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The nun who nurtured reggae
By Jonathan Charles
BBC correspondent
Sister Marie Ignatius Davies: 'the 'nun who nurtured reggae'In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Sister Mary Ignatius Davies ran the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica, instilling into her boys a love of music and thus playing a vital but unheralded role in the reggae explosion of the 1960s
BBC correspondent and reggae fanatic Jonathan Charles tells the story of Sister Iggy, her sound-system dances and the men she inspired.
As a teenager growing up in Nottingham in the mid-1970s - there was a big Afro-Caribbean community and reggae was everywhere.
It was fantastically exotic - against the background of freezing cold winters there was this sound wafting in from the Caribbean, very different to English life at the time.
In a way that interest in the exotic is what led to me wanting to travel and eventually to become a foreign correspondent, a feeling that there was more life beyond the United Kingdom.
How did you come across her story?
I was leafing through some CDs in a record shop about 18 months ago and came across some stuff released by Trojan Records.
There was a lot of material from the Alpha Boys School and I thought it sounded an interesting story, so I started doing some research and found that it was all about this nun who’d nurtured reggae by teaching the guys that were part of my musical education.
She was a fantastic woman because, believe it or not, she was a DJ who ran a sound system with her own decks.
She had hundreds of records and would run dances on Saturday nights.
Every time a new record came out she’d send one of the boys off to buy it - these boys were all from the wrong side of the tracks and she gave them their love of music.
When the reggae explosion happened in the 60s it was mainly fuelled by guys who’d been through the Alpha Boys School.
Many of the musicians who played with Bob Marley got their start with 'Sister Iggy'
When she died her collection ended up in a Seattle museum, such was its importance as a chronicle of Jamaican music.
They also found her notes on mixing and how she would go from a Prince Buster song to the Skatalites... in those days in Jamaica when people couldn’t afford radios or records her Saturday night dances were very influential in breaking new music.
More than music
And it wasn’t just music; she also taught them boxing, happily donning gloves to take on boys that were often twice her weight and size.
She believed it was her Christian duty to teach them skills that would see them through their lives in a rough town like Kingston.
How did you track down your interviewees?
We were very lucky that all the guys either live here in England or pass through regularly.
We’ve spoken to Vin Gordon, who actually played trombone on that Althea and Donna track, and was also with the Wailers back in the 60s; we spoke to Hedley Bennett, who played with the Upsetters and the Skatalites; we interviewed singer Owen Gray, Winston Martin, who also played with the Wailers and another great called Eddie ‘TanTan’ Thornton, who played with all the top reggae groups and has recently been with the Jools Holland Band.
They’re all pensioners now.
Gifted Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond was a 'graduate of Alpha'
All the Skatalites went to the Alpha school - Lester Sterling, Don Drummond - they wrote Is This Love the Bob Marley song... I was interviewing Winston Martin about it and he just burst into song.
If you want to get grown men to cry simply talk to them about her.
These were guys from the wrong side of the tracks, from Trenchtown and places like that where they had no future.
Had it not been for her...
Several said they would be dead if it wasn’t for her and they want to keep her memory alive.
If you’re a Catholic nun, you’re into saving people’s souls and by giving them a musical love you’ll save a lot more than perhaps pure religion would have done.
She really did save these people - they would have died in the gang warfare in Trenchtown.
When you ask how influential she was they all say that the reggae explosion of the 60s would not have happened without her.
You don’t expect a Catholic nun to be responsible for one of the world’s great musical traditions and I was staggered that it isn’t better known because to me it seems the most amazing story.
The thing about this documentary is that it’s not just the Nun’s story, it’s what it says about Jamaican independence and about the people she saved. Even if you don’t like reggae music it’s a great story.
Listen to part one of the programme
Listen to part two of the programme
SEE ALSO
Facing up to breast cancer
Have your say: your page, your call
BBC Caribbean News In Brief
Barbados' "mother of all elections"
Email a friend 
Printable version
By Jonathan Charles
BBC correspondent
Sister Marie Ignatius Davies: 'the 'nun who nurtured reggae'In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Sister Mary Ignatius Davies ran the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica, instilling into her boys a love of music and thus playing a vital but unheralded role in the reggae explosion of the 1960s
BBC correspondent and reggae fanatic Jonathan Charles tells the story of Sister Iggy, her sound-system dances and the men she inspired.
As a teenager growing up in Nottingham in the mid-1970s - there was a big Afro-Caribbean community and reggae was everywhere.
It was fantastically exotic - against the background of freezing cold winters there was this sound wafting in from the Caribbean, very different to English life at the time.
In a way that interest in the exotic is what led to me wanting to travel and eventually to become a foreign correspondent, a feeling that there was more life beyond the United Kingdom.
How did you come across her story?
I was leafing through some CDs in a record shop about 18 months ago and came across some stuff released by Trojan Records.
There was a lot of material from the Alpha Boys School and I thought it sounded an interesting story, so I started doing some research and found that it was all about this nun who’d nurtured reggae by teaching the guys that were part of my musical education.
She was a fantastic woman because, believe it or not, she was a DJ who ran a sound system with her own decks.
She had hundreds of records and would run dances on Saturday nights.
Every time a new record came out she’d send one of the boys off to buy it - these boys were all from the wrong side of the tracks and she gave them their love of music.
When the reggae explosion happened in the 60s it was mainly fuelled by guys who’d been through the Alpha Boys School.
Many of the musicians who played with Bob Marley got their start with 'Sister Iggy'
When she died her collection ended up in a Seattle museum, such was its importance as a chronicle of Jamaican music.
They also found her notes on mixing and how she would go from a Prince Buster song to the Skatalites... in those days in Jamaica when people couldn’t afford radios or records her Saturday night dances were very influential in breaking new music.
More than music
And it wasn’t just music; she also taught them boxing, happily donning gloves to take on boys that were often twice her weight and size.
She believed it was her Christian duty to teach them skills that would see them through their lives in a rough town like Kingston.
How did you track down your interviewees?
We were very lucky that all the guys either live here in England or pass through regularly.
We’ve spoken to Vin Gordon, who actually played trombone on that Althea and Donna track, and was also with the Wailers back in the 60s; we spoke to Hedley Bennett, who played with the Upsetters and the Skatalites; we interviewed singer Owen Gray, Winston Martin, who also played with the Wailers and another great called Eddie ‘TanTan’ Thornton, who played with all the top reggae groups and has recently been with the Jools Holland Band.
They’re all pensioners now.
Gifted Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond was a 'graduate of Alpha'
All the Skatalites went to the Alpha school - Lester Sterling, Don Drummond - they wrote Is This Love the Bob Marley song... I was interviewing Winston Martin about it and he just burst into song.
If you want to get grown men to cry simply talk to them about her.
These were guys from the wrong side of the tracks, from Trenchtown and places like that where they had no future.
Had it not been for her...
Several said they would be dead if it wasn’t for her and they want to keep her memory alive.
If you’re a Catholic nun, you’re into saving people’s souls and by giving them a musical love you’ll save a lot more than perhaps pure religion would have done.
She really did save these people - they would have died in the gang warfare in Trenchtown.
When you ask how influential she was they all say that the reggae explosion of the 60s would not have happened without her.
You don’t expect a Catholic nun to be responsible for one of the world’s great musical traditions and I was staggered that it isn’t better known because to me it seems the most amazing story.
The thing about this documentary is that it’s not just the Nun’s story, it’s what it says about Jamaican independence and about the people she saved. Even if you don’t like reggae music it’s a great story.
Listen to part one of the programmeListen to part two of the programmeSEE ALSO
Facing up to breast cancer Have your say: your page, your call BBC Caribbean News In Brief Barbados' "mother of all elections" Email a friend Printable version
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