What is Goombay Music?

Goombay music being played at the Barracks during Christmas of 1857 in the Bahamas

Goombay Music was music played on the Goat skin drum with Afro Bahamian traditional drumming Rhythms. This tradition was mentioned in The land of the pink pearl, written by L.D Powles and published in 1888.

"The music consisted of two drums that would not work unless frequently warmed at the fire. The company clapped their hands without ceasing all through the dance, chanting all the while in a sort of dreary monotone, " Oh kindoiah! kindoiah! Mary, 
come along!" Quote from L.D Powles, The land of the pink pearl 1888.

This quote mentions the Goombay Drums /Goat Skin Drums:
 "two drums that would not work unless frequently warmed at the fire". 

This method is still used by Bahamians to tune the Goombay drums today:

In 1930, Zora Neale Hurston's  “Dance Songs and Tales from the Bahamas,”  was published by the Journal of American Folk-Lore. It mentioned the same custom as Powles, however the difference is that she transcribed that one of the Bahamian Drummers shouted out Gimbay!! 

 "The drummer usually takes his place near the fire. The drum is held over the blaze until the skin tightens to the right tone. There is a flourish signifying that the drummer is all set. The players begin to clap with their hands. The drummer cried, “Gimbay” (a corruption of the African word gumbay, a large drum) and begins the song . . . One player is inside the ring. He or she does his preliminary flourish, which comes on the first line of the song, does his dance on the second line, and chooses his successor on the third line and takes his place in the circle. The chosen dancer takes his place and the dance goes on until the drum gets cold."

In Hurston's "Dance Song and Tales from the Bahamas" she mentions the song Bimini Gal among others being performed during this music session. 

In 1935 Alan Lomax recorded many of the songs being performed in The Bahamas. He recorded a good amount of the songs performed in the style that Hurston and Powles described.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/deep-river-of-song-bahamas-1935-vol-2-ring-games-and-round-dances-mw0000220061

The first album for a Bahamian artist was released in 1951 by Blind Blake Alphonso Higgs, which featured his goombay songs, Pretty Boy and Pigeon among others. 
In these recordings in 1951, notice the usage of the Claves and the The Rhythm of the Maracas, that are the same sounds played on the Hand saw in Rake and Scrape. Also these songs aren't sung like any Calypso song but are more related to the fast up tempo Goombay Rhythms Lomax recorded in 1935. There are no Claves being used in Trinidadian Calypso nor Jamaican Mento music in or before 1951 in the recordings.

Pretty Boy

Pigeon

For example you can compare the 3 versions of the song Gin and Coconut water, which is recorded as Rum and Coconut water in Mento. 

Trinidad Calypso, 1946 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZVLrbUb55E

Bahamian Goombay, 1952
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMDy6zLnvUs

Jamaican Mento, 1953
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQcQ1rd60k

Notice also only the Goombay version of the song is using the Claves, which you will hear in later Mento songs.

Many Bahamian Musicians have used the Traditional Drumming Rhythms or the Rhythm of the Hand saw and Maracas or Cow bells in their songs.

Calypso Mama "Ask me why I run" uses a traditional Bahamian beat on the Goombay Drums fused with Jazz style playing on what sounds like a Saxophone. Her singing style in this song still fall in line with the Goombay Style. The song came out in 1957.

She also released another song called "Run Joe" on the same 1957 album. This song also features  a Bahamian style drum Rhythm on the Goombay Drum along with the Saxophone, Sung in the Goombay Style. The way she sings the song is based on the imitation of a traditional Bahamian Goombay Rhythm.

I want to share a 1935 statement by Alan Lomax on what he called Bahaman Folk Music:

Some of the songs recorded in the 50's in Goombay style are clearly a merger between Jazz sounds and Bahamian Folk sounds, This can be found in songs performed by George Symonette like Sponger money and Goombay.

"Goombay" copyrighted in 1949 by a white Bahamian by the name of Charles Lofthouse and lyrics by Alice Simms an American. The song features Afro Bahamian Goombay drumming fused with a Jazz style. The lyrics of the song is talking about the same thing that Powles and Hurston wrote about in 1888 and 1930 respectively.

Note however even though they copyrighted the song, that isn't proof that they were the originators of the song, as Charles Lofthouse also copyrighted Peas n Rice and Coconut oil in 1931 but the song was known from the period of World War 1. What was copyrighted in 1931 was probably his own version  of the traditional Afro Bahamian song and music. According to Franklyn G. Ferguson, in his book Through the Eye. The song Peas n Rice and Coconut Oil was written by an Afro Bahamian by the name of Bert Cambridge.

Charlie Adamson released an Album titled Charlie Adamson sings Goombay in 1957 but he performed most of his songs in the Calypso style. In the 60's most Bahamian album songs are being performed in the Calypso style, but Goombay style was still being performed in the Night Clubs and Hotels. Peanuts Taylor however continued on the Traditional Jazz fused with Bahamian Rhythms(Goombay).

In 1970 Exuma released a song called the Obeah Man. This song was released under the Rock Genre in the style of Folk Rock. However the song is not rock nor Folk Rock. It is actually Goombay being sung in a improvised Blues style. The improvisation is based on the traditional Bahamian Rhythm that alters the typical blues singing style to create something different in feel and sound.  The use of a traditional Drumming rhythm with the cowbell, and the Handsaw, the Guitar is being used to complement the Drumming Rhythm. This creates a flowing blend of the Traditional Drumming Rhythm with the two Instruments. Some would say it is Junkanoo but Junkanoo music comes from Goombay itself. The Junkanoo's were the masqueraders. Some of these Masqueraders also played the Goombay drums and they used them during the Junkanoo celebrations and blended the rhythms with other Instruments like the cowbells and trumpets.

So Exuma's song is a Goombay song and not Rock but it is a different style of Goombay than the Jazz fusion Goombay and the Calypso fusion Goombay from the 30's - 60's.

Now many songs after the Obeah man and before as I have shown feature these Bahamian drumming Rhythms of some kind. Let's fast forward to 2018 to a song by Thin Ice, called Island Culture. This song uses the Goombay Rhythm associated with Junkanoo with the cowbell Rhythm also associated with Junkanoo, fused together to make a Goombay Pop song. There is a term known as Junkanoo Pop but this has not reached the stage of achieving the status of its own Genre.

The song Island Culture is however uniquely Bahamian Pop and is quite different from any other song genres from other countries.

To close, the music in the Junkanoo Parade is an evolution of Goombay. Rake and Scrape is an evolution of Goombay. The records released in the early 50's by Blind Blake and George Symonette and others, that was called Goombay, was itself an evolution of Goombay.

Even if we ignore that Africans were in the Bahamas from since the 17th century, this image of the late 18th century to early 19th century would suffice to show a large presence of Native Born Africans who would of brought their Drumming Traditions with them. This tradition would be passed down continuously since the late 18th century to the present day in The Bahamas.