Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterOSSIE D ended up lying onstage singing three Fridays ago.
It was not a slip of his nimble feet and neither were there any slips of the tongue, as he kept singing Roy Shirley style, facing the audience, while his musical partner, Stevie G, kept on
playing the guitar with the Unique Vision Band.
The audience at the 2005 Tribute to Cynthia Schloss, held at the Jamaica Association of Vintage loved every moment, as did those who saw the duo in action on the lawns of Stella Maris for the
mid-summer Bunny Brown Experience.
Many of the duo's similar
minutes and moments of music and movement harmony, in a partnership that has effectively lasted a lifetime, will be available for replay, as a DVD of their career is almost complete. It will be available to the public in January.
Ossie D, who spoke for both, said that some of the material comes from their stints on the north coast cabaret circuit, where people would tape them in performance. Those cabaret shows came after Ossie D had returned to Jamaica from 15 years in Canada after going up to do two weeks of shows with the Fabulous Flames.
BROTHERS REUNITED
And it was a reunion of a union that had never been really broken, as long before they were Ossie D and Stevie G, musical partners, they had been Oswald Douglas and Steve Golding, for all practical purposes, brothers.
Ossie D explained that when Stevie G's father, John Golding Sr., decided to start Golding's Printery at 106 East Street in downtown Kingston, he invited Ossie D's mother, Edna Ball, to be a part of the business. This naturally brought the two, born within a month of each other, together.
"John Golding became my godfather and likewise my mother became his godmother," Ossie D said. The two actually started performing together when they were "four, five, six". Steven Golding started to play the guitar also at a very early age.
Fate, it seemed, always brought them together. When Ossie D ended up on the Cathedral Choir and Stevie G on the KC Choir, they were both chosen for the All-Island Choir. When the Fabulous Flames, which Ossie D co-founded as a dancing duo, became a performing group with Lloyd Lovindeer, Glen Ricks, the late Kirk Salmon and himself, Golding was the guitarist with the Fabulous Five. Fab Five would often play with the Fabulous Flames, the combination being dubbed 'Twin Fabs' - and Ossie D and Stevie G would naturally be together again.
NOT TO BE SEPARATED
Then the Flames went to Canada to do Caribana in 1969 and it would be 1983 before Ossie D returned to Jamaica to live. They were slated to stay for two weeks but "got a year of bookings in Canada alone". The 'Twin Fabs' - and Ossie D and Stevie G - were not to be separated, performing together when Fab Five came to Canada for concerts. Even when Stevie G was playing with Peter Tosh, their paths would cross when the Stepping Razor came to Canada.
Then The Fabulous Flames broke up and Ossie D made a personal decision. "My mother was 80 and she was living alone. When you are in foreign and you don't see people for a while, when you ask them where they were they say that they went to bury their mother or father. I decided that would not happen," he said. He has no regrets about the time spent with his mother, who died in 1995.
Show business was still in the blood, though, and Ossie D went to the North Coast to check out the cabaret scene, simply as a person in the audience. "And I said Stevie and I have something to offer. We had done it so many times. Pus, we are brothers from birth," he said.
There was a problem with naming the group, though. "He was saying Ossie D and Stevie G and I was saying Stevie G and Ossie," Ossie D said, putting down the eventual name to Stevie's larger size, chuckling as he says "him bad me up".
Before hitting the road, though, there was the matter of practice. And more practice. "There was a room upstairs Golding's Printery. We rehearsed for months there. When I was away I did not just hear the music that people are hearing now. I saw it live. I studied the art of performance, how it is when you put in the work and how it is when you do not put in the work. I saw James Brown 50 million times, Gladys Knight and the Pipps, Stevie Wonder - I saw him get up and do a routine. I saw it the other day on BET," Ossie D said.
Those were lean days, Ossie D saying that when they went to the 'Munch Wagon' for a meal, many times they had to decide who was to have the milkshake and who would have the cheese sandwich.
Buying two of each was not an option.
They started out with small concerts and barbecues, the strength of their performances taking them all the way to Reggae Sunsplash, the last night it was held at Jarrett Park and a Beach Party night when it was held at the Bob Marley Centre.
"As it was a small night they said 'no encores'. We got off the stage and went to the changing room and they had to come for us. The front page of The Star the following day was our write-up," he said.
Among their regular performances was at the Jonkanoo Lounge, where they carried along their own musicians, including Howard 'Spread' DeBassie, Donovan Palmer and Robbie Lyn. Palmer would also come along on the North Coast gigs. Although it meant that the money had to be split more ways, Ossie D said "we knew what we were doing. We were building our career".
"We have been progressing slowly, but we do not make any apologies for what we do. We pick and choose the shows that we do," Ossie D said.
Among the larger shows that they have done are Youth Consciousness at the National Stadium, Sound For Sight, Stage Rage, Award of Excellence at the Ward Theatre, which led to a show at Crystal Springs with Third World, as well as the History of Dance at the Stadium with the Movements Dance Company. There were also human rights concerts for the then incarcerated Nelson Mandela.
Their first recording was 'Bitter and Sweet', co-written with Alvin Campbell, and Ossie D says they also co-wrote Sophia George's 'Girlie Girlie', as well as doing the final mix.
"My joy is to lift the load. Even the cultural music, there is a limit to that. That is our job, to lift that load for a little time. For that time you forget about the light bill and the gunmen. That's why the country is like this. People have no escape," Ossie D said.
"We just work hard and believe in love. L-O-V-E," Ossie D said. "Everything we do or say is from the heart."
