Inner Voices' proved the band were ready for the dawn of the 21st century. Founder members of LOTW McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste returned to compose some material, add their arrangements and produce a real follow up many years later to the 'Round Trip' album of many years earlier, and signed a recording agreement with Sanctuary Music. This being the first time that so many key members turned up for the recording of the songs. Only one invited member failed to show due to prior commitments.The production of the album was by Richard Bull and Kenny Wellington. This contractual agreement and reunion on record was brought about by Kenny Wellington after being approached by music business impressario Junior Hart during a tour of Japan along with David Baptiste whilst working with M Beat who had had recent success working on record with these guys and the mighty Jamiroquai as well other chart singles.

Light Of The World began in 1974 when Breeze McKrieth approached Kenny Wellington at the famous Crackers afternoon funk session in Wardour Street, London about joining him with some friends for a rehearsal with some other young musicians including Paul 'Tubbs' Williams and David Baptiste, at Ickburgh Road, Clapton. Kenny agreed to come along and this band became Light Of The World, inspired by the classic Kool And The Gang album Light Of Worlds.

At that time, a really great way to spend a Saturday afternoon was standing around in Contempo Record Shop in Hanway Street , West London where you could hear the guys in the shop spinning the latest imports from the USA, people like Geoff Brown who also wrote great articles for Blues & Soul magazine which was housed in the same block and was connected to the shop. Kool And The Gang and The Kay Gees were a big influence on the early sound and concept behind Light Of The World with recordings like 'Swingin' and 'Midnight Groovin' being written when the band were excited by the discovery of The Kay Gees and dreamed that Kool And The Gang might come to these shores and take LOTW under their tutelage in the same way.

Light Of The World dreamed that their music would be played at Lacey Lady, Hunters, Crackers and Waterloo Birds Nest, the clubs many of them had frequented around these times. Often pretending they were eighteen years old to gain entry. Now they had a chance to record their own music.These songs were written by the core band members although Kenny Wellington does not appear on the credits on this album as a writer because of a previous contract with music publisher Carlin which had to be sorted out. Light Of The World original line up were: Breeze McKrieth Guitar
Kenny Wellington Trumpet
David Baptiste Saxophone
Paul Williams Bass
Norman Walker Percussion
Roger Thomas Saxophone
Junior King Drums
Earl Appleton Keyboards
Jean Paul Maunick Guitar
Everton McCalla Drums

After playing many shows in London and the home counties, arranged by then manager Brent Clarke who had spotted some potential in the band , some of the guys became dissillusioned and quit the band, with Earl Appleton leaving the UK to head for New York. Norman Walker concentrated on using his brilliant choreographic skills and went on to tour with many major artists. Junior King decided to concentrate on his martial arts, and Roger Thomas a very advanced saxophonist even at that early stage of raw development left for the world of computer technology where he has done very well. However, fortune was around the corner when Kenny Wellington was asked to attend a rehearsal in North West London by saxophonist Earl Okai and a band he was working with. Impressed by the keyboard player Peter Hinds and percussionist Chris Etienne, Kenny asked them to join Light Of The World.

With this line up in place the band were offered management by record shop owner and entrepreneur Joe Williams. This was accepted and the band began rehearsing in North London on top of Joe's record shop. A regular customer at the shop and also a friend of Joe was guitarist Jean Paul Maunick aka Bluey who was also invited to join the band. By this time Everton McCalla had also become the drummer for the band. The band decided it was time to record some music. >

NEW ALBUM 'BRASS, STRINGS N' THINGS' NOW AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Ensign records heard this music being played in clubs by DJs like Tom Holland at Lacy Lady and offered the band a deal with the company which was run by Nigel Grainge and reknown DJ Chris Hill.

The first album did reasonably well yielding some dance floor hits like 'Swingin', 'Midnight Groovin' and 'Who Are You'. Although still quite raw these tracks began to get the band noticed. However, the band were then involved in a tragic accident returning from some shows in Scotland at the end of their first national tour. The vehicle some of the band members were travelling in was struck by an articulated lorry.The band resident comedian and percussionist Chris Etienne died as a result of this tragic accident. Other members suffered differing scales of injury and were pulled from the wreckage by McKrieth and Baptiste who miraculously had escaped injury.

After mourning the loss of their dear friend and brother, the much loved Chris Etienne, the band decided to carry on. A new percussionist Ganiyu Bello, joined the band along with Nat Augustin a local guitar player who it later turned out had played trombone in The Boys Brigade, which really excited Wellington and Baptiste who had been looking for such an addition for a while. The first album was also dedicated to their friend and brother Chris Etienne.

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For the second album Augie Johnson of Side Effect was brought in as producer with Breeze, the original founding member of LOTW, credited as executive producer for his great contribution in the studio. The band also now had the opportunity to augment their music with some of the finest musicians in the world. People like Wayne Henderson, the great vibraphonist Victor Feldman and Bobby Lyle guested on the album with the fine vocals also of Micki Howard. Jorge Dalto also provided some brilliant string arrangements on the McKrieth penned 'I'm So Happy' a tribute song to the wisdom and words of Martin Luther King, I'ts melancholy melody creating an enchanting contrast with the positive lyrics. The arrangements of Kenny Wellington and David Baptiste were now greatly enhanced by the addition of some of the finest players in the business.

NOW AVIALABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE TWO GREAT CD’S
..NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON CD ON EMI RECORDS COMPRISING 17 TRACKS CLICK HERE
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AVAILABLE NOW BEGGAR & CO FEATURING THE FUNK JAZZ COLLECTIVE BRASS, STRINGS N' THINGS
.. .. .. .. This incidentally and with the greatest of respect had proved to be a bit of a surprise to The Players Association as LOTW had brought the house down. Beggar & Co were also heavily featured on the Spandau Ballet album Diamonds particularly on the track Chant No 1 which reached No 2 in the national charts and again brought a lot of public acclaim and publicity.

This was another great experience, Spandau Ballet producer Richard Burgess was a member of the jazz rock group Landscape and had written some great arrangements for the horn section which also allowed scope for contribution. Bluey, Paul Williams and Peter Hinds recorded the classic Jazz Funk album under the name of Incognito which Bluey would take around the world and record many classic recordings to this present date.

After a much acclaimed concert LOTW decided that it was financially very difficult to continue as an eight piece band with the contract that they had earlier signed and split into the three units. McKrieth Wellington and Baptiste agreed that the newer members could continue to use the LOTW name to ensure that they could secure a recording deal as a duo. Beggar & Co had to secure their release from the original contract and initially embarked on this through the courts. The success of Beggar & Co was also quite ironic, since it kind of heralded the band stripping back down to the original roots without the augmentation of Augie Johnson's brilliant all star cast and scoring their biggest selling records to date. The commercial success of Beggar & Co and the massive Incognito had somehow always eluded Light Of The World, but the timeless value of the Round Trip album would sustain the band for years to come.The dispute with the record company was eventually settled amicably and allowed the band the band to maintain their previous good relationship and goodwill with Ensign Records.

LOTW released 'Check Us Out' on EMI before the remaining duo decided to make some solo recordings,with Ganiyu recording a solo album. Nat signed a deal with A & M and did some work in the States with Dexter Wansell before eventually releasing a cover version of 'Too Busy Thinkin' Bout My Baby', before joining the group Imagination and recording the album 'Fascination Of The Physical' with Leee John. Wellington, Baptiste and McKrieth had released a Beggar & Co album which contained a variety of different ideas, some of which worked well. The album contained two hit singles and some jazzier tunes like 'Bahia De Palma'.

In 1985 Ensign asked Wellington and McKrieth to work on remixes of 'Time' and 'London Town'. This they did adding the vocals of Phil Fearon and Galaxy to a revised version of London Town. Once again Light Of The World got back together for some promotional work and tv shows like &..39;Soul Train'.

Ganiyu then formed a new group known as The Team which recorded a cover of 'Wicky Wacky' and a version of 'Rock Creek Park&..39;. Following this, Nat was invited to join Kenny Wellington and Breeze McKrieth in the studio where they were working with Soul II Soul keyboard player/producer Simon Law. This resulted in the recording and release on Chrysalis of 'Keep The Dream Alive'. Kenny Wellington had met Simon Law earlier when doing some work as a session musician.

The next Light Of The World collaboration was a song called'One Destination' for Cooltempo Records. This was a really small configuration of LOTW with the deal being signed by Kenny Wellington and Ganiyu with Jean Paul Maunick as producer. This was short lived however as Incognito signed with Talking Loud and Gilles Peterson scoring a massive hit with 'Always There' meaning Bluey obviously had to focus his energy there.

After some intermittent appearances at clubs around the southern counties things had ground to a halt until Kenny Wellington was approached about recording an album with the band by record label owner Junior Hart after Kenny and David Baptiste had toured Japan with some of his artists. This resulted in what is presently the last album of new material by the band to date

'Inner Voices' probably represents the closest thing to the natural development of the founder members of the band McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste and the original ideals that they first had way back in Ickburgh Road, Clapton, with the possible exceptions of 'No 1 Girl' and 'Famous Faces' from the 'Check Us Out' album. Songs like 'City Life' and 'I Like' being the updated versions of classics like 'London Town' and 'Pete's Crusade' and the excellent 'Bahia' and 'Back 2 Back' highlighting the influence of bands like Spyro Gyra and early Kool And The Gang. Bass player Frank Felix who had been playing live with the band was also invited to join the band for this project and finally appear on record with the band after his fine contribution in place of the outstanding bassist Paul Williams. Nat who had joined the group Imagination was also invited to contribute to this album as both trombonist and featured vocalist. Kenny and Breeze had written some songs with this is mind and Nat put in a great performance. This album kickstarted the band in terms of resuming live appearances.

Since then Light Of The World and Beggar & Co have appeared with various line ups in the studio to this present day. The last studio album featuring original members McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste was the excellent 'Inner Voices' released in 1999 with 12 new and original compostions including the popular 'Bahia' and 'I Like'.

EMI have also released 'Addicted To Funk' an anthology album which charts the band ( no tracks unfortunately from the 'Inner Voices album' as EMI do not own this part of the catalogue). There are of course the major commercial contributions of Beggar & Co and Incognito as well as some work by The Team and some other more rare and by definition scarce material.

The most successful of the LOTW splinter groups is undoubtably Bluey's band Incognito, having continued to make great albums consistantly for many years and highlighting some major musicians and vocalists from many different parts of the world.

Currently Beggar & Co have released a cd with THE FUNK JAZZ COLLECTIVE a great new project involving original LOTW personnel, Wellington, Hinds, McKrieth, Baptiste and Maunick plus Kevin Robinson, trumpet, Fayyaz Virji trombone, Orphy Robinson vibes, Noel McKoy vocals, Camelle Hinds bass and Billy Osborne on drums. The CD is entitled BRASS STRINGS N' THINGS.

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Member Since:

June 08, 2006

Members:

BEGGAR & CO AND THE ORIGINAL LIGHT OF THE WORLD BAND MEMBERS

DINGWALLS 09/04/07 PAUL WILLIAMS TRIBUTE COPYRIGHT PAOLA LEONARDI 2007 COPYRIGHT DENISE POWELL 2007

THE COMPLETE JAZZ CAFE LINE UP FOR 'LIVE AT THE JAZZ CAFE CD'

DOWNLOAD BRASS, STRINGS N' THINGS FROM i tunes
THE ORIGINAL LIGHT OF THE WORLD
Breeze McKrieth/guitar/vocals
Kenny Wellingtontrumpet/flugel/vocals
David Baptiste/saxophone/flute/vocals
Paul Williams/bass/vocals
Chris Etienne/percussion/vocals
Jean Paul Maunick/guitar/vocals
Peter Hinds/keyboards
Everton McCalla/drums
Currently working on FJC project with band members
Fayyaz Virji/trombone
Kevin Robinson/trumpet
Orphy Robinson/vibraphone
Toby Baker/keyboards
Camelle Hinds/bass
OTHER MEMBERS: (Nathaniel /trombone,Gee /percussion/vocals) (Junior King/drums, Earl Appleton/keyboards, Norman Walker percussion/vocals, Bunny/percussion, Roger Thomas/saxophone/vocals, were all members as teenagers but never recorded with the band, each member contributed much in the early days).
PRODUCERS: 'Light Of The World' Vinnie Castellano
'ROUND TRIP' Augie Johnson and Breeze McKrieth
'INNER VOICES' Richard Bull AND Kenny Wellington
'CHECK US OUT' Nigel Martinez
PAUL WILLIAMS TRIBUTE CONCERT 09/04/07

Influences:

Kool And The Gang. The Kay Gees, Brass Construction, The Blackbyrds, The Kay Gees, Mass Production, Slave, Pleasure, Atlantic Starr, The Crusaders, Earth Wind & Fire, Ronny Laws, Willie Bobo, Grover Washington, War, The Fatback Band, BT Express, Dexter Wansell, The Average White Band, War, The Players Association, BT Express, Paulinho Da Costa, Leroy Hutson, The LA Boppers, Leroy Hutson, Side Effect, James Brown, Aquarian Dream, The Ohio Players, Pleasure, Incognito, MFSB, Crown Heights Affair, The JBs, The Brecker Brothers, The Brothers Johnson

Sounds Like:

Influenced by many great bands such as Brass Construction, The Kay Gees, Kool & The Gang, EWF, Incognito,Cameo, Charles Earland, Lonnie Liston Smith, Leroy Hutson and many more.

Record Label:

EMI, Ensign, Phonogram, Chrysalis, Sanctuary