Alpha Boys School
The cradle of Jamaican music....
Alphas are the foundation of music in Jamaica.
- “Deadly” Headley Bennett, Studio One arranger and musician
Alpha Boys School was the name of the vocational residential school on South Camp Road in Kingston, Jamaica. It was run by Roman Catholic nuns.
Established in 1892 as a “school for wayward boys”, it became renowned for both the discipline it instilled in its pupils and the outstanding musical education it provided.
Over the years it developed into a legendary institution in Jamaican music and produced some of the island’s top musicians. You can see the names of two of my favorite musicians on the sign below: Don Drummond and Tommy McCook (spelled McCooke here).
Take a moment and watch this incredible (9:30 minutes) video about Alpha Boys School - it has some fantastic footage:
At the 1:26 minute mark, the camera finds a fragile-looking nun sitting in the background listening to the music played by a group of Alpha Boys. A few seconds later, she speaks: “Alpha Boys School is a school that teaches to the unfortunate. It teaches them trades that they can earn a living after they leave here and some go abroad.” That is the voice of Sister Mary Ignatius.
In 1939, Sister Ignatius became the first Jamaican Sister of Mercy to manage the school’s music program, a position she held with distinction for 64 years until she died in 2003. Along with her dedicated bandmasters’ guiding hands, she nurtured Alpha’s most famous musicians including original Skatalites members Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling, and Johnny “Dizzy” Moore, as well as other world-renowned artists like Vin Gordon, Yellowman, Joe Harriott, and Blue Note recording artist Dizzy Reece, who had this to say about her: “She’s great. I think she bought Blues in Trinity, one of my first records. She used to have all my records.”
Known as the "dean of Jamaican music”, Cecil "Sonny" Bradshaw recalls, “She was a jazz listener. The music of the day - she was with it. Swing, then to the bebop period, and then we come to the Jamaican period from ’59-ska, rocksteady, and reggae.”
Sister Susan Frazier, the school's director after Sister Ignatius' death, recalls "Sister Ignatius preferred secular music to anything. She was really a blues fan and loved jazz music. In the early days in Jamaica, whenever there was any significant event such as a hurricane or earthquake, a 45rpm record would immediately be cut about it. Iggy, as she was affectionately known, would send out a couple of boys to buy these records. She had an expansive collection, which eventually went to the Seattle Music Museum."
After Jamaican independence in 1962, one of the most important elements of growth and development in Jamaican music was the Sound System culture, more commonly attributed to Ken Khouri, Arthur “Duke” Reid, and Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd. However, Sister Mary Ignatius’ Mutt & Jeff Sound System also played an important role.
According to the Alpha Boys School (now called the Alpha Institute) website, the Mutt & Jeff Sound System was founded by past graduate Kenneth “Mutt” Davy in the late 1950s. Davy was working full time in the school printery. He was also regularly called upon by Sister Ignatius to emcee Alpha events. Seeing an opportunity to make some money, he secured Sister Ignatius’ permission to have the Alpha woodshop build speaker boxes while his friend, electrician Leighton “Jeff” Geoff, wired the system. With that, Mutt & Jeff was born. From the late 1950s into the mid-1960s, Davy was hired to set up Mutt & Jeff at local parties, holiday events, and community affairs.
Here’s an incredible picture of the original Mutt & Jeff Sound System:
Interestingly, Mutt & Jeff’s impact on Jamaican culture grew in 1964, after Davy put down the mic and sold the sound system and his records to Sister Ignatius. On the weekends and in full nun’s habit, she set up the bass-heavy sound system and played her growing record collection so the boys on campus could hear “good music”. Later she started the weekly Mutt & Jeff Sound System radio show, which aired every Sunday on Alpha Boys Parish Radio.
One of the songs Sister Ignatius played a lot was Don Drummond’s Eastern Standard Time, which allegedly would turn her to jelly when she heard it.
Don Drummond ranks up there as one of my favorite trombonists, a true visionary. He was a highly gifted musician and the Skatalites’ most prolific composer. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental illness. In January 1965, his girlfriend was found dead with four stab wounds to the chest. He was found guilty of murder and ruled criminally insane. He was imprisoned at Bellevue Asylum in Kingston, where he remained until his death four years later.
Tommy McCook was the original leader of the Skatalites. The legend goes that McCook initially refused to join the band because he said, “I’m a jazz player. I don’t play ska.” Ken Stewart, a later member of the Skatalites, recalled, “Tommy would have probably always preferred - before, during, and after the Skatalites - to have played pure jazz.” I think that sensibility comes through in most of his songs. For example, you hear it in this version of Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton's song Flying Home, recorded in 1968 for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label:
Here’s another classic from the Treasure Isle label, McCook’s rocksteady version of King Curtis’ Soul Serenade:
Besides the Skatalites, Alpha Boys School produced many other excellent musicians. I’d like to highlight two more who found fame with more well-known artists.
Eddie “Tan Tan” Thornton was right in the middle of swinging 1960s London. He made it big playing with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and fell in with an elite group of musical friends like The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles. In fact, he played trumpet on The Beatles’ song Got To Get You Into My Life. When Jimi Hendrix first came to London, it was through Tan Tan that Hendrix met drummer Mitch Mitchell, who played drums in the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Like Tan Tan, Harold McNair moved to London in the 1960s and performed regularly at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. He played flute on Donovan’s 1969 album Barabajagal. From that album, I particularly like his playing on Where Is She:
McNair would also play with heavyweights ranging from Charles Mingus (playing with his rehearsal quartet while Mingus was in London for the motion picture All Night Long) to Jimi Hendrix (recording on his 1967 album Axis Bold As Love).
All the boys that came through the Alpha School appreciated what the school did for them and, in particular, recognized Sister Ignatius for inspiring and nurturing a love for music in their lives. In the end, Sister Ignatius believed that music was just music and that ska and reggae were God’s music too.
Here’s a wonderful, short video about the Alpha Boys School, filmed in 2007 by Adam Reeves:
Here is one more for the road. In August 1965, barely a week after the demise of the original Skatalites, The Soul Brothers became the new house band at Studio One. Bob Marley brought his trio, The Wailing Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, to Studio One to record his first album. The Soul Brothers provided the background music.
Here is my favorite song from the album, It Hurts to Be Alone:
The Wailing Wailers’ big hit from that album was Simmer Down, which hit #1 on the charts and stayed there for four months. I’ve never been a huge fan of this version and most ska recordings for that matter; however, the album contains hints of rocksteady, a changing style ushered in later by Bob Marley and Duke Reid. With songs like It Hurts to Be Alone and I’m Still Waiting (I hear the seeds of Bob Marley’s Waiting In Vain in there), you can start to hear the music slowing down a bit from that hard-hitting ska beat.
The spirit of Sister Ignatius has had and continues to have a profound impact on the Alpha Boys. I like to tune into Alpha Boys School Radio, where you hear her recorded voice from time to time, as the DJs still honor her - the Godmother of ska and reggae music. Click here if you’d like to listen now.
Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll stay in Jamaica and dig our paddles into the waters of another Jamaican music pioneer, Ken Khouri.
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Thanks for walking with us, Russell.
BYW - the Hot Club of New York is rocking it at the Cafe Bohemia!
great post!!