RR: Yeah, Alpha along with Joe Harriott, Wilton Gaynair and Little Jesus., just to name a few out of the great instrumentalists come from that school - Tommy McCook.
TK: When you got out that school you started playing in a band?
RR: No, we come from poor family, the people can't buy equipment. Truth dat, you know. I never get a trombone til maybe way about in the late 50s. Because the first time I play was with Count Ossie - cah when you leave school you don't really have no instrument, so I used to get Drummond's trombone fe borrow. For me and him was good friend. And through me stay inna de hills like Don Drummond, I used to get a play but otherwise, when me leave school me never play a instrument for years. Only rich people pickney can buy instrument and continue through, but poor people like me personally, family side, our parents can't buy instruments.
TK: When you got your first instrument, what happened?
RR: Well the first instrument I get was from some people I know in Kingston - a man and him wife give me first trombone. And me start enter Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, to be honest. And the first time I really performed live was Opportunity Knocks. Whenever them have a show Tuesday night and Friday night you can enter, not as a singer, but "Other Acts." So I used to enter in Other Acts and after I win that now, things become tight for I couldn't enter again, you know? So that's when I went to the hills complete and stay there til me left and come here (London), away from doing a little recording with Duke Reid and Coxsone, and numerous other sound system man like Count Boysie, Count John. All over Jamaica, east west north and south, sound system man have a lot of my music them never really release, them just keep it fe challenge one another in sound system. So most of the time me spent inna Jamaica not really musical, it was just the last few years. Moved amongst Ossie personally, me start play trombone again.
Plenty man like myself, when he leave school him have to give up music, for there's no way. It worse if you don't play drum or saxophone or piano... You take up trombone, is like waste of time, too - no band no want no trombone play in Jamaica. It's people like Don Drummond and Carl Masters who popularise the trombone - before dem trombone wasn't a major instrument in Jamaican music.
TK: So it's just specials you do for sound systems in the late 50s, early 60s?
RR: Well a man named King Edward used to have a good sound, used to play up a Walton Park Road every Monday night - I used to make record for him. Him used to treat me good too, as well as Duke Reid. Duke Reid did have plenty money, you know, him had business inna Sligoville and Spanish Town. Him used to carry me over by him farm, and make me drink good milk and eat good food.
The same time Claudius Henry did have a business against the government of Jamaica - treason charge, y'know? So me come on some roadblock the time I come from Sligoville -but the only thing is that the policeman pon the roadblock, me and him used to go to school together, and the soldier, so it was allright.
Cause plenty musician like myself turn police or soldier - for even though you can't buy instrument after coming out of Alpha, at least you get good education. So when you leave Alpha you can really go forward for yourself. Maybe is that did keep me from going all over stage in life, but through intelligence I could be able to get around and live.
TK:
You are known in my country by the album Man From Warieka, - what
happened between the early 60s and the mid 70s when you did that album
for did for Island Records?
RR: Well when me come over
me never do no recording for anybody more than one and two little small
recording company like some people from Brixton - me make Brixton Cat
fe dem. And Palmer. But Island is the first major company me really play
for - in '76 that was. That was first really serious album me do because
most of the other album me did do before that was backing track - a man
just bring me a backing track and tell me I must just put my ideas on it:
Brixton
Cat, Come Play Your Horn, music like those - Rico in Reggaeland
- backing tracks.
TK: All those three were
albums?
RR: Yeah, but backing tracks...
Sometimes friends of mine, fans who have them record bring them to me to
sign them.
TK: So the first official
album was for Island.
RR: Yeah, and me glad about
it, for me go Jamaica you know, and play mongst some good musician, Robbie
& Sly - everyone in the band is excellent player, Dean Fraser and Nambo,
Cedric Brooks. Some of the rhythm section me don't remember, but me remember
Tarzan play keyboards, Ansel Collins played keyboards, and Bobby Ellis
and Vivien Hall played trumpet as well (he died) and Deadly Headley and
Dirty Harry. So that record was a real good feeling - when you listen to
it you can really get the vibes, for it was the first me a go to Jamaica
for plenty years, so you imagine how me did feel fe go there one time.
For my friend used to say "Rico man, you should try to get some money to
go to Jamaica", but through me move around with my instrument and me nah
work regular... me couldn't really find the fare fe go a Jamaica. But in
that time there now, by doing the recording for Island it was appropriate,
make me feel good, and a blessing see my mother again. I do the whole record
inna one day you know, you can imagine how it did feel so good. Karl Pitterson
was the producer - him love the musician too. And whenever we not doing
the work in the studio me did try a be-bop, like all the Charley Parker
phrase, and him take out his guitar and try to play it too, and say "Woah,
Rico, jazz you a play." And me say "No, me practice everything." But me
love Jamaican music more.
TK: After the Island album
you had certain things with the Two-Tone label?
RR: Well, after me did do
the album for Island now, me children dem tell me say some people was looking
for me. But me never really play with a band as such, I'm not a man who
want to play with a band or like this individual have my own band or so.
Me reluctant - me never really want to go in no band even with the Specials
if possible, but somewhere along the line me go into it without doubt.
And after two years them break up. So me a do a lot of work amongst a set
of young musicians who were really looking money and fame but wasn't really
doing anything for music. A musician like myself, we learn fe play music
not being paid, you know? I would say I been apprentice up through all
my teen years life into twenties. So we learn to love it more than the
business side of things is not so important to us, for we come from a humble
background. So we leave the business side to people who can deal with the
business, but love, you know, we have a love for the music. So maybe that's
why I personally still play trombone.
TK: And now you have been
playing with a band called Jazz Jamaica?
RR: Yeah, well, after the
Specials did break up me did buck up into a man named Paul Young, and me
do a one single with him and it was a hit song, you remember it? "Love
of the Common People". Sometime me down a Jamaica and hear the radio play
the record over the air, the guy pon the radio don't even know is me play
it, and me there in Jamaica.
So really though me miss the Jamaica
runnings personally, staying there for nine years - maybe is only Dermottt
Campbell who play my music pon FM. But Barry G and all them guys, them
play more talking music, nah true? Or it suit them fe build up the talking
business, fe dem thing. For the musicians in Jamaica strike one day, you
know? But the radio stations, we nah hear that over BBC. Musician dem say
the people pon the radio not playing enough of the Jamaican music, so them
go up to JBC in throngs of them, and the police did protect them with some
big machine gun, but me know seh it a worries, y'know. Cah dem don't want
to play Jamaican musician music. It look like dem have a dialogue with
some other people play the foreign music more than our music. So it no
really help the local artist like myself - even though I don't live deh
so, I come from there. And fe the nine year I spend there, I get a lot
of experience - I know hungry, I know how the Jamaican man feel even though
I live here, I still live just like how them live a Jamaica, and see how
it hard - it so hard you can't explain it. You have fe live it fe know
it. So that's the music we play from that hardship, y'know. Cah the great
instrumentalists of Jamaica, none of them come from a rich family. All
the great instrumentalists come from working class family, true. Check
it out.
TK: Why would that be?
RR: Well, most of the upper
class people would be studying in universities fe medicine and so on, they
would end up as a piano player. But through we go to Alpha School and schools
like those, it's not for the privileged as such - and the one thing you
get in those school is proper musical tutor. I don't feel no school inna
Jamaica teach you better than that school.
So otherwise, since me come back
in '91, me have my own band as well, but me play with Jazz Jamaica sometimes.
So far me do two album with them, and tour all over the West Indies with
them, and Japan. I think them going to Africa next month, and Australia.
But I still function with my little band and I try fe do a recording as
well.
TK: Was it your band or Jazz
Jamaica you did the live album in Germany with?
RR: That was my own band.
TK: And did you have another
album with Jazz Jamaica as well, apart from the one that is out already?
RR: Yeah, we have a next
album with Jazz Jamaica - we do a next one inna May.
TK: And what are your plans
with your own band now? You have a record coming out?
RR: We try to set up an album
with some Japanese people now. So right now me in the studio try to work
with my band, but early stage. We just start put on brass. One or two of
the tune we have to sing as well - cah when you feel hard life, you can
really explain it in singing, the natural way, so we have nice vocals as
well with the instrumentals - we kinda mix the music.
Like we feel seh in Jamaica, seh
"DJ fe eat food, musician fe eat food." Right? We no seh "Musician fe eat
food, DJ no fe eat food." Everyone haffe eat food, y'understand? But dem
who run Jamaica, dem don't run it on a equal basis. Singer fe eat food,
too. But for the past - well I down there fe nine years, and is only when
them have cultural shows, them have singers. Most of the show is DJ. DJ
run things. But I don't feel seh it should be like that. Singers, players
of instrument, DJ - everyone perform, is a better package.
Cause only one man me see inna Jamaica
really instrumentalise himself musical - ponna musicality, is Dean Fraser.
It make me feel good to know seh well a younger man, from the same school
like myself, is so excellent that you don't have no man fe better than
him. No man better than him, him a de best - truth me a talk! For if a
man play better than Dean Fraser, you haffe practise harder than him, or
you haffe dweet better than him - you can't! (Laughs). So I feel good fe
know seh man like him still come up inna Jamaica. Nambo, Chico, Johnny
Moore, eh? Trommie, Deadly Headley, Horsemouth... Me love dem man deh,
for y'see, plenty man look pon music in a sentimental way, but - when you
live the life, as a musician, it no easy - you have no shortcut, you have
no easy way.
TK: The Jamaican youth want
the DJ way, you know.
RR: Well, you must accept
new things, becah you can't put a hold fe the new still, but you must accept
new patterns, new things. Cah even the great Miles Davis, I hear him play
inna riddim the other day, it's very good - the new sound. Me love the
new sound, y'know, me nah have nothing gainst music, me love all music.
TK: You're right, many people
feel these days that the Jamaican DJ music has to have something to balance
it out. It's all DJ that's going in the charts and is really selling. There
are a few singers, but very few really these days who can really give competition
to DJ music. And the instrumental music as you say, it's only Dean Fraser
who is recorded as a solo instrumentalist...
So you have records coming out,
and you're going to tour a lot, so you don't really feel the age yet?
RR: Well, the way me suffer
as a youth inna Jamaica - me lef' when me was 29, y'know - the Father bless
me and give me health and strength, me no feel that way like seh me want
to retire, no. Me would like still play and that is my chief way of life,
me want to keep inna the music field. If a band break up, that no mean
I break up. Or me nah play with band - this is history, the first band
I played with is with the Specials, and the second band play with to the
amount of time like two years, is Jazz Jamaica.
But to do the work I want to do,
I have to work out my own things, I cannot go with a band to play their
thing. And maybe a lot of people in music have different ideas about music.
I want to give something to music, I don't want to take anything from music.
For music comes through you - no one owns it, you know? Otherwise the people
who buy the record, they could be musicians as well, or artists - but they
are fans. They are the ones who keep the music going. So you have to be
pleasant all the time to them, to be appreciative.
TK: You have a lot of fans
in Finland, you know, people who love to hear you play. So we're expecting
that you visit Finland one of these days.
RR: Yeah, becah before I
go to Jamaica I used to stay in Hammersmith, and a man from Finland come
interview me. And me give him Man from Wareika Dub, you know? Yes,
and that's the only one I had. And he thought that Island would have sponsored
me to come to Finland at that time. But up to the other day I was thinking
about that same dub record that I gave to this Finnish man. Because he
liked the Man from Wareika album, and I didn't have that, so I gave
him the dub. It's strange how you talk about Finland, very remarkable,
you know? The first time Jamaica went on the map was in Finland.
TK: Yeah man, it was the
Olympics - '52 Olympics.
RR: Yeah, the four great
runners - so Finland mean a lot to me, historically and naturally.
TK: Yeah, when I was down
in Jamaica in '83, and when people hear I come from Finland, they come
and ask me about the Olympics and the four runners.
RR: Them mash it up, man!
Run go leave the Yankee pon the line, yeah! First time you hear bout Jamaica,
Rasta! (Fits of laughter) .. Away from say farmer time or so...
But coming a England again is -
a lot of people never see me, them did miss me too. So is good me come.
And since me come, Jools Holland carry me pon the television a few times.
Jools Holland, the producer from the BBC. He was one of my great fans from
long time. Me see Paul Young too , and me see Sting, going pon the show.
So it alright, me a write new things and keep myself going in the music.
TK: Can you say something
to your fans in Finland? I'm going to play this on the radio.
RR: Well me no really arrive
Finland yet, but thank unno fe appreciate me what me a do, you know, for
it really make me feel good. Peace and Love.
TK: Thank you.
Rico
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