L-R, King Keith, The Duchess, Señor Bambu
Bambu Hut is a recent addition to Riddim1 Radio’s line up. The show comes out of Sydney, Australia where it’s been heard for 5 years on a community station, Eastside FM. Bambu Hut combines the interests and experiences of its three selectors.
The Duchess (Amma Owusu) is the only Australian-born member of the crew though she has a deep connection to Jamaica and Jamaican music through her Mum who is from the island. She has a particular link with the soulful simplicity of rocksteady and digs deep to find the sweetest examples of the genre. Her Dad is Ghanaian, so she brings an added family appreciation and understanding of genres like highlife and Afrobeat, both of which she frequently blends into Bambu Hut mixes. A corporate lawyer by profession, The Duchess, is a passionate fanatic for music and a rising star in the Sydney DJ scene as well as being the co-ordinating producer/presenter for the show. In April 2020, The Duchess was featured in Trojan records Young, Gifted and Black 50th-anniversary tribute to the Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths tune.
King Keith (Keith Williams) was born and raised in Kingston during the glory days of original sound system culture in the late 1950s and early 60s. He has the sounds of U.S. R&B, Jamaican jazz, shuffle and R&B, and his beloved ska deep within his bones. Keith is a devotee of the music of The Skatalites and always starts Bambu Hut with a track from the show’s ‘house band’. Indeed, a Bambu Hut show rarely runs without a full range of mento, ska, rocksteady, and golden period reggae, though King Keith loves to mix in wicked selections of classic American R&B and soul. A rich life story, including years in the U.K., spent working on his father’s sound system and also at the BBC makes King Keith a great musical storyteller and the heart and soul of the Hut.
Señor Bambú (Brent Clough) hails from Aotearoa/New Zealand and has been a life-long music collector and selector with a deep love for Jamaican music, especially roots reggae. Meeting and interviewing Bob Marley in 1979 and several years spent in London in the early 1980s set his life course. Bambú is a co-founder of Sydney’s first dancehall sound system crew, Nasty Tek and has worked for both community radio and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) for more than 30 years making music and arts programmes. He has a scholarly interest in reggae from the South Pacific and did his research work in the island nation of Vanuatu, the ‘Little Jamaica’ of Oceania. Señor Bambú is a vinyl obsessive and never stops hunting for musical treasures, old and new, from all over the world.
Together, the Bambu Hut selectors offer a weekly musical banquet with classic Jamaican ingredients and extra spices from the global diaspora. You are most welcome to drop by the Hut at 6pm Tuesday Jamaican time on Riddim 1 Radio and tuck into their Australian-prepared feast!
Riddim1 Radio broadcast from the heart of downtown Kingston in Jamaica and is part of the Riddim Force Media Group, which Riddimstyle Magazine. The digital media group is the brainchild of media executive and ethnomusicologist, Dennis Howard. He is the former general manager Radio Services, RJRGLEANER Communication Group and was responsible for the restructuring and repositioning of the five radio stations in the group.