It’s 1980 and Island Records impresario Chris Blackwell has assembled a crew of heavy hitters in the Bahamas in a bid to help relaunch Grace Jones’ career. Eventually known as the Compass Point All Stars, the band included French keyboadist Wally Badarou in their ranks.

Badarou had made his bones playing with artists as diverse as South Africa’s Miriam Makeba and Robin Scott aka M, who wrote the synth hit “Pop Muzik.” Now he was in Nassau helping to turn Flash and The Pan’s leftfield pop track “Walking In The Rain” into something that might work on the dancefloor. On top of the unshakeable groove laid down by drummer Sly Dunbar and his bassist Robbie Shakespeare, Badarou put down his simulation of a slithering sax solo via his Minimoog.

“Chris Blackwell thought it was a real sax going through some electronic effects. Given that I never considered myself a Minimoog expert really, it was kind of flattering that I could bluff some expert ears with it.”

Badarou achieved a sound that was not only modern enough to slot into the New Wave vibe Blackwell was reaching for, but that also had elegant, almost-jazz like flourishes to it. And he maintains that he was able to pull it off without relying on any studio trickery.

“(There were) no special effect (used) as far as I can recall. Just (some) ADSR carefully tailored to my fingering, added to Alex Sadkin’s genius at EQ-ing, if anything.”

The album made Grace Jones something of a phenomenon. She was suddenly embraced as a capital A artist – a Top 40 success who became a point of endless fascination to those who danced to her music deep inside clubland.