Ana, you were right in the statement to your friends. Derrick Harriott did work with my orchestra, Carlos Malcolm and his Afro-Jamaican Rhythms for over a year. After the popular singing group The Jiving Juniors disbanded, Derrick continued singing as a solo act and had make quite a name for himself with his entertaining falsetto presentation of a song called What Can I Do. Derrick worked with my Afro-Jamaican Rhythms on Friday nights at the Sombrero Club on Molynes Road, at the Maracas Club in Ocho Rios on Wednesday nights and sometimes of Saturday nights at contractual engagements of the orchestra. Quite opportunely, Derrick came to us during a time of interesting developments in the career of the Afro-Jamaican Rhythms. A contract for a second tour of extended engagements in the Bahamas had just come through for the orchestra to play at the Cat & Fiddle Club in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. We took Derrick with us. Prior to signing the Bahamas contract however, my management and I were in negotiations with Scepter Records, who had sent their A & R manager, Art Treffersen to Jamaica with a contract offering to record the orchestra for an LP they would call Jamaica Brass, Sounds of the Caribbean by Carlos Malcolm and his Afro-Jamaican Rhythms. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass were then doing Standing Room Only engagements all over the United States and Canada. Art told me that Florence Greenberg, owner of Scepter Records and he had intentions of riding the popular brass wave with a twist - a Caribbean-flavored brass group. By recording and releasing the Jamaica Brass album simultaineously with sending the orchestra to the continent of Europe on a short tour, they intended to bring us back fresh from Europe for tours in the United States and Canada, probably along the same route taken by the Tijuana Brass. Strangely, our signing of the solid Bahamas contract did not phase Treffersen. He merely went back to New York for meetings at Scepter Records. Weeks later Art flew down to the Cat & Fiddle Club, Freeport, where we had just opened and told me that he had chartered a twin-engine plane to fly the orchestra to Miami for recordings (if it was o.k. with us) on our next day-off from the six-nights-a-week engagement at the Club. Early in the morning on our next day off the orchestra, then consisting of Winston Turner-first trumpet, Ozzie Lawson-second trumpet, Karl Cannonball Bryan-alto sax, Cedric Im Brooks-tenor sax, Trevor Lopez-electric guitar, Audley Williams-electric bass, Winston Sparrow Martin-drums, Larry McDonald-conga drums, Alphonso Castro, light percussion, Boris Gardiner-electric bass/singer, Lascelles Perkins-singer, Derrick Harriott-singer, Art Treffersen and I boarded the charter plane to Miami. By 10 oclock we were set up for recording at the studios of Henry Stone, owner of a successful Miami recording company and friend of Florence Greenberg in New York. Stone had later recorded and successfully marketed the Miami hit group KC and the Sunshine Band. Among instrumentals and other songs recorded by Boris Gardiner and Lascelles Perkins was a song I wrote and arranged for Derrick Harriott called Monkey Man, which is now available in mp3 format. Attached is a shortened version of the song. Excerpt from “Carlos Malcolm – A Lifetime in Jamaican Music” ©2010
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:52:58 +0000
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