BoyneI've lost my musical hero and icon, Alton Ellis, but my mourning is mixed with enormous celebration of a professional life well lived. Comparisons are said to be odious, but apart from Bob Marley, Alton Ellis was the single greatest artiste Jamaica has produced and we are a superpower in music.
Well, lets start with the incontrovertible up to the time of his death, Alton had no contemporary from the era of the 1950s or 1960s who elicited more frenzy, excitement and passion than he did among audiences in Jamaica and the world. There are other greats from the ska and rocksteady era who are still around and whom I am personally never tired of seeing. People like John Holt, Ken Boothe, Leroy Sibblie's, Bob Andy and Derrick Morgan, for example. But all of them would attest to Alton's supremacy. Even the highly self-assured Bob Andy (deservedly so) would acknowledge Alton's greatness and pivotal impact on Jamaican music.
Alton Ellis epic role in Jamaican music must be properly documented. I am waiting for the supreme authority on these matters, Roger Steffens, to write. But in the meantime, Alton's stature compels me to break from the usual local politics and international affairs to record my own assessment of this giant who passed away in London two Fridays ago.
Alton Ellis was the incarnation of excellence, precision and artistic genius. His life was a demonstration of ghetto authenticity and a telling rejoinder to those vulgariser's who have perpetuated the myth that to come from the ghetto is to come full loaded with excuses for mediocrity, boorish behaviour and bhuttooism. Alton represented true roots; the real soul of the Jamaican people. Anyone who knew Alton Ellis will testify to his relentless quest for perfection and his corresponding impatience with just-so performance and the excuses which go with it.
euphoria
He would get angry easily with back-up musicians who were playing off-key, and he was very particular about which band was backing him. He would not hesitate to stop the band onstage until they got it right even when the audience, caught in the euphoria of the Alton hits, did not recognise any transgression.
Alton exemplified the fact that the desire to be world-class was not limited to uptown but was very much in Trench Town. Alton inspired and actively encouraged a whole cadre of musicians toward excellence.
I have spoken to a number of them, who told me of Alton's decisive influence on them: Dennis Brown, Beres Hammond, Leroy Sibblies, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, Sugar Minott, Bongo Herman, among many others. Alton stressed to them the importance of playing an instrument; of having a musical ear; of paying serious attention to the aesthetics of music. He was truly the godfather, not only of rocksteady, but to the musicians who constituted its galaxy of stars.
Altons role as a mentor to other greats is among his most profound contributions to Jamaicans music. So when you hear Beres Hammond today, you are hearing Alton Ellis. Bob Marley himself was strongly influenced by Alton and Bob looked up to Alton for inspiration. Alton was Bobs local Curtis Mayfield. I once asked Alton whether he felt jealous of the extraordinary fame which Bob had achieved across the globe, knowing his own greatness. He said no and mentioned how often Bob told him that he looked up to him.
It is appropriate at this point to mention a little-mentioned feature of Alton's personality: his courage and sense of principle over personality. I pointed out to Keith Brown on Power 106 two Saturday nights ago an important fact which Garth White, Jamaica's scholar par excellence of Jamaican music, mentioned in his piece the following day in the Sunday Herald: that Alton took a courageous stand in the 1960s against the glamorisation of the Rude Boys which had crept into the music and which Bob had facilitated.
smash hit
Alton told me in an early Profile interview that he deliberately and strategically crafted the smash hit Dance Crasher and also Cry Tough to counter the Wailers songs, such as Rudie Get Taller and others which, while nothing near the gangsta lyrics of Mavado, Bounty Killer and Vybz Kartel of today, took a soft approach to the Rude Boys.
Alton, living in the same oppressive and depressed conditions of the ghetto, had the foresight to see that Rude Boys were not acting in the interest of the poor masses and that what they stood for was ultimately against the interest of poor black people. Alton has always been a leader, a folk philosopher.
fame
In Dance Crasher Alton pointed to what was best in us: You could be a gentleman, you could be a champion like Mr Bunny Grant, who, like Usain Bolt of today, had achieved fame for Jamaica through sport. Alton pointed to the positive things we as oppressed black people could do to uplift our name, rather than through the route of badness.
Cry Tough was written to mock the leading badman in West Kingston at the time. Cry Tough, don't you see you're getting old. How can a man be tough, tougher than the world?
The brilliance of Alton Ellis cannot be captured even in a lengthy column like this one. When Desmond Dekker was merely commenting that Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail a Shanty Town.
Rude boy a bomb up the town,” Alton was pointing rude boys to a better way by telling them in a song, Don’t Trouble People.
This took courage. Alton told me that one night at a dance as Bob’s rude boys songs were being played, some screw-face bad boys circled him with their ratchet knives (weapons of choice at that time) menacingly. Because he had done Dance Crasher – and they knew it was in response to the Wailers’ glamorisation of Rude Boys. Alton was upset that rude boys could hear in songs plea from artistes “Let him go, you gotta let him go.”
dancehall artistes
We need similar people of courage among dancehall artistes today who deliberately stand against the glorification of shottas, dons and gangstas for death.
Alton Ellis was one of the brightest and most articulate of our musicians ever. He had clear, distinct ideas and very strong views. I am glad that before he died we honoured him with the Order of Distinction, though I think this should be upgraded to CD class.
Alton Ellis was the kind of person of whom all inner-city people should be proud. He was a fine representative of Trench Town. He showed that dignity, decency and defiance to bhuttooism can certainly come from the ghetto – and often does, despite the fact that the underbelly of inner-city life gets so much publicity.
Alton inspired such awe by his sheer presence and charisma that my colleague Paget deFreitas used to beg me to make him meet Alton personally. Alton knew of my own hero worship of him and sometimes seems a bit embarrassed about it.
I was such a fanatic of his that when he was to perform on Sunsplash or Mikey Barnet’s or Robert Bryan’s shows, I could not wait for the date but used my media access to get into the rehearsals to see my musical idol perform.
One night he was rehearsing on Constant Spring Road. I went there even before Alton. Instruments were strung up and I took the opportunity to do Black Man’s Pride. When Alton came he said he knew I could not resist the mic.
Years ago, when Alton would fly in from London I would go to his hotel to pick up him and transport him around town, just to be in his presence.
I would always be totally in a trance during an Alton performance, as many Jamaicans can testify; reciting every line of the Alton songs, perhaps to the annoyance of some.
When he would hit, I’m Still in Love, I’ll Never Love Again, Breaking Up, Willow Tree, What Does It Take, Change My Mind, You Make Me So Very Happy, I’ll be Waiting, Tumbling Tears, Baby I Love You, Ain’t That Loving You, Muriel, I would be in another world.
Jamaican music
I loved all the hits that would rev up the crowd: Girl I’ve Got a Date, Get Ready Rocksteady, Dance Crasher, Let Him Try, I’m Just a Guy, Why Birds Follow Spring, La La Means I love You. But I had one desire which was never realised: that was to see Alton perform to a select group of connoisseurs of Jamaican music; people of exquisite taste who had the temperament to bask in the ecstasy of his slower songs which don’t pull you to the dance floor, but which lift you to cloud nine instead; to be just alone or with your very loved one.
There was the need to see him perform his lesser-known hits which really show his genius at interpretation and his soulfulness – which has not been surpassed in Jamaican music. (Though I must say that early Wailers could blow you away).
Alton Ellis
great consciousness music
I wanted to be able to hear him sing So Much Love, Can’t Stop Now, Live and Learn, All My Tears Come Rolling (not the same as Tumbling Tears for those who are not aficionados) Baby Now That I find You, Sitting in the Park, and Massachusetts. If you have never heard Alton’s version of Wide Awake in a Dream, you have never heard the best version around! And if you want to hear great consciousness music aside from his classic Lord Deliver Us, you must hear If I Could Rule the World. For a moving patriotic song, you need to hear Alton Ellis’ Jamaica. Alton had over 20 albums. Some of his finest works are not well known.
But what is well known is that Alton Nehemiah Ellis a musical treasure mined in this land of gold. The world will miss this legend.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
