A Pantheon Of Musical Heroes

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

If we do not know where we are going, any road will take us there. So for us to even begin to examine and explain the sheer genius of our accomplishments, we must fully appreciate the roles that others played in advancing the indigenous development of Jamaican music.

It is not good enough to continue to accuse the Dancehall Culture of being in essence only about the ‘hype’ and ‘bling’ without conceding that long ago we set this train in motion by paying scant regard- not giving due credit- to the real creators or our music- the composers and arrangers.

Look keenly at the credits given on most Reggae albums. While you may get a listing of the musicians, you rarely get a listing of the composers and/or arrangers. This blatant disregard for their input, potentially cheats them of their intellectual rights and fundamentally, it robs us of a deeper appreciation of the complex, meticulous artistic process and the roles they played in its creation. This is an outstanding but grievous issue, long in need of corrective action by the industry, both on behalf of these composers/musicians and in order to complete the story of the birth and evolution of our musical legacy.

For instance, Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and Tyrone Downie were the main musicians responsible for the arrangements of most of Bob Marley’s later songs while he was signed to Island Records. If you compare Marley’s earlier works to those after the mid 1970’s, you will detect a change in the music structure as Downie introduced synthesizers, strings and extra guitar parts.

I wish today to acknowledge the significant contributions of Jackie Mittoo, Jackie Jackson, Bobby Ellis and Dean Fraser, whom I single out because of the substantial body of work they have collectively arranged.

The most well known of our local songwriters, composers and arrangers is late pianist Jackie Mittoo (1948-1990), who started ‘running the sessions’ at Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s new studio at 13 Brentford Road in Kingston, when it opened in 1963. Mittoo and Dodd recorded thousands of tunes throughout the sixties. Solo singers, vocal groups and deejays all backed by a succession of brilliant musicians. Initially Roland Alphonso was responsible for the horn arrangement followed by Bobby Ellis. During this time, 1963-1968, Mittoo helped to develop new songs until they were sufficiently polished to meet standards. He composed and arranged virtually every record put out by the Studio One label, giving the bass player his lines, writing the chords for the guitarist while playing the piano himself.

This body of music is the foundation of Reggae, covered and versioned for 40 years. Mittoo’s Darker Shade of Black became the basis for Frankie Paul’s Pass the Tushumpeng, Freddy McGregor’s Bobby Bobylon, Alton Ellis’ I’m Still In Love With You, The Cables’ Rock Steady anthem, Baby Why and Feel Like Jumping, Marcia Griffiths’ first hit. In 1970, his composition, Peenie Wallie was versioned by the Wailers, becoming the hits Duppy Conqueror, Fatty Fatty by the Heptones and Loving Pauper, by Dobby Dobson.

Little known Bobby Ellis was the horn arranger at Dodd’s Studio One for a part of the post-Skatalites era (1965-68), along side rhythm arranger Mittoo. Ellis is responsible for the so well known horn bridge of Bob Andy’s I’ve Got To Go Back Home, as well as his own original composition, Crayfish. He arranged, wrote and played horn sections for many early Burning Spear recordings, including Days Of Slavery.

Meanwhile, bassist Jackie Jackson was arranging for Duke Reid over at Treasure Isle. His first hit was Alton Ellis’ Girl I’ve Got A Date, known for its memorable bass and guitar intro. Subsequent hits arranged by Jackson include Paragons’ On The Beach, Techniques’ Queen Majesty, Phyllis Dillon’s Don’t Stay Away (If You Knew), Melodians’ You Have Caught Me Baby and almost everything from Alton Ellis, the Jamaicans and the Paragons.

For Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Jackson arranged and played on Bob Marley’s Small Axe which possesses a distinctive bass and guitar intro credited to himself and Hux Brown. He also worked with Bob and the Wailers on Hypocrite, Nice Time, Thank You Lord, Pound Get A Blow and Soul Shakedown Party. He arranged Sitting In Limbo for Jimmy Cliff, Help Me Make It Through The Night for John Holt, Ken Boothe’s Freedom Street, Sweet and Dandy, Pomps and Pride, Pressure Drop and It’s You for the Maytals, Everything Crash for the Ethiopians, Intensified for Desmond Dekker and the Aces, and a host of other very popular Jamaican classics.

After receiving tutelage from Jamaican Jazz great, Sonny Bradshaw, for the latter part of his teenage life, Dean Fraser came of his own as a studio musician and arranger in 1978 at the age of 20 with Channel One’s whopper Death In the Arena. His subsequent arrangements include, Jimmy Cliff’s Treat The Youths Right, Bob Marley’s Wake Up And Live and Ambush In The Night, Peter Tosh’s album Wanted (Dread Or Alive), Maxi Priest’s Wild World and Culture’s1990-redone Two Sevens Clash. More recently, he has arranged for Sanchez, Morgan Heritage, Sizzla, Beres Hammond, propelled Beenie Man’s hit single Nuff Gyal and continues to arrange whole albums for the messenger, Luciano and others.

There are many other composers/arrangers to whom credit must be given: Tommy McCook, Ernie Ranglin, Carlos Malcolm, Ivor ‘Willie’ Lindo, Aubrey Adams, Sonny Bradshaw, Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore, David Madden, Vin Gordon, Earl Chinna Smith, Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks, Grub Cooper, The Browne Brothers (Glen, Clevie (of Steely and Clevie) Dalton and Danny, Ibo Cooper, Peter Ashbourne, Robbie Shakespeare, Clive Hunt, Handel Tucker, Harold Butler, Jon Williams, Gibby Morrison, Lloyd ‘Obeah’ Denton, Billy Cooke, Neville Hinds, Geoffery Chong and Derrick Stewart. It would in my view, be appropriate to dedicate a day in Heritage Week this year to these our largely unsung heroes of Jamaican music.

© C.H.E. Campbell 2005.