Oswald 'Count Ossie' Williams - File
Oswald 'Count Ossie' Williams' influence extended far beyond the camp in Rockfort, east Kingston, where he hosted extended music sessions in which the drums and brass instruments featured heavily. The musicians, including the core of the Skatalites, went on to define another stage in the development of Jamaican music.
While the ensemble he led was still named the Count Ossie Group (it later developed into the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, with the addition of horn players through Cedric Brooks), in 1960 the drumming was fused with the Folkes Brothers singing and Prince Buster's production in the enduring, Oh Carolina.
Redressing this imbalance
Count Ossie died in 1976 when he was just 50 years old and, unfortunately, in the way of many an outstanding Jamaican musician, there has been scant consistent acknowledgement of his contribution.
On Sunday, October 25, at Temple Hall Estate, in St Andrew, trombonist Nambo Robinson plans to redress this imbalance somewhat with Freedom Sounds: A Tribute to Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. It is a very personal tribute for Robinson, 33 years and a week after Count Ossie died.
"I got to know him very early in my career," Robinson said. In fact, he knew Count Ossie before he got into music, sitting in on many of the music sessions. When he started playing, Robinson says, "is the first group I performed with as a musician. We did the first CARIFESTA in Guyana in 1972. That was my first journey abroad performing as a musician".
Focus on Rastafari music
Among the musicians who will be performing on the tribute are original Mystic Revelation of Rastafari members and, Robinson says, "The emphasis will be on the Rastafari music as it relates to Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. We will be playing a lot of music from their repertoire."
Among the recorded material to choose from will be the Grounda-tion (1973), Tales Of Mozambique (1975) and Man From Higher Heights (1983) albums.
Robinson and members of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari would also know material that had not been recorded, but was played in the numerous sessions. "On Sundays, he would have regular jam sessions at the National Water Commission Sports Club at the foot of Wareika," Robinson recalls.
Robinson says that among the musicians who would play at those sessions were Tommy McCook, Lennie Hibbert, Larry McDonald and Rico Rodriguez. And Robinson encountered trombonist Don Drummond, a major musical influence, in east Kingston too.
"The same place he (Drummond) killed Marguerita is where I saw him," Robinson said. Drummond was convicted of the 1965 murder of his girlfriend Anita 'Marguerita' Mahfood.
Freedom Sounds: A Tribute to Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. and will run for a minimum of two hours.