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Q: So what was...
A: What I would like to say now, Peter, I'm along with Kalonji (popularly known as Sizzla to one and all), I do four tune with Kalonji right now, and I'm along with Caveman. Q: Oh, so you're recording even now? Good. A: Yeah, I'm in the studio right now, and I'm supposed to be on Caveman today, doing recording for... I do five song up there. I'm doing an LP up there, up there right now. Q: Is this solo or you have a line-up - new or old - of the Jewels behind you? A: With the Jewels, with the Jewels. Q: Who is actually members of the group doing the harmony for you, originally? A: Yeah, originally Jewels now you have Mr. Benjamin Daley, and you have Mr. Lynford Newland, and you have now Mr. Happy Stephenson along with the Jewels right now. But Lynford Newland is not along with the group right now, him is in foreign country, overseas there - America. So is three of us working in the studio right now. Q: Who was in America you said? A: Mr. Lynford Newland in America. Q: Ah, OK. He used to record for Tapper Zukie I think, back in the late seventies if I'm not mistaken and mixing him up with someone else. A: Yeah, Tappa Zukie. Q: What was the circumstances that you eventually got this group together, originally? You knew these guys from before? A: How do I meet them? Q: Right, they were basically friends from earlier days? A: No, like the groups that I formed, y'know, when I were living in Trench Town, Soul - that is the Delta Cats' leader, he come from Westmoreland, and he see me and he just tell me to come and do some work with him. So me jus' go and do some work with him. Well, I think to myself seh I have to form a group for myself, and I been up by Washington Garden, up by Duhaney Park, and I'm over by my home and I've seen some youth a come across, but through I used to play my guitar and sing an' t'ing, so the youth dem come around me and... which is Orville Smith, Junior Delgado, and O. Marshall, and they come around me. So they love how I sing all the while. So they say they want to join me, so I said to them seh "OK, you can sing, you can carry harmony?"And them tell me so I say, well, "OK, I wanna hear you". So I start to sing an' dem start to sing, so some of them never really get to the mark or how I would like them get to the mark, I have to taught them and show them the way how to get to do it, y'know. And operating, pertaining to a perfectness, yunno, that we can be listenable and appeal to the world and international and... you know? And so me and them been singin', but me and dem is not me and dem did grow up together. That's how my group come back around, me and them don't grow up together, I'm just with them and help them. |
 Junior Delgado |
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Q: There has been some mix-up over the years that people believe you are related to the Mannings brothers of the Abyssinians, Donald and Lynford. Hugo Blackwood confirmed this for me last year, that you are not related to them.
A: No, I'm not related to the Abyssinians. Well, I could be relative, far relative by my foreparents and them t'ing deh, we could be relatives from those lineage, yunno. Well, we never really get to correspond together, with each others. But coming a way from those families, y'know. Yeah. Q: There was one track you co-wrote for the Jewels with a certain Bobby Davis, who was this? A: Bobby Davis? (Silence) Yeah, yeah! Q: That's the same Bobby Davis from The Sensations? A: Well, him coming from a group, yeah, Sensations (referred to as 'The Temptations' at one point by Porti, the tune in question was 'Love and Livity'), I believe it was inna the Sensations he was. But at that time he never was recording with the Sensations. Sensations was a group, yeah, y'know inna dem young boy days deh they formed it, yunno, coming up. But through I was out there and him see I come amongst I and I, and I and him get to write a tune. Q: After leaving Niney for whatever the reason, you decided to work for Leggo. Why Leggo at that time? A: Yeah. Well, I move from Niney when I and Niney break up, for I haven't seen Niney fe a good time, and certain t'ings was going down with my personally life, livity, with my family, so Leggo was the one who give me a helping hand an' lift me up so that I could do certain t'ings. So, I had my home, my garden, planting my vineyard, and I see him and Gregory Isaacs come up (by) my home and said, well, they have a session going down by Channel One, at Maxfield Avenue, so they said they come for me. At that time now I was along with the Jewels now, forming my group the Jewels now together. So, when he comes now I show Leggo say, well, is me and the Jewels them. Leggo say is not the Jewels them him come for, is me him come for. So we said no, I and these brethren sing some songs and I and these brethren practice it. So it wouldn't be fair for I to go and sing the songs them and the brethren them could not take nutten from it. You know, I would like them to achieve with me. So him said "OK, OK, alright, carry them come and jus' go with them and go down by Channel One", and that's how I get to go along with Leggo. So Leggo hear me, I start sing to him. Him just record 'Dream Lover', and he record '(Children of the) Slave Trade' with me at the said time, said day I been down there. From there now I and Leggo careers begun. |
 Leggo sitting behind his desk |
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Q: You did 'Poor People Are Crying' for Leggo as well.
A: Yeah, 'Poor People Are Crying', 'Love and Livity', 'Jammin' On A Weekend Night', 'Staring At Me Girl', and I do... Q: One titled 'Trench Town Girl' too. A: Eh? Q: There is one song named 'Trench Town Girl', which was solo. A: Yeh, it was a solo copy. Yeah. Q: Issued on Advance. A: Yes, the Advance label. Q: So the last tune you did for Leggo about twenty years back was 'Inside Up Upside Down'? And the last record so far. A: Yeah (sings) 'You've got me inside up upside down, you've got me going going, ohh baby, you've got me inside up...' - da one deh. Yeah. I do it for Leggo, yeah. That is the last single tracks. Q: Right, the last one, came out as a 12" back in 1986. A: I do a lotta song for Leggo, yunno. A lotta song. Q: For an album, or you have more than one for him in the can? A: Yeah man, more than album, I have more than two albums I do for Leggo. Yeah man, 'One Lickle Lick (Mr. Big Man)'... no, me never do that one. What I mean, song like 'Poor People A Cry', 'Hey Little Carey', a tune seh (sings) 'Stop your bombing and shooting, Israeeel, stop your bombing and shooting, Israeeel, too much innocent blood has been taken, too much blood is shed in every corner in the city...' - we do da one deh, yunno. Then we do 'Hey Little Carey', and we do 'You, Woman I'm Talking To', 'Jammin' On A Weekend Night', do those songs for Leggo. We do a tune name (sings): 'I saw her sit under a coconut tree, and she just keep on sheddin' her tears, I said I don't want her to cry no more, no no mooore, I found her full of tears come rolling down her cheeks...', you know? |
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Q: Right. What about another tune the Jewels cut for Niney, the somewhat controversial 'Black Is the Highest Culture'?
A: Yeah (sings): 'Black a the highest culture maaan...' - that one. Q: Yes. What's the inspiration for that song? Some hard-hitting lyrics there to say the least. A: Well, that inspiration, man, when I look I see everything, in sports, in anyt'ing you can think of, black becomes a great on the top. But even the great regular star, Bob Marley, him was the greatest in Jamaica. He was one of the greatest in Jamaica - as an artist. So you know, I know seh black, black have the most culture, black is the builder fe the world. So I know these t'ings through, fe I've seen these t'ings by my eyes, I've learned by what my eyes sees, that's how I learned. So I just get these t'ings together and put it in songs, and write it, yunno. Q: That's the vibes. Did the Jewels get around to perform in those days, you did some live work back then? A: In those days? Yeah, when I come in the Jewels I performed live on stage, for I perform in my Jewels days. I performed alone on shows. When I come now, I and Jewels, Jewels and a group named Crystal Celestial Wave Band, we performed on shows. Like Kalonji shows, we video with Kalonji, we in video with Buju Banton, and all these artists. Q: I'm sure there are Jewels admirers out there who wondered what became of you after that last record in the mid eighties, what have you been working with over the past twenty years? I heard you took care of Leggo's old estate in the country, in Portland. A: You see when I leave Leggo, when I leave Leggo now I was sittin' at my home, y'know, writing some songs and I never visit the studio, I just sit back, yunno. But in the year 2000 coming up now I say, well, I going back into the international scenes and let's do a boom! I go to Kalonji and Kalonji record us and do four songs, and put it out. And I said OK, well, I still going on in the music field now. So, Caveman heard me, and Caveman said, well, he would like an album from me. So what I'm doing now, I do five songs on the album and do two songs a'capella whe I don't put no riddim to it as yet. But I do five songs whe riddim along right now with Caveman, so is up by Caveman with dem right now doing some songs, doing some songs right now intending to do shows for sooner or later. Shortly you will know, I will inform you when I'm going to move off the island, for I'm going to be in Ethiopia. We going to go by Zimbabwe and to perform. Q: Great. A: So, we gonna go to Zimbabwe, me and Kalonji, and other artists. You know, we gonna perform and the Celestial Wave Band, y'know, Crystal Celestial Wave Band, for I play some instruments like drums in the group, yunno. Music, yeah I'm doing some music in there, and even vocals with them, even back-up vocal with them. But still I'm working on the Jewels album now to come out, shortly. Q: Good. Did you record a lot more with Niney that he's sitting on, things that remain unreleased? A: No, I never record nuff with Niney for an album, and neither with Rupie Edwards. Q: But at least Leggo is sitting on one or two completed albums, but it's no good just parking it - it must come out. A: Yeah, him have more than a album, for nuff tune I do for him, nuff tune. But him have more than an album, yeah? Hey, I do two tune yunno with Junior Delgado fe a boy named Paul - Paul, yunno. A tune named 'Gimme Wha' Me Want', and 'Happy Birthday To Sweet Sixteen', and I do those songs with Junior Delgado. Q: When was this? A: In the seventies, in the seventies there. Way down in the seventies, 'bout '70 or '71, inna those times. No, 'bout '73 or '74, inna those time. Yeah. Q: With some perspective, how do you look back on your experiences in the music, if you would summarize it all, you know what I mean, just sum it up - the good, the bad and the rest. A: Well, when I look back on my career in the Jewels, y'know, I've seen seh the Jewels is so progressive and so advanced and so knowledgable, but the t'ings that I've seen, my personally financially... is personally financially embarrassed to how the peoples dem that I dealt with, dealt with me towards finance, y'know, towards those t'ings. So, I would like to put a stop into those t'ings. I want to get on the limelight the most international way, and I love music and I cannot stop do music. I have to just keep on doing music, for it's born in me from I was a kid, so I love it. I love good music, love cultured music, teach t'ings that is teaching the people somet'ing good towards reality and livity, y'know. |
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