[1] The islands are also home to gombey dancers, reggae, gospel music, drum majorette bands, jazz and other styles.
Bermuda is home to several folk traditions, including pipe bands, the gombey dance and a ballad song.
They perform in groups of 10-30[2] in wild masquerade costumes with brilliant colors and odd angles, meant to evoke the plumage of tropical birds; they are sometimes based on Bible verses.
[3] The most famous Bermudan balladeer is Hubert Smith, a popular local composer who performed for many visiting royalty and foreign heads of state.
The Talbot Brothers were the island's first major calypsonians; they organized as a group in 1942, and began touring the United States by the early 1950s.
Luboff de-emphasized the saucy, ribald side of calypso and created a popular form that appealed to the masses.
[6] A detailed history of Bermuda calypso and gombey written by Bruno Blum can be read in the CD booklet (available online in both French and English).
[7] Artists include Sidney Bean, The Talbot Brothers, Reuben McCoy, Hubert Smith, The Four Deuces, Al Harris, Erskine Zuill and jazzman Lance Hayward, the first musician ever produced by Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records.
Bermuda's most famous rock group was The Savages, a garage band that are considered important in the genre, especially by collectors, and foreshadowed 1970s punk.
Bermuda has also produced notable classical musicians in Marcelle Clamens, an opera singer, mezzo-soprano Jane Farge, pianists Peter Carpenter and Karol Sue Reddington, and Joyce Mary Helen DeShield.