The best known band currently performing scratch band or Quelbe music is Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights. TSK has been a tradition at Christmas time for about twenty years now.
Their distinct sound comes from the flute of Stanley Jacobs and the voice of Eldred "Edgie" Christian.
TSK has recorded three Christmas albums . The first, Jimmy John, contains rousing versions of Jingle Bells and Mamacita and traditional local Christmas songs. Guava Berry and Moma Bake a Johnny Cake. The two masterworks on this album are Pack Me Guts and Jimmy John.
Pack Me Guts uses the melody of Deck the Halls but the words are about overeating at Christmas time. Jimmy John is the 12 Days of Christmas Crucian style, "9 pound of okro, 8 ball a fungi, 7 pan a sardines…"etc.
The second Christmas album is Don't Stop the Serenade. This CD features a hot version of Feliz Navidad, several traditional songs and two songs written by the Great John L – Christmas in St. Croix and Green Christmas. The title song is about an incident several years ago when TSK was riding around in a truck drinking and serenading at Christmas time. They were arrested for disturbing the peace.
The Christmas 3 album contains TSK versions of traditional Christmas songs both instrumental and vocal. The hit on this CD is Piece of Pork – "I wanna piece of pok for me Christmas…"
TSK also has four non Christmas albums. Pumping includes traditional and original vocal tracks, plus instrumentals of what is known as Quadrille figures. Quadrille dancing is roughly similar to square dancing and instructions are called over the music in the dance.
6 Pak uses 6 of the Ten Sleepless Knights and features 6 instrumental Quadrille songs and six vocals. This album is totally acoustic and is meant to represent the songs in a truly traditional way.
TSK Commemorative was released for the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation of the slaves in the Danish West Indies. This album contains mostly original songs, "Reflections of Emancipation, Past, Present and Future."
TSK X Rated (only available on cassette) is more the type of music you would hear when the guys are entertaining themselves. The songs include, Wash you Drawz, Dog and All, Two Decent Young Ladies.
Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights produce some of the most fun music you will ever hear – but warning, you won't be able to sit down.
For a full range of Caribbean music, check out www.parrotfishmusic.com.
Mr. Fish
