Tony Greene

SAXOPHONIST TONY Greene toured and recorded for many years as a member of Lloyd Parkes and We The People Band, before packing it in during the late 1990s for a solo career that has so far yielded six albums.

Greene's latest studio effort, Midnight Blue, was launched last Wednesday at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel. The 14-track set includes nine originals, with a honest reworking of Marley's Concrete Jungle as one of its covers.

Greene, a graduate of the Alpha Boys School, recently spoke to Gleaner writer Howard Campbell about Midnight Blue and how it fits into the local music scene.

Howard Campbell: How hard is it to market an instrumental album in Jamaica?

Tony Greene: It's rough to a point, if you don't have the right strategy, that was one of the toughest things for me when I was doing the album - how to get it out there, because the market for this kind of album is small. I'm getting some airplay now, better than before, but it could be better.

Do you think there's too much of one kind of music on local radio?

Definitely. I don't know if the radio stations are getting the live

music and not playing it, but the bottom line is that too much of one

thing is being played right now. I still think Jamaica has too much talent for that to be happening.

What's the alternative if radio play dries up?

It would have to be live shows here and abroad, then sell the album on the spot. In such a case, you have to take the initiative and do it yourself.

You tour a lot with The Gladiators, is it difficult to concentrate on your own thing?

Trying to do my thing and their thing at the same time can be tough, because you have to make a living and, at the same time, make your own music. It was done over three years, so I guess that speaks for itself.

Whose idea was it to cover Concrete Jungle?

It's a song I personally like from a long time and I decided to do a version of it. I was lucky enough to get the man (Robbie Shakespeare) who played the bass on the original, and that was veryimportant because he was the one who guided the band through the tune.

What about the guitar solo, that was a big part of the original.

Robbie told me that it was a white guy (American Wayne Perkins) who did it (original solo) and everybody loved it when it was done because people weren't used to hearing guitar solos in reggae at the time. I got Dalton Browne to do it and I think he did a very good job.