Earshot Boombox

Earshot Boombox
Welcome to Earshot

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Mr Hermano - Free As The Morning Sun

While I was listening to Submotion Orchestra, I was thinking of other bands that reminded me of them. One that immediately came to mind was Mr. Hermano. I decided to look them up to see if they had put out anything new since we last crossed paths. The last time I had heard anything from them was on the 2003 album Free As The Morning Sun on the Mr. Bongo record label.

I found out that they hadn't released anything since then. Then I began to realize that I didn't know anything about the actual group. So I decided to look up who was in the group. That was even hard to find. There was no web page for them. Not even a Wikipedia page.

I did end up finding a page with just a little bit of information. What I learned for me was just as shocking as finding out that nothing really existed for them.

Mr Hermano was a project started by Ben Mitchell and Chris Fitzgerald. I had always assumed that Mr. Hermano was Brazilian based on how the music sounded. Come to find out both these guys are from the UK. And these two are kind of a big deal in the music industry.

Ben Mitchell produces music for TV and films. With a career that spans over 20 years he has produced over 250 singles and 18 albums. He's worked with The BeeGees, Norman Jay, Heaven 17, The Idjut Boys and a bunch more.

Chris Fitzgerald ran Laws Of Motion Records ans was really a big part of the London Jazz scene in the late 90s early 2000s.  He was the male vocalist behind Mr. Hermano.

The rest of the band was like a who's who list of musicians. Joe De Jesus of Incognito, Billie Godfry who tours with Heaven 17 and Lionel Richie, Jeff Walker of The Idjut Boys as well as others.

The point of all this is that Mr. Hermano ceased after Free As The Morning Sun. They did release one album before this one called O Globo in 1999.

The title track from Free As The Morning Sun is beautiful and sounds like you feel when you wake up in a good mood. It is a cover of a Carlos Santana tune from his 1979 album Oneness, released under his Buddhist name Devadip Carlos Santana, on Columbia records.



The rest of the album from Mr. Hermano is just as good. I've not heard O Globo but I imagine it is a treat as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment