Article : Winston Jarrett.

Q: It's kinda heartbreaking to see that the music industry in Jamaica don't have some sort of safety-net for veteran musicians and artists, a pension or some sort of aid in the later years.

A: Well, they're forming a t'ing now and the title or the name now is 'JAVAA'.

Q: Yeah, I read about it. At last something like that is set up in Jamaica.

A: I'm a member of JAVAA too. They just really emerge, maybe two or three months ago, and those people that is keeping the Heineken Startime.

Q: Together with people from the Chosen Few, like Bunny Brown.

A: That's right. So they formed that organisation to help a lot of the artists from Scotty died. Yeah, from Scotty died two days after them started to form that. It was a big talking in Jamaica because of what they feel really happened to musicians and artists over the years, y'know. A lot of them died and a lot of them died from starvation and poverty and hunger, frustration and everyt'ing. So, nobody no really talk about them nor help them so them come up to form this organisation, and it's going very good now. They have a t'ing named 'Fish Fry' - that is another part of the organisation whe you can come in and buy things and help generate that money to pay for the rent and help the artists. Also, they're putting on a lot of shows for the JAVAA member to perform and what money they generate from that, you give a small percentage from that for the organisation to help you and the balance of funds share for all who really take part in it, like artists and musicians.

Q: About time that this came about down there, don't you think?

A: Yes man, and the other day Tony - Tony Rebel - his Birthday Bash is every year, so he come up and say 'OK, we gonna use Junior Byles this year', so they put Junior Byles there. He is not in a very good condition, like a madman but they buy him clothes and give him a little change and put him on the show, Tony Rebel and along with other artists. He did very good and the crowd was rocking and dancing to his songs like crazy like hell, and... you know? Everybody was very happy about that. And we also have another guy down there, he's a very good singer but nobody check about him, and his name is Barry Brown (since deceased).

Barry Brown.

Junior Byles at Rebel Salute 2004. (Photo: Sis Irie)

Q: But these people have developed mental disease so they're a bit unreliable to say the least, for themselves and for their family members, meaning you have to get somebody that's taking care of their money.

A: Yeah, give it to them family. You don't have to give them, give it to them father there, somebody who connected to them and they can use that money to help buy a little something for them. You know, for me that is really good, a good thing.

Q: Did you do a lot of session work for others while recording at Treasure Isle, fill in a little harmony here and there, and perhaps do some rhythm guitar or percussion work?

A: No, no, Downbeat don't gonna let you do that. If you even can play a little he has his personal musician them. Well, maybe if you can take it on very good you can get a little work there, because a lot of guys really learned the guitar and then go by Coxson, and Coxson let you do a couple tracks and give you a little change, thirty dollars per side. I'm not talking now, y'know, thirty shilling - thirty shilling, one pound ten. Yeah, per side. So in those days when you lay the tracks is a everyday t'ing, yunno. From January to December, every day. And he have certain day when he do Christian songs, like on a Thursday. Like from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Friday and he leave out Saturday and he come back Sunday again, a session every day and is a everyday t'ing like you working in a factory. It depends on how many tracks you do for the week, some of them you don't get pay, some you never heard it again, some will get work small from it. I used to do a lot of that and if some other artists come in the business like Winston Francis or Marcia Griffiths or some single artist and they don't have the idea how to really lay the music and to write the lyrics, you have to have the book - to write it down, the version, in a book. And you have - if there's a bridge in there, you have to remember the bridge and when you're going in the studio you can master the song. Because, those musician they're going to spare no time with you. Everybody working by each track, on the tracks they're laying for the day, so they count them and put them in a book and the title of the song. If you cyaan do the recording they're gonna say "OK, stan' back an' yu come back in three months time", before you can come back again. So, you've got to know what you're doing and do it right and if not the musician they gonna lick you in the head with their instrument! And tell you that you're wasting their time, y'know, 'cos the musician them is some mad - the music make them mad! I don't tell you make them mad but them attitude is mad, they play the music good and everything is alright but what I'm talking about is their ways. They lick you with the guitar, they lick you with the trombone in your head and tell you to come out of the studio, that's why they have that song 'Leave the studio, man! Leave the studio! You can play bass? You can play drum? 'No sah, I cyaan play music on that track'. Leave the studio, man! Leave the studio...!'

Q: Mmm (laughs)! Scotty, yeah.

A: Yeah, I dunno if you hear that song?

Q: Yeah, yeah. 'Skank In Bed', that break there.

A: Yeah, it so that the song come up to. Yeah, so they're not gonna joke with you, man, so you have to be a professional when you're going there.

Q: But that's good, to maintain the discipline. And you're gettin' quality, not quantity - hopefully (laughs)!

A: Not quantity, is quality, so good, man - that's why it's so good, man! Nowadays, man, you're crying when you hear some people what they are doing, man, because you a wonder to yourself if a man really waste him on that studio time an' tape or whatever, y'know. And in the early days you didn't have the twenty-four track or forty-eight track, all we record with is two track, four track or eight track. On the two track, the voice is on one track along with the harmonies and the musician have the other track, and they recorded that. So if they want to put in-between like another guitar, pluckin' in-between the piano and the guitar, they put on a four track tape and run that two track to the four track, and have three more tracks. So you can put on a guitar and you can put in a percussion and you can put in good harmonies and when that four track is filled up now they mix it down back, to two track. You understood? That was what's really happening until they step up in the business now and they get the eight track, some studio have eight track 'til they step up from there and say 'OK, we're going to twenty-four track'. Well, most time you don't use the twenty-four from you get what you want full up, and whatsoever you're doing, y'know, it still sound better.

Q: So from what you've experienced over the years, you think eight tracks is the best to settle for, that's the platform for recording reggae music?

A: At King Tubby's studio, I did an album at King Tubbys studio for Roy Cousin and the title of it is 'Wise Man', I don't know if you ever listen to that album?

Q: Yeah, I have it. Good album.

A: Well, that album whe the riddim lay at Channel One, and Roy Cousins took it to King Tubbys for voicing, and it was a four track tape. King Tubbys have a little board there that was owned by Dynamic Sound first, in the first instance Dynamic Sound owned that little board - was a eight track board. But I think he get sixteen out of it, so it break down and was there with him for fifteen years or more and somebody told Tubbys about that, because he build up a lickle studio, and he want a board. So somebody told him about it, maybe Bunny Lee or one of those man, or Blackbeard. So Tubby go down there an' aks Byron Lee about it and "Sure man, you can go tek that, man, and cheap, man, it ain't good". "It's a good board still, I'm advancing myself now in the business so I want fe build a board", so he say to Tubbys to take it. Tubbys never know what's wrong with it anyway, but when he check it out it was good, because he could fix it. So he take it an' carry it up by his place and work on it, and it was so powerful! And he have that board right up 'til he died. Yeah, so it was a four track but you could get eight and sixteen out of it. So, that's where we do that song, with Roy Cousin. We voice it at King Tubbys and mix some of them, and some at Channel One. At that time it was a good board but it is what's behind you, and what you have. For you put in the bass and you have the drums and the guitar, and maybe two guitarists - one holding the riff and one holding the mid range, and you have the keyboard and the organ and more time a lot of people don't worry with the horns, but me is a man who love horns. The horns shot will be different on different track, maybe two or three horn. One tenor, you gonna use that and alto, or a sax - whatever you gonna put in that separate. So we use three tracks for horns. You understood? So weh you want - maybe have a lickle percussion in between or a drummer, y'know, the repeater, or somebody using some form of akete or something, that gonna be on a another track by itself. The reggae, so to speak, don't need so much tracks, for violin or whatever. Otherwise, I don't think reggae need that, 'cos it's the heartbeat, y'know, you're coming right down to the heartbeat, you get that vibes from it. And what make music to be what it used to be in those days, nuff people don't know seh is vibes is one thing, next thing is what you put in. So when you go in the studio you got to have that motivation inside of you, that is gonna come out in the music. So, is what you put in what gonna get out. If you have a good recording, you must have a good song. Yeah. And when the musician them are playing, the bass and the drum have to lock, once you get the bass and the drum locked together then you're going to have a good vibes, y'know, a nice feel.

Q: Do you personally feel that that feel for the music is lacking today, I mean generally speaking?

A: No, no. No, no - that's why the music stay the way like how it stay, because they're not locking. Yeah. A man jus' go in there in the studio and them have the song, them have the song but the vibes is not there when them finished. Because the younger people in the business now like from - I wouldn't say twelve but I would say from fifteen going up to twenty - twenty-five, like, them have a different ears of listening. And they love the pocomania, some love the cumina, some love the revival, some love church - church music. So it's a different feel. But what they do now is they bring it down to the pocomania style, the cumina. You know, just the bass and drum. And no arrangements to it, no direc' arrangement. Is like they jus' chop out a piece of log and they start to use the computer instruments and that start make it dumb, it don't have no vibes in it. Most people they're not listening. So, if you're sensitive to music and you go to school and play music from childhood, whether you want to play the drum or guitar or the piano, in America that's what I see they do. They go to college and learn and they can read music to a heights. Now, y'know, they look 'pon reggae cheap and they water it down and make the people listen that that's the music, I don't know what they call music but for me I know when I hear good songs tears drop from my eyes... They have a different sense of humour to the music. They don't know what the hell they're listening for! They make a whole heap a noise, like a bassie no go deh.

Q: What about your own independent production back in the seventies, releasing music on labels like Attra, Human Rights and Humble?

A: Alright, you know them, man!

Q: Did you produce any other act on the Humble label apart from your own songs, I think I have at least one tune on it by Jah Lloyd, 'Paper Money' (which turned out to be a different one, I mixed it up)?

A: Well, you know what happened now, when you're talking of Jah Lloyd now? Me and Jah Lloyd grew together, yunno, from Trench Town days. Jah Lloyd, Blacka Morwell, Bingy Bunny, they were living close to the Heptones up in a Concrete Jungle - them times they call it Ghost Town. That time I'm talkin' about is the early fifties, sixties, 1959 up 'til 1965/66. Because the place deh now, is Ghost Town. Nobody living there, besides some lickle shacks, pure lickle shacks, and that's where Jah Lloyd grow up. They used to watch me and watch my career and they know me and t'ing like that, from Alton Ellis they were very interested in the type of work I'm doing. So, they learned from me, whe Jah Lloyd is a man like that, he learn from me. And they told me that they want to - after Lee Perry leave the shop he used to own, he give it to Jah Lloyd and leave a couple of old records pack up all 'bout in there. But Jah Lloyd didn't have a bag so - or a changer, y'know, to play the record so he buy himself a little one, and open the shop. He want to go into the producing so I took that money now and a guy was selling a riddim, and he say he want a little money for the riddim, and I tell Jah Lloyd and that's where Jah Lloyd give me a little change and seh "Go and run off the riddim". Buy a tape and run off the riddim from the riddim that he had, and I try the guy up by King Tubbys and do it an' come back with the riddim and give Jah Lloyd and from that he put that guy's... what you talkin' about, on the riddim. So, that's how he come up with that song ('Farmer In the Den' by Jah Lloyd on the Human Rights label, not on Humble and not 'Paper Money' as I suggested). And I do a song for him, 'I'll Second That Emotion', is a foreign song. But I did that over for Jah Lloyd and it sell good. But Jah Lloyd, he hol' a good money from Virgin and he want to swing me wide and not give me nothing out of the deal. So, I jus' left him and seh man he's my brethren but if him a make money without me and not give me I'm not gonna make no war or a t'ing, so I left. He passed after that, because he have the asthma and he drink a lot of white rum on top of it and get some col' and pass. But, he's one of my brethren, yunno. I did a lot of things for Jah Lloyd.

Q: Pity, good deejay, good voice and nice style.

A: You know, when somebody not taking care of themselves, that's why he died. Yeah. He drink a lot an' he have the asthma and not taking care of himself.

Q: What goes around comes around, I suppose.

A: That's right, that's right.

Q: What about some of the other members that passed through in the Righteous Flames, such as Danny (Clarke) from the Meditations?

A: Me grow with Danny, man. Me and Danny used to live in one room in Fourth Street, Trench Town. The same room, sleep on the same bed. But he used to admire me all the time and say he want to sing. So, me is the man that take him down by Lee 'Scratch' Perry, and I told him that he can sing a couple songs with me because he really have a good voice. But he want to break so I carry him everywhere I go and let people know him and things like that, so I take him down by Lee 'Scratch' Perry and we do 'Zion (I Love You)'. But Lee 'Scratch' Perry's girlfriend now...

Q: You mean his ex-wife, Pauline Morrison?

A: Yeah, she used to - like she loved Danny, and start give him some punaany an' t'ing, is that she really love him, so that's where he started from. And he would be doing a couple tracks by himself for Lee 'Scratch' Perry too, so... That now, I get another guy named Junior Green, he used to sing with the Rocking Horse, that's the name of the group he used to be with - Keith Poppins and Jimmy London together in the Rocking Horse (correction: only Keith Poppin was member of Rocking Horse along with Junior and Winston Neville, Jimmy London sang lead for the Inspirations at this time). So I took him from that group, because they wanted to do some recordings and I wrote a song and give him, and he said OK. The title of it is 'Hard Time', so they do it for Mrs Pottinger, Tip Top Records (wrong: this was cut for Keith Chin at Randy's studio). They sell a lot of it. So, y'know, that's how Danny really come in but after that I really get Junior Green from Rocking Horse, and put him in place with Eggar Gordon.

Q: Did you sing with The Hurricanes too, for Scratch? Danny used to sing with them for a while in this period from what I recall.

A: Is me, man! Is me man and like me told you before Lee 'Scratch' Perry call me all kinda name, man.

Q: That was 'You Can Run'.

A: Yeah. And I do 'Moving On' (sings): 'I am mooooving on, just like any other man, so let it be one love...'.

Q: I might have heard that one.

A: Yes, and I do another one named 'Got To Be Mine'.

Q: I heard from someone that this tune was written by Dennis Hamilton, also known as 'Struggle'.

A: Yeah. Yeah man, Struggle.

Q: There you have yet another of those unknowns in the business that goes way back.

A: Yeah, Struggle? He grow up in Trench Town right beside me too, he's living somewhere, I dunno if it's London or America but...

Q: I think it's in England, London, yeah.

A: Yeah, he migrate and marry up there. And Struggle he is a good lickle yout' I know, an' he's OK, y'know.

Q: I was told he was even 'on a par' with Delroy Wilson back in the late sixties or so, just as good or at least not far from being as good as Delroy, even if that would be hard to imagine!

A: Yeah, I think he record for... Pablo Moses. No Pablo Moses... Pablo - Augustus Pablo. Augustus Pablo, he do an album for him.

	Page: \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6
	[ Previous ] [ Next ]

Article: Peter I
(Please do not reproduce without permission)