WHEEL AND COME AGAIN DR. DAWES

Dr. Alfred Dawes is a general, laparoscopic, and weight loss surgeon, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a former senior medical officer of the Sav-la-Mar Public Hospital in Westmoreland, and former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors of Jamaica. Dr. Dawes has earned his stripes as a physician and a public servant. In fact, I will credit the good doctor further for using his social status as a step-ladder within the Jamaican media landscape and to provide commentary on a myriad of social issues from time to time. However, his current broadside in the Gleaner of April 9, 2021, entitled “The day the music died” in which he expressed his disgust with the state of Jamaican music is one of those articles to which I take exception. And yes, I am aware that these are his opinions, but his is an opinion that carries weight. Further, these opinions as expressed are devoid of the facts.

In the late 1970s to early 1980s, Jamaica held the reputation for being among the most prolific producer of recorded works in the world, turning out more than 500 new records per week. In the current environment with the wider proliferation of record-producing facilities, I am certain that the numbers are greater, and with the current liberalized distribution environment and the easy access to online marketing platforms, the ubiquitous nature of communication brings this material directly in front of all audiences.

Dr. Dawes stated in his article that the music and the message have changed, which is true. It is no less true that in the first twenty years of Jamaica’s music development (1955-1975) the music rocketed through six genres: Mento, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae. In the course of that period 98 percent of this music was produced by Jamaicans on the fringes of the country’s social landscape, the majority of whom wrote and sang about the oppression and the victimization that they were experiencing.

A feature of human existence, Dr. Dawes is that people and their influences do change. That Jamaican music experienced the kind of dramatic change (and still do) is a factor of technological and other developmental change.

For much of its development period, segments of Jamaican society decried the music being produced, especially, the people who were producing this music. Despite the fact that Coxsone, Duke Reid, Lindon Pottinger, and Prince Buster were Black Jamaicans laying the foundations of the industry we have today, Buster and Duke Reid was classified as undesirables. Prince Buster would become the target of much pillorying by the security forces in the 1960s. Yet he was a major catalyst in getting Jamaican music into the British and American markets.

In the1960s, Alton Ellis sang about the “Dance Crasher”, Marley said “Simmer Down”, Desmond Dekker “007” The Clarendonians said “What a Bam Bam” while Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan threw out hefty sentences to Rude Boys as “Judge Dread.” These were the lyrics of the day and these were but a smidgen of the artistes who were active. These were the lyrics of the period, played by the sound systems of the day and during which time the public was up in arms about anti-social behavior. The sound system was the music’s main marketing organ- sound systems such as the Mighty Waldron, Cosxone’s Downbeat, Trojan Sounds, Merritone, Tom the Great Sebastian, etc.

As we progressed through the years the sound system landscape only got thicker, creating the platform on which the phenomenon we now recognize as the modern dancehall. The vast majority of its infrastructure was built by ordinary Jamaicans as they created a complete sub-culture out of the modified "dance-hall," initially seen as an extension of the Reggae genre but now standing on its own. King Tubbys, Arrows International, Youthman Promotions, Jack Rubys, Jack Scorpio, and the great King Jammys continued to change the music with their innovations and penchant for experimentation with sound.

What is missing from Dr. Dawes’ argument is the fact that throughout the sixty years of our music development, there was never any serious effort on the part of our political and social developers at investing in developing the throng of unattached youth, or providing resources aimed at harnessing the talent that existed on our society’s fringes. Instead, our politics embraced violence as a method of control and the ubiquitous gunman became a part of that landscape. As this developed, the writers and singers of songs threaded that development into the lyrics that they wrote. All this time, these individuals were the constant in the music, the individuals who were crowding the studio precincts with their slivers of paper or memories loaded with sets of lyrics borne out of their own day-to-day experiences in their individual communities. This was always how music was made in Jamaica, all the way back to the 1950s and the 1960s.

That we do not have enough Koffee’s, Chronixes, and Kabaka Pyramids’ in our music is not surprising. It was no different back in the day. What Dr. Dawes and others of his ilk are doing is to measure the current era using the yardstick of hindsight with the 1960s and 70s as the comparison but they are not taking into consideration the status quo that existed at that time. The Marleys, Mighty Diamonds, Burning Spears, and Cultures of that era represented less than 5 percent of the artistes who were turning up at the studios at the time. In fact, no less than what currently operates, a majority of artistes in the early period made their money doing specials and dubplates for sound systems then. Most of that music was never elevated into the regular listening space, a factor that still operates today.

There is no arguing against the fact that there are undesirables (gunmen and murderers) involved in our music space, no less than they are embedded in other spheres of Jamaican life; in business, and in politics. That, simply, is an everyday reality.

What Dr. Dawes may want to do with his “bully pulpit” is to call out the authorities for its deliberate disinvestment in Jamaicans generally and specifically in inner-city and at-risk communities. It is easy for his commentary to be read as an approbation of the current claim that the music is partially responsible for the current levels of Jamaican criminality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jamaica has been killing its nationals at a rate in excess of 1,300 Jamaicans murdered per year for the last 25-30 years, making the island the most murderous country in the world for decades. How we solve that is our real challenge. I am submitting that not trying to understand the total contribution of Jamaican music to the economy and the ability to provide economic opportunities to a broader swath of Jamaicans is merely continuing our investment in deepening our social decadence.

Wheel and come again Dr. Alfred Dawes. Visit my website at YAAWD MEDIA INC | SUNDAY SCOOPS for a wide variety of audio/video presentations on various Jamaican music topics.