Harry Johnson was just one of many new producers
establishing individual styles and making their presence felt
locally and among Jamaican communities abroad. Herman Chin Loy,
a cousin of Leslie Kong, was specializing in quirky, innovative
instrumentals on his Aquarius and Scorpio imprints, including
"Reggae In the Fields", "Invasion" and Inner Space".
Several of these left-field productions, usually involving the
Hippy Boys session band, were released in the UK on Junior Lincoln's
pro-gressive Ackee label, but not the record that was the most
important of all, judged from any his-torical perspective. This
was "Iggy Iggy", the 1969 debut of one Horace Swaby, who took
on the house name that the producer used for many of his discs
featuring a keyboards player Augustus Pablo.
The young Mr Swaby's follow-up was another instrumental, and
it was to gain a far greater reputation than its initial sales
suggested the first cut of "East
Of the River Nile". |
It was a masterpiece of understatement, with Pablo alternating
rudimentary but spooky solos on melodica and organ over a jagged
rhythm remi-niscent of the Temptations "Papa Was A Rolling Stone".
The first example of what would soon come to be known as Pablo's
"Far East sound", it was typified by the employment of minor
chords which imparted a supposedly oriental feel to the music,
and it soon spawned imitators such as Bobby Kalphat, Joe White,
Glen Brown and the similarly named Pablo Black.
This Eastern feel was often further emphasized by the titles,
as in the case of the first record by Pablo which really struck
a chord with Jamaican record buyers - "Java", produced by another
Chinese-Jamaican, Clive Chin, a friend since schooldays. Working
at the family-owned Randy's studio, Chin not only produced further
exceptional instrumentals from the frail-looking melodica/clavinet
player, but also recorded a fine series of vocals with such
as Dennis Brown, Junior Byles, Hubert Lee, Jimmy London, Carl
Malcolm and the Lyrics, who included future roots hero Fred
Locks in their line-up.
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