Michael Boothman -

Michael Boothman is an American guitarist and producer who released the 1977 album Heaven on Tabu Records.

Background

Michael Boothman was born in 1949 in Trinidad and Tobago. His father, accountant Oliver Boothman, managed bands led by Michael, including Rockerfellas and Family Tree. His mother, Marjorie Holder Boothman, was a sister of dancer-actor Geoffrey Holder and painter Boscoe Holder.

Boothman attended Tranquillity Government School in Port of Spain, where he sang in the choir and studied piano and cello. In 1960, bandleader Joey Lewis persuaded Oliver Boothman to buy Michael an electric guitar after hearing him play Lewis’s arrangement of “The Peanut Vendor.” At age twelve, Boothman took responsibility for compositions and arrangements in local combo settings. Music teacher Scofield Pilgrim invited him into Queen’s Royal College Jazz Ensemble in 1964, where Boothman encountered Shango Baptist rhythms through the QRC jazz program.

Boothman formed Rockerfellas in 1964 and led the combo at galas and fetes. The group made an initial record around 1965 with “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” b/w “Pussy Cat” on National, then cut RCA singles and the 1968 Tropico album Music for the Young. Boothman reshaped Rockerfellas as Family Tree in 1970 with keyboardist David Boothman, bassist Wayne “Barney” Bonaparte, drummer Dennis Thomas, African drummer Earl “Biter” Edwards, percussionist Allan Nightingale, and steelpan player Rawle Mitchell.

Family Tree won Trinidad and Tobago’s 10th Anniversary Independence Music Festival in 1972 with David Boothman’s “So Dey Say” and an arrangement of Mighty Terror’s “Pan Talent.” The group recorded “Tabu” and “So Dey Say” that year, with flutist André Tanker on “Tabu.” Family Tree toured with Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theatre Workshop after the festival. The group also played fundraising concerts for Phase II Steel Orchestra.

In 1974, Boothman joined KH Studios in Port of Spain as a music consultant and session musician. Boothman doubled the bass figure on Shadow’s 1974 Road March “Bass Man” with electric guitar. In 1975, he issued “Diego Shuffle” b/w “Saying It With Music” as Mike Boothman Sounds on Kala Loo. U.S. executive Clarence Avant heard a Boothman single aboard a cruise ship docked at Port of Spain and traveled to Trinidad to pursue a songwriter agreement. Avant signed Boothman to Tabu Records and brought him to the United States for sessions with keyboardist Leon Pendarvis, percussionist Errol “Crusher” Bennett, and trumpeter Jon Faddis for Heaven.

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