Charlie Adamso's music speaks volumes in terms of the traditional goombay sound. In soughting through the music of the various goombay artist. Adamson's style stands alone in his dilivery of a smooth and mellow island sound. The songs thet Adamson sing usually present a more interestng harmonic progression with the use of secondary domonants, relative minor keys, and the use of interesting and new melodic shapes. I believe that this could be attributedint part to the influence of Spanish music hat could be heard over the airwaves during his time. Although his orchestration was not very dense, simple guitar, maracas, clave, and bass fill every rhythmical hole in his music. The recording artist in the early days were recording a lot of the same songs, therefore it is very difficult in some cases to accurately state the composers of some of these tunes. Some songs found their way from other parts of the Caribbean and West Indies, others, unless attributed tothe few known composers like Charles Lofthouse or Alice Simms (a native New Yorker) remain anonymous. Listening closely to Adamson's arrangments, the thumping sound of the palm on the body the guitar can be heard. This style is said to have been popular with guitarist from Spain when performing their traditional dance music. This technique acts almost like a bass drum in keeping a good and pulsating beat beneath the harmonic and melodic texture above.

Below, enjoy the minor progression of our goombay master with the use of secondary dominants in a tasteful blebd. The lyrics reflects things that were common occurances that made his songs easy to relate to. The song "Bangalee" talks about infidelity of his lover. The craftiness in the rhyming scheme dilivers the message very effictively. The choice of words is appeared to be well thought out. Adamson in addition to the use of the Spanish influence in his playing technique, clave, and supporting rhythms, improvises in the background on his guitar throughout the song. This shadow behind his voice along with the anticiption of of the chords into the next measure creates melodic interest and additional movement leading the harmony through the chord progression. Adamson, a great goombay/calypso artist.

This song is constructed in three sections - (Form ABC)

1) the repeated introduction which shares the same progression as the chorus, chords IV- to I- to V7 and then back to I-
2) the repeated verse, which progresses from chord I to chord V
3) a series of II-V progressions which brings the music back to to the minor tonality

Click play to hear "Bangalee"

"Bangalee" also makes use of the 3/2 clave as opposed to the 2/3 clave on "Let Me Marry You".

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This next song "Let Me Marry You" also ventures into the use of subdominants although set in a major tonality. Adamson continues to demonstrate his knowledge of interesting but basic chord progressions to make his songs melodically more interesting. Aditionally the ad lib flavor of the guitar contributes to the forward motion of the song, occasionally leading with bass-like motions into the next chord. A lot of music for a small combo.

Click play to hear "Let Me Marry You"