Q: Is there any organist, apart from Jackie Mittoo, that you feel is underrated and was a big influence or at least a great talent but rarely mentioned for whatever reason? A: Well, Jackie was the number one man, and there's other players, Winston Wright, Steely (Johnson) from Steely & Clevie. You have so much good keyboard players, yunno. Q: Richard Ace? A: Oh, yes. He used to be in the Rhythm Aces with Boris Gardiner, I don't know if you remember that band? Q: Yes, yes. Basically an R&B combo. How were some of these people to collaborate and record with, like for instance the albums you contributed to with Bunny Wailer? A: Yes, I did a few tracks for him. It was a good experience. I would say he's a great, great, great man. Bunny Wailer is a man... he plays a lickle bass and all a that, he comes to the studio and if it would be something he should have arranged, he have everything arranged already.

Bunny Wailer.

Q: And you played on... A: 'Arab Oil Weapon'? Q: Oh, you played on that? A: Yeah man. I did a couple of tracks with him. I also did about two tracks for Bob Marley. Q: Which one? A: I'm sure of one that's 'Baby baby, we have a date, meet me on the corner and don't be late...'. We did that at Harry J studio. Q: 'Baby baby...'? Yeah, it's 'Baby We've Got A Date', or 'Rock It Baby'. A: Yeah, yeah. 'Meet me at the corner at quarter to eight...'. Yeah (chuckles). Q: OK, so that's you. Late '72 or so, for the seminal 'Catch A Fire' LP. A: Right, it was done down at Harry J's studio.

Q: To my knowledge you are not even credited. A: I don't know, I haven't got a clue. I also worked on the Burning Spear album, 'Marcus Garvey'. Jack Ruby production. 'Days of Slavery' ('Slavery Days') and all those tracks. We did that at Studio 17, Randy's. Q: What was the Spear like to work with back in the mid seventies? A: Spear? Spear is inspiring, the man used to love I. Q: And Jack Ruby of course. A: Oh yeah, he was the producer at that time. He knew what he wanted. He had a big sound system called Jack Ruby Hi-Power or somet'ing like that. He wasn't just a financer, he knew what he wanted. Q: And you played for Pat Kelly while working with Pratt. A: Yeah man, I play for Pat Kelly when I work for Pratt, 'Talk About Love'. I play keyboards on 'Talk About Love'. Q: And you managed to 'squeeze in' some work on Jimmy London's albums for Pratt. A: Yeah, and for Keith Poppins too. Q: By the way, around that time, circa '75 or around there, did you ever play in that band, Skin Flesh & Bones, with Sly (Dunbar) and Lloyd Parks? A: No, I never played with that band. I played in other bands at the time. Q: Skin Flesh & Bones had that particularly funky 'bump' sound, highly disco influenced for its time. A: Yeah man, they did over that Al Green song with Al Brown ('Here I Am Baby'). Q: Right. A: They play at Tit For Tat and we were next door, at the Stables. Q: Which band did you work with in that place? A: Lloyd Williams & The Thoroughbreds. We were at the Stables, we were the in-house band. Q: Who was this guy, Lloyd Williams? A: He was a singer. He was a Jamaican who was living in Canada, and he came back to Jamaica. Great singer. Q: Thoroughbreds, did they record? A: No, we never did any recordings. Q: You had to play a little bit of everything. A: Everything, nightclub music, music from charts and all a that, popular music. So people could dance to it. Q: And speaking of Pratt, I assume you are on most of Al Campbell's debut LP, 'Gee Baby'? You arranged the majority of those tunes? A: I didn't arrange it but like I say, the bassman would find his groove and the guitaris' would get his feel, so I didn't take credit as an arranger.

The Royals (1960s).

Errol Wilson.

Q: Can you recall working with Roy Cousins' vocal group, The Royals? A: Royals? Yeah man! They were my friends too. Q: Roy Cousins is perhaps more known as a producer since. A: Yeah, Roy Cousins. I wanna tell you, two of these guys, they're also The Jayes now, like Errol (Wilson). Q: I think he's the one who had a stint in Black Uhuru. A: Yeah. Q: So he was in the Royals as well. Didn't know. A: Errol, yes. Right. Q: You lent your keyboard skills to Willi Williams' first album too, 'Messenger Man'. A: Yes man, yes man. Q: How has that working relationship been over the years, evolved, working so closely with Willi? A: Oh, like I say we're like family. Yeah man, Willi is a nice guy who like to sing original songs, yunno, so we work together. He would have his melodies and we go to the studio and I, as the musician, would find the chords for him, and we'd build a riddim. Q: Just like that. A: Just like that. Q: What's he like to work with, demanding? A: No man, no man. We're like brothers, y'know. No problem, we just flow along together. Great vibes.

Bobby Kalphat.

Q: There's contributions to albums by Rod Taylor and Prince Hammer. A: Yeah man, I work with all those. Dr Alimantado, I Jah Man Levi, so many I can't remember them. Q: And of course, you toured with the Radics behind Gregory Isaacs, some of it turned up on his 'Live' LP. A: Yeah man, I did a lot of recordings with him, '(Chunnie You're My) Number One', 'Top Ten', Mr Brown', quite a lot a recordings with Gregory. Q: I mean, it's a common thing, in Jamaica and not only there, but you are counting down so many classics you've played on and yet still, the recognition isn't there. A: Yes, I'd like to be more recognised, people know that 'OK, yes', I did that. It would be a good feeling. 'Cause sometimes I'm listening to the radio, or a sound system, and I hear a song playing and I recognise it 'Oh yes, I did that'. Q: (chuckles) A: You know what I mean. Q: On various recordings, can you even pick out if it's you or not, that you have such a distinctive sound that you'd easily recognise it? A: Yeah man, I can hear it and jus' know seh 'That's me!' Q: You worked out your own style after a while. A: Yes, as I said I'm influenced by Jackie Mittoo, but naturally I have my own style. But he is my road model, usually. I just like how the man play. The man is bad! Q: (laughs) Agreed! A: (laughs) Q: Correct. What's the ingredients to feel comfortable in the studio, are you a more 'hands-on' type of player or you can easily fit in in most situations, the ability to focus easily, almost no matter what the circumstances are? A: Yeah man, I just focus easily. You hear the song and that's it. That's the right vibes and that'll get you stimulated and you gone... Q: If we're talking keyboards, what's your favourite among them, the one with that special 'tone' and sound you'd prefer? What about the Fender Rhodes? A: Oh, Fender Rhodes, that's the electronic piano. For piano, I'd like the Grand piano. There we talk 'bout big sound. The Grand piano is like the concert piano. I'd just like that for piano.

Bobby Kalphat.

Q: And naturally the Hammond if we're talking the organ sound. A: Oh yes, oh yes. Hammond is the firs' choice in organ. You had other organs but the Hammond, that's like the traditional... that's the one Jackie Mittoo play. Yeah man, he played the Hammond great. Q: You can hardly find a real Hammond these days, but the sound is copied. A: Yeah, they have the sound copied in the memory bank, or whatever. You cyaan get a Hammond too easily, but you can get the sound. Q: You like the copied version still, or it must be the 'real' stuff? A: Well, the sound is a important t'ing, yunno, no matter what it comes out, what you hearing then that's good enough. Q: In many ways it is like going back to the days of the good old blues players now, with the record industry, where they recorded to get promoted, to get gigs, not what you could get a substantial sum of money from, to make a living. What's left of it, it has largely turned around for something else now, how do you view the whole situation for musicians? A: Well, for me, that has wrecked the record business almos' completely. 'Cause I have records pressed and unsold, I have them still stacked up at my house right now. There's no market for them, no more record shops for you to sell records. Q: So how do you see the way to get your music out there and still get some compensation for it, is there any solution? A: Everything is downloadable, online now, computerized, whatever. And I'm not so computer literate, so that ease me out of the business. I can only make music but the market is not there right now. I have to leave that to someone else. Q: The records are soon at a dead end. A: Right, I don't know how to collec' from off the records. I dunno how to sell the records, it's gone. Q: So what's left is live work. A: Right, yes, that's why I'm currently in a band now. Live music. Q: What's the band? A: Basically it's a reggae band. I just got into the band, from last Sunday, so we're into rehearsals. Reggae Souljahs. The vocalist is Blaq Capone.

Blaq Capone.

Q: OK, so you're working with your son in law now, the circle is closed (chuckles). A: Right, right. Q: Anything you've produced? A: Well, I haven't done any production with him at this time. It's basically reggae, one drop thing and all a that. We're sticking to the original thing. Q: How do you look at the future, with all you've done, what do you have left to accomplish? A: Well, I'd like to accomplish the ultimate, yunno, I'd like the music to reach the world. That's how I see it, I'd like my music to be heard around the world. Q: What do you have in the can, stuff you've worked on for the past twenty years now, it is mostly instrumental tracks? A: OK, we had this Luciano I told you about, called 'Shalom'. I have some singin' that I did, called 'Feeling Hot'. I also have a rap, a rap thing I did, called 'Music Maker'. That's by Bobby Kalphat. I have some instrumentals. It's a combination of artists also. I also have a Gregory Isaacs on it, too. Q: Most of it is digi? A: Acoustic, acoustic. Q: Where was it recorded? A: I did most of the work at a studio called Buss Out Studios. Q: Unknown to me, who owns it? A: Chris Murdoch. Yeah, I think he plays with one of Bob Marley's sons, he plays bass and all a that. Q: Oh, you mean Chris Meredith? A: Yeah, that's him, that's the man. Right. Q: Chris Meredith from the High Times Players. He and Squidley Cole, alongside Chinna (Smith), the core players in that band. A: Right. Yeah mon, that's right. Q: To wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to add to all what's been said? A: No, not really, I'm just appreciative to know that there's people, fans out there still who has an interest in my work. I'm very appreciative of that.

If someone like Phil Pratt cites his former right hand man and arranger, keyboard virtuoso, melodica pioneer, as someone who deserves that long overdue recognition for his endless collaborations within, and contributions to, the Jamaican music community and record industry over the past forty years or more, then it's certainly about time that he'll get that wider appreciation for the work the man's accomplished. And it speaks for itself. Just look around and listen, he is probably there in your record collection, appearing on more products than you could imagine, if he's even credited. That's another problem. However, Kalphat's own production work needs to be collected from all of those scattered 45's he produced over the years. But he needs assistance. If the public would kindly 'pay back' by helping out with such a project, then that would definitely summarize Kalphat's lifetime achievement the way it should. Could this be realised? That, as they say, 'remains to be seen'... 7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots.

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