Wendell (Shine) Hayward’s latest Christmas single marries two of his favourite sounds the saxophone and the gombeys.‘Saxy Drummer Boy’ combines the familiar Christmas carol with the beat of the Pickles Spence Gombey Troupe.The gombey track came from music Eddie DeMello recorded many years ago. “I am using that track as my supporting bed as they will pay a royalty to the Spence family,” said Mr HaywardThe inspiration for the CD came at a party at his Reid Street jazz club, Shine’s House of Music and Entertainment.“I believe it was Nicole Jennings’ party and we had about four different DJs there, with each trying to take the party to a whole new level. So near the end of the night one of the DJs proceeded to play the gombey track and people started dancing the gombeys, people went wild.”His father, Alfred Hayward, had a troupe, he said. “And now we have kids that are like three and four years old who are into the Gombeys and it is a part of Bermuda’s cultural heritage.“They were in the Santa Claus parade. There is nothing Christmas about them, but people were just getting off. So while I’m listening, this melody of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ goes through my head and all I hear is drums, and I am humming it while these guys are playing, so that was the inspiration.”He then contacted Just Platinum Studios and made arrangements to record himself playing ‘Little Drummer Boy’ on top of the Spence Gombeys recording.They then added a baseline bed and bells to make it sound like Christmas. “The end product is what we ended up with and we decided to press this out for Christmas,” Mr Hayward said.Artist Robert Bassett had suggested he partner his saxophone playing with the gombeys ages ago, he added. “I had always wanted to do it, but I had never gotten around or found the time to do it. “And there have been times that we [the Gombeys and I] have been at the same function, and I have played along with them, and that would’ve been live, but there has never been a recording.”He went to see Mr Bassett as soon as he finished recording the music and asked him to create a cover for the CD. “He painted the gombeys for years. So the actual cover that is on the CD is a Robert Bassett painting.“So the elements that we have with this one production are Pickles Spence Gombeys, produced by Eddie DeMello, we have myself, the whole package engineered by John Woolridge [of Just Platinum Studios] and the painting by Robert Bassett.”The CD will be launched on Monday night at Shine’s House of Music and Entertainment.