Q: But Soul Sounds was your first production label. A: Yes, I actually created and designed the label. The head 'S' in 'Soul' is the treble clef, yunno. Head for 'Soul', head for 'Sounds', I used the treble clef as the head, and I got my label off the ground like that. Q: What happened to 'Rhythm & Soul'? A: OK, I sold some to a record shop for export. When I went back again they said "Oh, my God, they need this record in England, you can press more and ship it to them". So they give me a lickle contrac'. I didn't know anything about it. I signed it and they give me twenty pounds. It was Pama Records, one of them, they took the copyrights and press it in England (released on Pama's Nu-Beat label). I didn't know much about the business. I got twenty pounds and say "Oh, yeahhh?" Q: (chuckles) A: I went and bought myself a keyboard. Q: What kind of keyboard was it? A: I think it was a Wurlitzer. You know, those big model, two decks with the knobs and the bass and all a that. Those was the kind of organ they had. It was what I could afford at that time. Q: Not new, was it? A: No, it was a second hand, I couldn't afford a new one. Q: Yeah. A: And Lloyd Parks used to play the bass. Q: Lloyd was in the Termites at this time, wasn't he? A: Oh yes. I know how they got the name Termites, 'cause we used to live together in the same community, and we got this old piano. And when we tried to get it in tune we learned that the tuning block was eaten out by termites.

The Termites.

Q: (laughs) A: (laughs) So then he and another guy called Wentworth Williams... Q: You mean Wentworth Vernal? A: Yeah, they were the Termites. They named themselves from that as The Termites. Q: History. A: They recorded for Studio One. Q: True, made an album there. A: Yeah, you see what I'm talkin' about, we lived together. Q: (chuckles) Community-wise. So Lloyd was playing bass at the time, late sixties while singing with the Termites. A: Yeah, he got himself a lickle box guitar, he was always picking. I think I gave him the first electrical bass. I bought an Egmond bass, gave it to him. We had a lickle band too. Q: You recall the name of the band? A: (silence) I don't quite remember the name of the band. But then, after a while, he left. He and Ansel Collins, he was my good friend too, we all came from the same community. Q: Around Tower Hill. A: Yeah man, Tower Hill, Waterhouse. Q: How do you remember and look back on a neighborhood like Waterhouse back in the 1960's. I mean, now it is a notorious ghetto area, very rough, but back then? A: Yes, well, it wasn't that bad when I was there, yunno. I moved out in 1970 and I went to the suburbs in the hills, the rural areas. Q: Yeah. A: But King Tubbys was in that area, Jammys. Q: But you didn't follow it up immediately, the 'Rhythm & Soul'? You did something later called 'Tribal War' on the Soul Sounds imprint. A: Oh, yes. I did quite a few recordings after that now. But then, the radio thing, you couldn't get any radioplay and all a that, so... After a while I got fed up. Q: You had 'Fiddle Widdle'. A: Oh, 'Fiddle Widdle', that's a deejay thing I did. Q: Ah, you cut that track much later on. A: Yeah, yeah. Q: Must've been like at least ten years after the time we spoke about. A: OK. Lloyd Parks did the bass on that, and he also sang the harmony. Q: With the 'big three' to compete with, Federal, Studio One and Duke Reid, tough times to reach anywhere with those, more or less, in control of the market. A: You could always walk the streets with your record and sell a couple of hundred. You could still make some money. Q: Right. A: I forgot to say in the last half, I was playing with the Roots Radics. I was a member of Roots Radics.

Roots Radics.

Q: Before we move too fast in your history, I was wondering what you did after 'Rhythm & Soul', what was the next step? A: Oh, I just basically played in bands and I didn't really do much recordings for myself. But I did for people, y'know, I would do songs for different promoters at different times. Q: How did this link to Willi Williams come about? Was this back in '68, '69 something? A: Ah, yeah. I had a lickle band called Bobby & The Set-Takers, and he used to sing in that band. Q: Right, I recall that name. A: So he's almost like family for me right now. Q: Goes way back. A: Yeah, we're close. I know his wife, children. He knows my family. Q: And he's well-known as being a... A: 'Armagideon Man'. Q: (chuckles) Yes! Who played in the Set-Takers? A: OK, you know 'bout the group called The Gladiators? Q: I do. A: (Albert) Griffiths, he was playing the guitar, that's the lead singer for the Gladiators. He play guitar. And there's a drummer we call 'Benbow', I dunno if you've ever heard of him?

Albert Griffiths.

Willi Williams.

Q: 'Benbow', Basil Creary? A: Yeah! Yeah man, Anthony Creary. Yes, he wanted to sing and I encouraged him to play the drums, and then he became a drummer. Q: And became pretty good too, to say the least. But underrated, still. A: Oh yes, oh yes. He's playing in bands now. Q: Is he still residing in Jamaica? A: I think he stays in Miami now. Q: Other members of the Set-Takers? A: Oh, the bass player was called Harry, but I don't remember his last name. Q: And you as the band leader, keyboards. What kind of stuff did you play, what was the repertoire? More like funky...? A: No, we're basically reggae but we would play... we'd play a little of everything, because we'd play music that people heard on the radio; what they hear is basically what we play. Q: Where did you gig out? A: Lots of clubs all over the place. We'd play dancehalls with sound systems too. Q: I don't know when it grew into the famous 'club strip' we know of as Red Hills Road to be later on, but this is back in '69 or so, and this is where you mostly got gigs? A: Yeah man, I used to play in clubs like Tit For Tat and, what you call it, Stables. I used to be there. Lloyd Parks used to play the bass, he used to play in the band when I played at Tit For Tat. Turntable (Club)... that was the nightclub capital at that time, Red Hills Road, yeah. I used to work six nights a week at this place, man. There was a band called the Hippy Boys, and the bass player was Aston Barrett, Family Man. The drummer was his brother, Carlton Barrett. After that they went to The Wailers.

The Upstetters (1969).

Q: Before that recording and touring as the Upsetters, even. A: Yeah man. That's before they went to the Wailers, they were the Hippy Boys. Q: So you had a stint in the Hippy Boys too? A: I was the first keyboard player in the Hippy Boys. Yeah. Q: Did you contribute to the album Sonia Pottinger released, 'Reggae With The Hippy Boys'? A: Yes, yes, yes. It's quite possible, ca' we did a lot of recordings. Q: I'm not familiar with anything else in terms of albums, except that Pottinger album. A: Oh... Yeah man, she'd be dung a Orange Street. Q: We're talking the early part of the 1970's now, this is the time when you first fiddled around with a melodica. How did that come about, this was to become a pretty influential instrument... what appealed to you about it? A: OK. When I left Waterhouse I went to live in the rural area. Where I lived there was no electricity so I couldn't play electronic keyboards. So what I did, I bought this melodica so I could still play. We used to practice on that, everything I worked out was on the melodica. So people used to like the sound, so then I jus' started recording with it. Q: What year could this have been? I mean, (Augustus) Pablo came on the scene at Randy's with 'Java' in 1971, was this even before him? A: Yes, yes, that was before. Q: So Bobby Kalphat is more or less one of the originators of the melodica as a lead instrument in Jamaican recording circles? A: The melodica playing, yes. But Augustus Pablo I guess, he popularised it more than I did. 'Java', that's a big song. (Chuckles) A big seller. Q: I think Clive Chin said it was voted 'Top Instrumental for 1971'. A: Right. Yeah man, I know him well. Q: So this is basically prior to the melodica getting popular, but you didn't record with it as early as '69, '70? A: I did one or two recordings. It was one called 'Counter Punch', if you ever hear 'Counter Punch'?

Q: True, true, but that was at the Black Ark. That tune came long after 'Java'. A: Yeah, yeah. Q: I would estimate it to be recorded around '74, '75 or so, if that's correct? We're getting there soon. When could the melodicas have turned up more widely for sale in Jamaica? It's basically a toy, so I could imagine people laughing at first when they saw you with it? 'What are you playing this for, it's a children's toy!' A: (chuckles) In school kids used to play it, yeah. But I realised that it could be played as a professional instrument. It can play, and it had that distinctive sound too, yunno. People respond to that. Q: And obviously, people are constantly looking for a new sound and new inventive ideas, so this could fit the 'picture' pretty well. A: Right. But most of my work I did is really on the melodica. So I discovered that people liked it, so I just played it. Q: You are one of the first to originate the idea of having it upfront, but Pablo succeeded commercially with the instrument. How did it feel when someone just 'took' the idea of using it and actually succeeding in the public's eye? A: It encouraged me, say, OK, the people like it so lets do more of it. It wasn't any jealousy or anything, it just encouraged me more, see it could hit. Q: It has that distinct, sharp type of sound, like, 'multi-dimensional' (chuckles). A: Being a wind instrument, more feel into it... when I play it it's like I'm singin', yunno. It's how I feel about it. Ca' it's a breath control instrument and all a that. My copy was a Hohner, a German made. Q: When that wave of instrumentalists burst upon the scene in the aftermath of Pablo's success, you had people like the singer Joe White, and Glen Brown of course. A: Yes. Yeah man, Glen Brown used to play it 'pa pa pa taa da'... Yeah, that was a hit. But he was basically a musician. He just did that, and it was a hit.

Glen Brown.

Joe White.

Q: You recall Joe White's stuff? A: Joe White? Yeah, well, I mostly know Joe White as a singer, Chuck & Joe White. Q: That's right, yeah, they had a hit back in the sixties, the title escapes me... A: 'Every Night'. 'Every night I go to sleep I dream of you'. Q: 'Every Night', that's it. About other such instruments, like harmonica, did you ever touch it? A: No, I never go into that. I was mostly playing keys, like a keyboard. Q: Familiarity. A: Yes, I'm more familiar with keyboards. Anything with keyboards, I'd play it. Q: Now, was your work with Phil Pratt after your stint at the early Black Ark studio, if we come up to 1974 now, circa, when Perry had the studio newly in function? A: Yes, they were about the same time. I used to work with Phil Pratt on the Sun Shot label.

Q: Right. Listen to this (playing a track off the Pressure Sounds anthology, 'Phil Pratt Thing'). A: Yeah man, that's 'Counter Punch'. I produced that myself and record it at the Black Ark. I know that's my personal recording, and at that time I didn't start to go to England as yet, so I asked Phil Pratt to see if he could... you know. Q: Put it out for you. A: To put it out for me, give it to a company and... I didn't get any money for it. Q: Someone took the 'income' for it then. A: Yeah. I didn't get any returns from that. And that was my personal production. I spent the money at the studio, pay the musicians, everything.

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Article: Peter I (Please do not reproduce without permission)