Q: So then you knew Batman too, Delroy's notorious badman brother who lived his life on the edge of things. A: I know him but you know... but he used to be in those early times to be a badman, was a bad yout', yunno, do a lotta t'ing, so I didn't really hook up with him too tough. I know him as Delroy Wilson brother. He never did nutten to me, because I was never clinged to him at that time, y'know. We were entertainers and we don't cling to people who really stay the way that he stayed in that time. So I really did have nutten to do with 'im. But, the one that I really cling to is Delroy Wilson, good friend of mine and I loved his mother an' t'ing like that. But, his brother was one of the bad eggs, I didn't cling to him, I cling to Delroy Wilson. Because I was very interested to see as a yout' that he really could sing very good and he was at the same studio with me, Studio One, and he do a lot of song too for Striker Lee, that's really Bunny Lee. But I love Delroy Wilson very bad because like I said we used to walk together and we drink. In those time I used to drink a lot of beer and go to a club and enjoy weself. So, Delroy Wilson was the one that I was really interested in. Q: You never recorded, like, harmony parts for him? A: At the Studio One, yeah. And I think I do some harmony with him too at Maxfield Avenue, at the Channel One too with Bunny Lee, I do some harmonies. At the Studio One also. Q: How did this project with RCA come up now, what was released in '74 as 'Kingston Rock' with you, members from the Wailers band like the Barretts, plus Horace Andy? A: Oh, with that guy now (the late) Brent Clarke? He has a brother in England named Sebastian Clarke.

Sebastian Clarke.

Q: A journalist, yeah. A: I think he used to put out some magazine with artists an' things like that, give artists write-up. And he establish a magazine/book that he used to put out, maybe one or two time I hear. I don't... Q: He published a book in 1980 entitled 'Jah Music' if I'm not mistaken. A: Now, I mostly know his brother in England but I know Brent Clarke because he was a road manager for Bob Marley & The Wailers in the early days, but they fired him and told him that they don't want him to be no more manager again. So he come to Jamaica and was down there for a good while, maybe a year or over a year he was down there, so he was living up by Ninth Street, in Trench Town. I used to go up there and check him all the time and all day we are there so he come up with this idea that he was interested in my music an' t'ing and he want to do an album. And he was making some arrangement to get Family Man and the Wailers to back me up because they didn't sign no contract with Bob Marley yet at that time. That's how we come up with that album, we did that album for Brent Clarke and the Randy's studio, downtown Parade. At Randy's studio, that's where we record them songs with me and I think he do a couple - some songs with Horace Andy. I tell you the truth: that is one of my firs' album I did for Brent Clarke, and up to now he told me that he want to get a big hit and he wanna try to see if he can come up with a big company to distribute it and make some licensing deal or something like that, with RCA-Victor. But I don't know how - if they turned down the deal with it, so he put it out by himself. I don't get no royalty from him, no statement, nutten at all and he left Jamaica and I haven't heard about him. Because I am a member of the PRS - PRS mean 'Performing Rights Society', and I am a member of it for fifteen years, also a member of the MCPS - MCPS mean 'Mechanical Copyright Society', I am a member of that too. So, when it comes to my royalty, they always send me that statement and I see a lot of songs that come out. Brent Clarke is included and Roy Cousins from Wambesi label and Trojan put out a lot of those my songs them in England. And they take a fifteen percent share out of my royalties, so...

Q: So there wasn't much to benefit from in other words, doing this 'Kingston Rock' album on RCA? A: Nothing! Not even one - you see how small a lollipop is? Lollipop is a sweetie, not even that I get from Brent Clarke! None of those songs, and I don't have a copy of it. I was chasin' to find him, I heard that - somebody told me that he died, I dunno if it's true. Delilah, the lady that was married to Brent Clarke, she was a secretary of Bob Marley's Tuff Gong up at Hope Road, Kingston, Jamaica. And they both leave from Jamaica and come to the States and from that I heard nutten about him. Somebody told me two weeks ago that he died. Q: Pity about such a project, that it just died there. So you were a contemporary with Elvis at RCA, wonder if he took notice (laughs)? Your first and only major label deal just petered out... A: Yes. So I understand, y'know, I never see the album. I think it name 'Kingston Rock', or something. Q: True. And he changed the title when he reissued the record in about 1987 to 'Earth Must Be Hell', on his own Atra label. A: Yes, yes, I know that label, Atra. Yeah man.

Q: But you never went into producing anyone else apart from Jah Lloyd, like we spoke about earlier? A: No, I never produce no other artist. I just push for - at that time, y'know, and even up 'til now I like to push myself. Is a good thing that I really stay that way, I do a lotta producing for myself, also. I also do producing songs with me and Tony Shabazz - from Fletcher's Land, a lickle yout' name Tony Shabazz. Q: So this partnership with Shabazz, how did you bump into him? He is someone you did two albums for in the later part of the seventies. A: Yeah. Tony Shabazz is a yout' that admired me too, y'know, and want to come in the business because he used to work with Prince Buster in the shop. And he used to export a lot of Prince Buster recordings to Toronto, Canada. At that time he did have a little shop for himself in Toronto, Canada, and working along with some other people and distributing a lot of Jamaican recordings in Canada. But he's a good friend of mine, a lickle yout' that used to work with Prince Buster and used to live at Fletcher's Land. So he come up one day and he check me and told me that he want me to record and him to take the music really serious, and he opened a little office uptown. He was producing some songs with some different guys an' t'ing (among them Love Brothers United and various productions for London labels like Mo Claridge's Ballistic). One day he come up an' said, "Flames, man, you know what I really aks, man, I want you to do an album and mek we start to distribute our own record an' do our own business". Because the business was really moving into different roads so, y'know, I said I might think it over and I did and go back to him and said yes, and come up with two albums, 'Man of the Ghetto' and 'Ranking Ghetto Style'. And we record that album at Channel One studio with Mr. Hookim, yunno. We get Sly & Robbie, back in those days they were working as The Revolutionaries, that's how we come up with that album. Those two album is two of my best albums.

Q: But they are both kinda scarce to get nowadays. A: Yeah. I saw it on a website, they sell if for 70 or around 65 dollars, somewhere along there. Q: These two should be reissued for the CD market, long overdue. A: And you know what? I was in Jamaica the other day and I saw a Japanese and he come to me and he called me on my phone, and told me that, man, he have an album with me. "What album you have with me?", I asked. He said, "Man, you don't know, it's one of the best albums that you ever do in life!", he said. I said, "Which album that?" And he said, "Man, 'Man of the Ghetto'!" I said, "Wha'! You have it deh?" He say, "Yeah man!" Me seh, "But you can run it off 'pon a CD and give me", and the man run it off and bring it down by Sonic Sounds, called me and said they have the album coming and they really bring it out and I have it here now. Q: Yeah. Would it be possible... A: He issued it because I was talking to Tony Shabazz in Canada, he's in Canada now for the past twenty-six months - he's been living there now, and he called me and told me that he was the man that was talkin' about a reissue of it. We're trying and see if we can get Blood & Fire in England to license it and t'ing like that. But I don't know what happened to Blood & Fire, they don't call back. He say that he want to do a reissue of it but is the jacket he don't have an' t'ing like that. He would like to bring back the same jacket.

Q: And Tony has the mastertapes for the albums, or you had to copy from the original vinyl. A: No. He don't have no mastertapes, neither myself. My house did burn down in Jamaica, twice! And I lost my tape, all those old tapes burn down with the house. So I lost track of it. I lost - I lose a lot of things, man. Come up to five million t'ings burn up with me house, I gone on a show and when me come back my house was flat. Q: That's terrible. A: It was coming on to the Christmas and this year gonna make three years, coming on to the Christmas I gone on a show and they told me that it was coming down to Christmas to the New Year, and they're celebrating in Jamaica with fireworks they're throwin' up in the air, and they were throwin' from next door and my window of the back of the house. Maybe it was open and my girlfriend was in the front sleeping and t'ing, and she say she don't know what's wrong. But I figure more or less like what they did, they throw that fireworks through an' it drop on the bed and the gas stowe was in the back. We used to cook at the back at the stowe round there, and the firework drop on the bed and start the blaze - somet'ing like that. All my tape dem burn up in the house. Q: Just a few words on the new album for Coxson if you would, entitled 'Crucial Times'. A: This Coxson album is going very good and is a 'Studio One Jamaica Music Anniversary', fifty years of anniversary from Studio One was there in business. So they bring out this album to endorse this fifty years in business with different albums, including me, Winston Jarrett. It's going very good so far, a strong album, new and old music.

And, yes, a nice collection of 'flaming' music it is, and the 'Crucial Times' LP was among the last Sir Coxson released in his lifetime, an album that should've been out many years ago but for some reason it didn't come out, whatever it was that held it back. Winston has such a strong connection with Studio One it was about time he got a long player on the imprint, and I strongly hope it has done the man well since its release in 2003. But if it has then it is most certainly one link in a chain of events that has made 'Flames' the name on a lot more lips than usual, that's my impression anyway, appearing at festivals in France and the US over the past two years for example, in large due to the 'Rise Up' compilation of vintage recordings issued by the Sankofa label. 'Rise Up' is truly a breathtaking anthology and you couldn't wish for a stronger set of tracks put together to either represent an era or a particular artist such as Flames. It is a treasure trove of the best Jamaican dancehall music of the late sixties up to the early seventies, a shining period of JA music and a time when Jarrett seldom put his foot wrong musically. Highly recommended. A similar collection turned up in the States recently, entitled 'Survival Is the Game', but with the difference that a lot of focus seems to be on his nineties albums for Heartbeat, Nighthawk and RAS, which I personally look upon as a pretty uneven phase of his career, with the exception of the LP he had Jah Woosh to produce for him around the same time.

What is sadly missing now is the album(s) that the good people in Japan had him to do a tour on several years ago, 'Man of the Ghetto', and its follow-up 'Ranking Ghetto Style' for long-lost producer Tony Shabazz back in the late seventies. Those two rank as the man's most consistent work to date, and should deserve a proper, clean reissue for worldwide distribution in a near future if Shabazz are willing to dust off the tapes he may still possess. Music as strong as that should always be available in one form or the other, either on vinyl or aluminium. Jarrett's 'Wise Man' LP for Roy Cousins (of Royals fame) back in '79 shouldn't be overlooked either. The wild title track is crying out to be re-released on a 12" (or more likely a 10" as the market looks currently) in its full discomix glory. It would stir up any vintage dance with that forceful beat, there's no question about that. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to put on the chilling 'Sleeping In the Park' one more time... 7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots. Visit Winston Jarrett's Website.

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

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