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October 22nd, 2023

10/22/2023

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A Real “Mr. Fix-It”
Winston Francis

PictureWinston Francis
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A Lesser-known Jamaican Recording Studio

7/29/2023

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New Dimension Recording Studio
5 Eastwood Avenue, Kingston, Jamaica
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PictureThe New Dimension Studio record label
New Dimension Recording Studio opened in December 1971 by two men: Arnold Wedderburn and John Templer. Arnold Wedderburn was a Jamaican electronics engineer who worked at JBC Radio Station. He wrote scripts for airplay and, in 1972, worked on equipment to transition JBC from AM to FM stereo. Templer was from England, and his role was that of an investor. Others who assisted are Delroy Butler, a.k.a. Delroy Denton, who was the chief technician. Recording engineer Dennis Thompson was present at the start and worked on a three-record Count Ossie album and with Merritone Sound System on their productions at New Dimension. The Fabulous Five were very active at New Dimension. Wedderburn and Templer documented their work on the New Dimension record label on the 1973 three-disc album entitled “Grounation” by Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari and on tracks like Yvonne and Lisa’s “Close to You” (1972) and Peter Scarlet and The Fabulous Five’s “Oh Dad” (1972).
 
Audio engineer Dennis Thompson worked with Winston Blake and Count Ossie at New Dimension. His good friend Wilton Currie would join him at the studio as sessions were underway. Thompson immediately recalled his work with the studio, the precise street name and address, and equipment specification when asked. Interview 
 
I was involved with that studio. 5 Eastwood Avenue, off Eastwood Park Road. Electronics engineer Arnold Wedderburn and investor John Templer started that studio. Templer was an English man who lived in Jamaica, and Jamaica adopted him. Wedderburn was in communications. He studied in America and came back home and decided to start a recording studio. One night he went to a Grounation with Count Ossie in Bull Bay. Arnold was an avid music collector, and his equipment was higher-end audio. So, he was a connoisseur. He was fascinated with Count Ossie. John Templer decided he had some money he wanted to invest and build a studio. They rented this house on Eastwood Avenue. They know I was involved in music, cuz I used to play at discos and clubs, so I say we can put it together – it’s a good idea. Count Ossie wanted to do this album, “Grounation.”  In two nights, we do it, and it came to three albums. They have enough material for five albums; we edit it down to three.  
     New Dimension was a two-track studio with quarter-inch tape running at 71/2 and 15 tape speed. The technical specifications: we had two Revox 77 and one Sony 850 – I think it was, with had three Shure mixers, four Advent EQs [equalizers], two Tannoy Lancaster speakers, McIntosh C-28 preamp, and two McIntosh 2105s. That was it, we made it work!
     I say to Winston [Winston Blake of Merritone Sound System] that we are going to build a studio. You always want to get involved in production, so come talk to John [Templer] and see what we can work out. I brought in Winston and say you want to be an associate producer. We started some auditions looking for new talent. Out of that came Beres Hammond, Ruddy Thomas, Cynthia Schloss, another man called Portious [sp?], and Mighty Diamonds. I started doing some production with I-Roy, The Heptones. Wilton [Wilton Currie] used to come down there and hang out with me down there. We were close friends, and when he leaves work, he come hang out.      
     New Dimension close down because of irregularities on behalf of one of the managers (Dennis Thompson, Interview by author, 09 July 2023).

(© Rich Lowe, July 2023)

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"The Matador" and "Two Kings" Now Available for Purchase on Amazon

7/14/2023

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purchase on amazon
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purchase on amazon
"The Matador" and "Two Kings" are now available for purchase via Amazon. For more information visit the 'Books' tab above. Many thanks to all those who helped in the production of these books in order to preserve the legacies of Lloyd Daley and George and Vin Edwards.
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Two Kings, Jamaica's King Edwards "The Giant" Sound System: The Era of The King, The Duke, & The Sir

1/16/2023

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As of 16 January 2023, the latest book is available: 
​Two Kings, Jamaica's King Edwards "The Giant" Sound System: The Era of The King, The Duke, & The Sir. 


This biography spotlights the rise of Jamaican sound pioneers George and Vin Edwards. The two brothers reveal how they built their dominating and prolific sound system in Kingston while sharing behind-the-scenes stories, trials, and successes.
Now ages 94 and 90, George and Vin Edwards spent the last five years perfecting this book. It is an engaging record of their epic legacy and influence on music, culture, horse racing, and politics.  Most importantly, it reveals what ended their sound system rein and why, until now, King Edwards has been edged out of history books.

Two Kings is 563 pages in length and features detailed discussions of music experiences, horse racing activities, politics, numerous maps of vital locations, over thirty photos, discographies, and much more!
The book is available worldwide via Amazon.com for (US) $34.95  *Price varies by country. 
To spread the message and share the order process with others, visit Amazon at the link below: 



click here to purchase
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Soon To Launch - Spring 2023

12/15/2022

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Two Kings, Jamaica's King Edwards, "The Giant" Sound System, The Era of The King, The Duke, & The Sir  
By Rich Opre Lowe

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​Two Kings, Book Quotes:
“Is the two ah we are King Edwards – Me and George. Two Kings” (Vin Edwards). 

“Is me love the sound system. I would sit outside of The Silver Slipper Club and was jus’ listening to Tom the Great Sebastian because I couldn’t pay to go inside. Some- times in the night, when I want go to listen sound, I walk and go listen Tom’s. He used to play the type of music that I like. Guys that love good music used to go there, and girls used to like to go there cuz it was safe” (George Edwards).

“We had a lot of creative ideas that we applied to King Edwards Sound System. George brought in a musical ‘ting that used to happen in America, starting on the road in New Orleans. In America, the people that played instruments would start in New Orleans, then move up to New York, and then move state by state on the road… What George did was to set a route for music to travel and play at many locations over ten to fifteen days. George’s all island tour would start in town – Spanish Town or Old Harbour or May Pen, and then come right back into Kingston. That was a good idea, that was George’s idea. In those days when we have eight hundred people in a dance, it a big dance” (Vin Edwards).

“Most important – to play sound system, you have something in your heart to love music. If ya don’t have that love, you can’t play it. This was how we conduct a dance: to get ready for a dance, we usually have four guys to help us, the guy who plays the sound and three other guys that lift the box. We draw our Hercules amplifier… After it reach twelve midnight, and if the dance ram – when I say ram, it means full, you don’t hassle the people too much. You have to play and watch what the people them doing. When you are playing half-time, now and then, you give them a one “Feel So Good.” I might play that one ten times in the night because Shirley and Lee is the best record that they make” (George Edwards).
ISBN: 978-1-7323825-6-5
Two Kings will be available worldwide via Amazon.com in Spring 2023
 
Contact Information:
E-mail: JamaicaWay809@gmail.com
Website: ReggaeJamaicaWay.com
Youtube: Jamaica809
Skype: Rich.Lowe8
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December 15th, 2022

12/15/2022

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"Night and Day Picnic" As told by Vincent "Vin" Edwards of King Edwards "The Giant" Sound System

12/12/2022

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*The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming book by Rich Opre Lowe, Two Kings, Jamaica’s King Edwards “The Giant” Sound System The Era of The King, The Duke, & The Sir.
*Soon to be available worldwide on Amazon.com 



George and Vin Edwards recall outstanding dances that held long-lasting positive memories. To no surprise, the brothers recalled special nights where they stamped their mark on Jamaica’s music history. Understandably, details begin to thin as original dancegoers advance in age, and others pass away. Remember that there is little physical evidence of the one-time dances; only memories have endured. The following is one such dance memory held by Vin Edwards:
(Vin Edwards) Some dances would be organized like a picnic, arranged for children, age eighteen down. Some of the present Jamaican don’t know nothin’ about these things! In the country, they used to have “night and day pic- nics.” It would be picnic in the day, and then they have dance in the night for the bigger people. They did this all over Jamaica, but in my district in the Parish of Saint Mary, it was at Wood Park. The picnic would be held at a community of interest, with a post office, church, gas station, town center, a playing field, and buses running through it. We didn’t have electric current in those days. Wood Park would attract people from many districts like Derry, Bellfield, Donnington, Pembroke Hall, Bartley Town, Farm Pen, Walker, Cocks Piece, Hartland, and Wallingford. The picnic would have an area where we would play cricket. We didn’t have much football in my district, so we play cricket. They would build a booth, mostly for younger people, as more shade from the sun, than for rain. This booth would be built by cutting down the riverside materials to gather bamboo as the structure and coconut leaf as a cover. When it come down into night, the bigger people move into the dance hall when King Edwards was playin’. They call that a “night and day picnic.”
(Rich Lowe, December, 2022)
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A “Crop Over Dance,” Jamaica, West Indies

11/27/2022

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PictureFrank Anderson (Photo courtesy of Frank Anderson).
(Rich Lowe, www.reggaejamaicaway.com, 2022)

The “Crop Over” is often recognized as the historical post-cane harvest celebration in Barbados that is now government-sponsored. The term means the sugar cane crop work is over; the harvest is complete, and it is the time to celebrate, especially if the crop is bountiful. Crop Over is a Barbados summer festival featuring market sales, food, drink, live music, and dancing. Crop Overs were also celebrated in Jamaica and date back to the 1700s (Cassidy p. 90). 
 
     Trumpet player Frank Anderson worked with many great orchestras:  Milton McPherson and his Orchestra, Val Bennett’s Orchestra, and George Moxey and his Band. He also worked with The Eric Deans Orchestra on lead trumpet beginning in 1949 and maintained his connection until Deans left for England. With Byron Lee And The Dragonaires, he played live with the band and recorded on the Byron Lee albums Sparrow Dragon Again and Many Moods Of Lee. Anderson recorded with the players who went on to form The Skatalites on tracks like “Exodus,” “Feeling Fine,” “St. Lucia,” “Wheel & Turn,” “Ska Ba Doo,” “Peanut Vendor,” “Occupation,” “Always On Sunday,” “Musical Storeroom,” and “King Solomon.”  Anderson formed and traveled extensively with his group, Frank Anderson & The Super Stars, in the US. 
     Frank Anderson is as strong as ever. He has a great list of stories that he frequently tells. Wherever he may be, strangers tend to gather around him as he reaches back into his memory for one of his stories. His list is continually growing and includes flying over Haiti with The Eric Deans Orchestra in a military plane riddled with bullet holes, carrying a gun in his twenties to make a statement, discovering where a fellow bandmember hid all of his performance money, returning visits from a ghostly woman when he was auditioning for Eric Deans, surviving a car crash at Stony Hill, his time with Nat King Cole, and the story that follows about a Crop Over Dance:
    
​A Crop Over Dance, as told by Frank Anderson, Trumpet player 
 
The crop over is the Jamaican farm workers and farmers; they work all week on the farms, and on Saturday night, they all would come to town for a dance. Eric Deans was smart, he would keep the performance early and play, and the people coming from the country to the dance would pass by. That’s what made him so good, he was one of those; hoity-toity think himself better. He would play for the country people coming by, and the truck would stop, and they come in and sit down and buy a white rum and coke, and white rum and water. Some get drunk, and the band would play. 
Country music was different from the city music. City are used to big band [like] Count Basie,  Duke Ellington, and Harry James. In the country, they like quadrille, like calypso [Anderson sounds out melodies]. The kind of calypso thing where you hold her close with gyrations. Like sexual intercourse. We would also travel up to the country parishes where the workers were living. It’s the strangest thing, their language is quite different [in the country]. I have to ask: “What did he say?” You come from Kingston; you are a city boy. I was only nineteen or twenty. Not that they are dumb in the country, they just speak different. We try to keep it Saturday, so we could come back to Kingston and play our Saturday gig because you could lose money. Don’t expect a lot of money neither because they don’t got money. The music is the entertainment, and when you come from Kingston, they treat you like a king! It was love.
This is the early 1950s, and back in those days, we drive into the country until we can’t drive no more, and then we get out at Sligoville. When we reach, we would have to go in a cart that a mule would pull. We would play some music and ride through the countryside, and people would hear and say: “The band is here! They gonna play at Center” Now, Center is not a big hall, is a big clearing. When it start, it has grass on it, like a golf area. These people would build a house in one minute. They would chop down bamboo and put up a shed with flooring [build a stage]. The band would go up there and play. 
This is a true thing. After a while, a guy named Val Bennett, who plays saxophone, came up there and brought his Kingston band, and he’s going to play his Broadway music, and [speaks slowly] they’re gonna like it whether they like it or not. Now, there’s this guy, he’s very intimidating. He’s barefoot, and he has a machete strapped to his side-they all do. Not that they would chop up anybody, but they are farmers. On Sunday, they put on their Sunday best to dress up like they are going to church. For you, they dress up, but not really much. Val Bennett goes out there and plays American music, and they stand out there, and they listen, and it was good. I’ll never forget it; Val play until somebody came up and say: “Listen, we don’t like that kind of music. We have had enough of it. We want you to play our kind of music.”  It’s mento [music] they want. Mento is a mix of calypso and African. You have the drum beat [sounds out the drumming]. Any kind of melody that you could come up with, you better come up with it fast. You don’t stop. Mento; it varies from slow, to medium, to fast.
The drummer works, and the trumpeters work. Val keeps us playing Broadway. The bad man in town with the machete, a black goliath, tall-looking down on everyone, come back up and say: “I told you we don’t like that kind of music. We want you to play mento!”  Val Bennett says: “I’m the band leader, man!” We tell Val to please listen to these people. He says don’t listen to them. We were little boys anyway. Y’know, the man came with the sharpest machete I’ve ever seen. He put it at Val’s neck and said: “No! Come with me, Val.” He took Val’s saxophone, and he reached up and tied it with a string to the roof of the shed they built, and it was twirling around. This is a true story; you can ask Mickey O’Brien about it. He was there! This man said: “Listen, Val, if you think you are Jamaican bad, touch that [extends the word] saxophooone!” We carried a big band down there, so the man say: “Now! You, you, and you. You play!” Ernest with his little guitar, the drummer play, the saxophone play, and me and Mickey play till our lips was raw. We couldn’t stop. We play the calypso song “Soldering,” and that was the longest calypso you ever hear in your life.
They have the big fire, and the curry goat is being cooked ‘round the clock, and the whole town is there. The music play till the drummer fall out, and then Mickey start playing the drums. You don’t stop because the guy has this machete. They took Val Bennett and say: “Now, Val Bennet! You gonna go down to the river, and you gonna be carrying water to the kitchen.” They gave Val Bennett a great big bucket, and two guys march him down by the river. He has to go fill that bucket and come up with water and supply the kitchen while they cooking the curry goat, rice, yam, and banana [laughs]. His shirt got wet up, and they have him take off his shoes, but he was not used to that, man! They tell Val that he can take a break and take a rest, and his saxophone just keep twirling around and around and around!       
     It was most embarrassing to him, and it was humorous to us. It was very serious, we didn’t want nobody doing anybody [didn’t want anyone to get hurt]. The band was saying [speaks in a hushed voice]: “They will chop him, chop him up.” We don’t bother try nothing because, by the time the police reach, he will be done. That man bring law and order to that town. You don’t go there and commit a crime, or you are not coming out alive. 
(Frank Anderson, Musician-trumpet, Interview by Author, 17 April 2021).  
 
                                                                                            Reference
Cassidy, Frederic G. 2007. Jamaica Talk - Three Hundred Years of The English Language In 
     Jamaica: Kingston, Jamaica: University of The West Indies Press. 
 
 




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A “Barn Dance,” Jamaica, West Indies

11/26/2022

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(Rich Lowe, www.reggaejamaicaway.com, 2022)

The barn dance has ancient origins worldwide relating to celebrations of farm harvests and successful hunts. The dances take various forms; they may be organized country or folk dancing, religious worship, or marriage rituals. In the mid-1800s in Scotland, these dances were held by laborers where they imitated the behaviors of wealthy landowners. In the days of slavery in the Caribbean, dances had resistance themes where oppressed people would mock the plantation owner through dance. Dating back to the start of the ninetieth century in Jamaica, live orchestras would furnish music for barn dances. As a novelty, the informal dance might be held in a barn or an open barnyard-type area with animals, costumes, and music.  
     Wally B Bryan is Jamaican-born, bred, and schooled. He was born in 1937 and lived on Pouyatt Street, just a few streets away from where Tom the Great Sebastian lived on Jamaica Street and by Barrel O’ Lawn. The Walker family operated an area bakery, and their property was rented for dances under the title of  Pioneer Lawn. In 1955, Wally B promoted a dance at Barrel O Lawn in Jones Town with King Edwards The Giant Sound System. Wally B describes the dance that night: “That dance turn me into a man. The place was cork till it couldn’t hold. It was jam-packed! The street was block that night, and me sell-off nearly a van load of drink.” Dance promotion became a passion for Wally B that night and would continue throughout his life.
     Wally B emigrated to the UK in 1964 and continued to follow his native music by attending sound system events and promoting dances. The next step was to build his sound system in 1969, adopting the title of one of his favorite sound systems from home: Supertone Sound System. He went on to open his longstanding Supertone Record shop in 1983, which has been in operation ever since–featuring Jamaican and Caribbean music from the 1950s onward. Wally plays roots, rockers, lovers rock, and everything in between.
 
A Barn Dance, As told by Wally B of Supertone Records
In a recent conversation, Wally B mentioned the theme of a barn dance. He went on to explain how he promoted his own “barn dance” back in Jamaica: 
 
My friend used to work on a ship, and he show me how to cook the curry goat and make it nice. I keep a barn dance in the middle 1950s. Ya know what a barn dance is? A barn dance is a dance that you don’t use no electric light. You use lantern. It was a low-key kind of a dance where you keep the music down low and play all the calypso songs. That era kind of music-a tourist style of music. At the time, the barn dance had seen its better days, but we recuperate that kind of system for people who remember and could enjoy that type of dance. We make it on that level and are glad to know that somebody create that dance again. It was a revival night. The music that used to play was still hangin’ about ‘round the place, so you have to get a sound or DJ that knows that kind of music.
     I keep that dance at Victoria Pier at the bottom of King Street with Myrtle Bank Hotel just over at the other side on Harbour Street. Right at the water. They just refurbish that place and make the market for the tourists, and we keep the dance on top. Dickie’s Dynamic play for me there. Dickie’s was owned by a Chinese man that owned a store on Brynes Street in Jones town next to the post office. He sold all kind of fabric like tyrlene. All the people who come to a barn dance dress in more Jamaica national style of dress because it was old fashioned. We had people come from all ‘bout, and that was cork! We try it out, and we never know because we were pretty young to keep a barn dance, and the place was big. That was the first dance that ever keep at Victoria Pier at the club upstairs [of the] market. This was at the club where all the calypso bands play to attract the tourists (Wally B, interview by author, 21 November 2022). 
 
 
Wally B – Supertone “An all-arounder in the business”
Supertone Record Shop, Sound System, and dance promotion. 
110 Acre Lane, London SW2 5RA
www.supertonerecords.co.uk
​

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Victoria Pier two-story club. Now owned by Andrew Azan. ​(2019, Rich Lowe)
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“Will The Real Lord Sassafrass, Please Stand Up”

8/6/2022

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Picture(l-r) Mikey Jarrett, Sammy Dread, Lord Sassafrass.
Many years ago, as a radio announcer playing Jamaican music, I searched for records on Eglington Avenue in Toronto and saw an advertisement for a dance that night. I attended the dance, and by sheer luck, I encountered and conversed with the tremendous Jamaican toaster Lord Sassafrass (Michael Johnson). This meeting was in 1985 and was still early in his career. I am fortunate to have known Jamaica’s Lord Sassafrass when he was thrilling Jamaican dance hall patrons and topping the Jamaican Hit Parade with “Pocomania Jump.” Sassafrass regularly worked with Black Scorpio Sound System alongside fellow toasters General Trees, Mikey Melody, Shuka Shine, Culture Lee, Echo Minott, and other greats. Close to forty years have passed, and Sassafrass is alive and well and living in Toronto, Canada. He continues to perform live, works on his “Skagichall” album for Horseman Records, and is occupied with a book project about his career.
Michael Johnson was named Lord Sassafrass by the great Jamaican producer and singer Lee “Scratch” Perry in 1978 when he recorded at the Black Ark Recording Studio. Sassafrass describes how he formed the full title: “Me name me-self after an American horse name Sassafras, a wicked grass horse, good pon the turf. Go to Lee Perry and him seh: ‘Well, we call ya Lord.’ That was in 1978 when I recorded ‘Green Bay Incident’ and ‘Green Bay Inquest’ [with Debra Keys] for Lee Perry at Black Ark.”
 
Over time I learned others had adopted the Sassafrass nickname. I know of three people/groups that use the title of “Sassafrass” in varying forms: Michael “Lord Sassafrass” Johnson of Black Scorpio, The Jamaican artist and poster maker “Sassa,” and the American folk group “Sassafrass” which started in 1999 at Bryn Mawr College. There has been some confusion over the years with this name, which recently swelled when the Jamaican artist Denzil Naar a.k.a. “Sassa,” died in July 2022. Some became confused when word spread that Lord Sassafrass had passed away, while it was the poster artist Sassa that died.
Denzil Naar is the iconic artist from Jamaica who created omnipresent posters in the 1980s. Naar went by the title of Sassa when he first started in the 1980s and, at times, adopted the nickname of Sassafrass. To say that Naar’s artwork was iconic is an understatement. His poster design, lettering, and coloring brought his posters to life. They conveyed dance information in tremendous detail while making the poster pleasing to the eye. His posters are positively mesmerizing and unmistakable long-lasting pieces of art. To some, these posters are mere advertisements for long past dances, but with Naar’s talent and ingenuity, they elevate and become everlasting. Rest in eternal peace to the artist Sassafrass.
 
Lord Sassafrass - The Original Horseman, teacher of the great General Trees, and DJ of Black Scorpio Sound System is alive. Don’t confuse, Lord Sassafrass may be on the backstretch of his last furlong, but he is alive and kickin’.  

By Rich Lowe, 2022 
reggaejamaicaway.com

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