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Give Thanks

The larger research project that provided the materials for this book has been many years in the making, and has benefited from the goodwill and kind gestures of many, including some who offered help of one kind or another long before the book itself was even imagined. Reaching back across the years, I hope my memory is up to the task of gathering together and recognizing here all those who have played some part.

For inspirational early conversations and interviews (years before this project was conceived), I thank Horace Andy, Jimmy Cliff, Donald Davidson (of the Jolly Boys), the late Desmond Dekker, Lord Laro, Lloyd Lovindeer, the late Junior Murvin, Ras Michael, Winston Rodney (Burning Spear), the late David Scott (Scotty), and the late Peter Tosh.

For essential help with tracking down and contacting particular musicians (once this project was in motion), I thank Dennis Alcapone, Wayne Armond, Andy Bassford, Virgil Bland, Bunny Brown, Glen Browne, Andrea Bullens, Charles Cameron, Frankie Campbell and JAVAA (Jamaica Association of Vintage Artists and Affiliates), Claudelle Clarke, Brother Sam Clayton, Tony Clayton, Gary Crosby, Jim Dooley, Luke Ehrlich (The White Ram), Steve Golding, the late Winston Grennan, Joe Hilton, Jake Homiak, Joe Isaacs, Ruddy Isaacs, Jackie Jackson, Tony Johnson (Jamaka, aka Tee Birdd), Desi Jones, Al Kaatz, Brian Keyo, Elliott Leib, Colin Leslie, Charmaine Limonius, John Masouri, Larry McDonald, Clive McKerney (Jah Roots), Vin Morgan, Dan Neely, Ken Parker, Dave Rosencrans, Cheryl Ryman, the late Robert Schoenfeld, Roger Steffens, Carter Van Pelt, Marjorie Whylie, and Mark Williams.

Special thanks go to the phenomenal Herbie Miller, who knows just about everybody in the world of Jamaican popular music, and who generously opened his address book and helped open innumerable doors for me in Kingston and beyond.

For moral support, good words, and good deeds, I thank David Aarons, Roger Abrahams, the late Gerard Béhague, Bryan Bilby, John Chernoff, John Cowley, Elizabeth Branch Dyson, DJ Emch, Bill Ferris, Samuel Floyd, Ray Funk, Don Hill, Richard Price, Wynne Racine, the late Johns Storm Roberts, Roswell Rudd, Cheryl Ryman, Nini Salet, Guha Shankar, Margot Snellback, and Jason Toynbee.

For invaluable critical feedback on early drafts of the book, I thank Garnette Cadogan, Jefferson Miller, and Wynne Racine.

For illuminating discussions, special insights, and groundbreaking cultural work, I thank Dennis Bovell, the late Cedric Brooks, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the late Rex Nettleford, and Garth White.

For material and logistical support, I thank the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago.

For many years of valued correspondence and inspiring poetry, and for making sure that this book saw the light of day, I thank Norm Weinstein.

For their friendship and for additional help in ways impossible to label, I thank my Big Bredda Charles Cameron (Charley Organaire) and my Likkle Bredda Garnette Cadogan.

For their loving care, and for helping to make both music and Jamaica so much a part of my life, I thank my mother, Helen Owen Bilby, and my grandmother, Kitty Owen.

Along with thanks, I must offer apologies to the several musicians and singers who contributed interviews to my project but could not be included in this book mainly because I lacked suitable photographs—among them such well-known figures as Toots Hibbert (of the Maytals), Family Man Barrett (of the Wailers), and the late Lloyd Knibb (of the Skatalites), as well as a number of lesser known but no less important contributors, such as Ranford “Ronnie Bop” Williams (pioneering session guitarist), Earl “Bagga” Walker (prolific session bassist), and Tony King (original session percussionist). Though their literal words and images are absent, their presence can still be felt in this book.

Other important musicians I would have particularly liked to include, such as session drummer Lloyd “Tinleg” Adams, session bassist Brian Atkinson, and session guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith, are not here because I ran out of time and resources before I could get to them; yet others, such as keyboardist Jackie Mittoo, saxophonists Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook, and percussionist Denzil Laing, were no longer alive when I started the project. Among those I barely missed, hearing of their passing just as I was hot on their trail, were drummer Hugh Malcolm and guitarist Eric “Rickenbacker” Frater. I will always regret not having had the opportunity to sit down and talk with these notable innovators.

There are so many more elders of Jamaican popular music I would have liked to meet and interview, many of them still living. But Jamaica has produced an amazing amount of musical talent, and the number of “vintage” singers and musicians deserving of attention is much too large for any one investigator to hope to tackle. And so I must add my thanks as well to those researchers and writers—many of them music journalists—who have done interviewing of their own, including Heather Augustyn, Steve Barrow, Bruno Blum, Lloyd Bradley, Howard Campbell, Laurence Cane-Honeysett, Mel Cooke, Stephen Davis, Jim Dooley, Thibault Ehrengardt, Chuck Foster, Carl Gayle, Vivien Goldman, Bunny Goodison, Mark Gorney, Colby Graham, Randall Grass, Noel Hawks, Dave Hendley, Balford Henry, Ray Hitchins, Aad van der Hoek, Hank Holmes, Dennis Howard, Ray Hurford, Dermot Hussey, Clinton Hutton, Peter I, Tim Ianna, Brian Jahn, the late Tero Kaski, David Katz, Rob Kenner, Brian Keyo, Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini, Michael Kuelker, Chris Lane, Hélène Lee, Beth Lesser, Rich Lowe, John Masouri, Chris May, Daniel Neely, M. Peggy Quattro, Penny Reel, Amon Saba Saakana, the late Robert Schoenfeld, Mick Sleeper, Roger Steffens, Norman Stolzoff, Angus Taylor, Carter Van Pelt, Michael Veal, Pekka Vuorinen, Klive Walker, Tom Weber, Doug Wendt, the late Timothy White, Chris Wilson, and a handful of others. They have helped to preserve an important part of the history of Jamaican popular music, and I am grateful for the body of work they have published, which has provided me with a useful base for cross-checking and comparison.

Thanks are due as well to my editors at Wesleyan University Press, especially Parker Smathers and Elizabeth Forsaith, for their steadfast support and the improvements they brought to what you see in the following pages. I am grateful also to designer April Leidig for helping to make the book so pleasing to the eye.

Above all, I give thanks to the originators of Jamaican music who appear in this book. Their music has given me untold pleasure and inspiration over the years, and I continue to marvel at their accomplishments. Sitting down and sharing thoughts with them was a rare privilege, and even more rewarding than I imagined it would be.