Beggar and Co

Beggar and Co (also written Beggar & Co) are a British pop/jazz-funk group, composed of core members Kenny Wellington, David Baptiste, Neville 'Breeze' McKrieth and other guest musicians, specialising in jazz, funk and dance music. Baptiste, Wellington and McKrieth were the founder members of the group, Light Of The World, who were originally formed to play jazz funk and dance music, but also enjoyed some success in the UK Albums Chart with their Round Trip album. As members of Light of the World they enjoyed some chart success when the singles, including "London Town", "I Shot the Sheriff" and "Time" all entered the UK Single Chart.^[1] Each of these songs were featured on various compilation albums.

At this juncture various members began to record in offshoot bands, the most popular being Incognito led by Jean Paul Maunick. Gee Bello formed a short lived group, The Team, and recorded a dance floor hit "Wicky Wacky/House Party", originally recorded by The Fatback Band and Fred Wesley respectively. Wellington, Baptiste and McKrieth formed Beggar and Co and experienced chart success, outselling the previous biggest Light of the World hit "Time", which they had also written.^[2]

Beggar and Co's first single was "(Somebody) Help Me Out", which entered the chart on 7 February 1981. It reached number 13 and was in the chart for ten weeks. The second was called "Mule (Chant No.2)", which entered the UK Singles Chart on 12 September 1981, and reached 37, remaining in the chart for five weeks.^[3]

Beggar and Co was also the featured brass section on a number of chart records for other artists, including Spandau Ballet's hit single, "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)". Other artists included Ultravox, Wham!, George Michael, Gabrielle and Billy Ocean.

The horn section, Wellington, Baptiste and Nat Augustin, have made many appearances with artists from both the UK and the US including Tom Browne, Jean Carne and The Jones Girls.

In 2007, the band released a live recording from The Jazz Cafe, Brass, Strings N' Things.^[4] This was the first release in many years and was followed in May 2011 by a new studio recording The Legacy on MBJ Records. Current members of the band alongside the original members are Billy Osborne (drums), Otto Williams (bass), Camelle Hinds (bass), Harry Brown (trombone), Toby Baker (keyboards), Peter Hinds (keyboards), Robert 'Skins' Anderson (percussion), Noel McKoy (vocals) and Orphy Robinson (vibraphone). Both Wellington and Baptiste have also released solo recordings. Wellington and Richard Bull also produced the Light of the World album, Inner Voices, that included the popular songs "Blue Sky Day" and "Bahia".^[5]

In 2012, Beggar & Co released the album Sleeping Giants, which reached No.19 in the Amazon Classic R&B chart in the United States.

Discography

• "(Somebody) Help Me Out" (Ensign Records 1981) by Beggar and Co - UK No. 15
• "Mule Chant No.2" (RCA 1981) by Beggar and Co - UK No. 27
• "Keep The Dream Alive" (1990)
• "Expansions" (Ensign 1992)
• "Got To Get Your Own" (Ensign 1992)
• "City Life" (Sanctuary 1999)
• "Slow Down" (Sanctuary 1999)^[1]

References

External links

• Beggar and Co website