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THE CARIBSBackground
I was playing some pre-Ska Jamaican music on my radio show when I received aphone-call from man with a crackly-voice.He said he’d heard me playing ‘Lollipop Girl’ (by the Jiving Juniors),
[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]“I played drums on [/FONT][FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]that for Mr. Dodd”, he sta[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]ted simply. [FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif][/FONT]We were on a lot of those old Jamaic[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]an tunes.” [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
It was Lowell Morris. I had been looking for Lowell and anyone else linked to The Caribssince I was first tipped to the story two years earlier by a ska collector in New York.The irony was that, the whole time I had been hunting Lowell, he had been living only 5minutes from away in a neighbouring suburb. I rushed around to his house after theshow to do the interview.The Caribs Story rolled out before me that afternoon was even more incredible than Ihad hoped …
The Caribs in Australia
The year is 1958. Lowell Morris (Albert Park, Victoria - drums), Peter Stoddart(Adelaide, South Australia - piano), Dennis Sindrey (Camberwell, Victoria - guitar), MaxWildman (Hamilton, Victoria - saxophone) and an Haitian voodoo drum priest Albert LaGuerre (percussion) were the house band at the Paradise Hotel in Surfers Paradise,Queensland. They were called ‘The Caribs’ despite none other than La Gueree everhaving been to the Caribbean. A cabaret band, their stock-in-trade was Latin-Jazzmusic.That same year, the band’s leader, Max Wildman, travelled to Haiti to help with theadministration of a new restaurant there. He had previously owned a curry house inBurke Road, Camberwell. In Haiti, Wildman met a female representative of the JamaicaTourist Board, who nominated him for a position as manager of the new Glass Bucketnightclub in Kingston. He agreed to take on the role, on condition that he could bringThe Caribs with him to be the venue’s house-band.The Caribs accepted the invitation and travelled to the Jamaica, one-way tickets in hand- all except their La Guerre, who feared returning to the Caribbean having fled Haitiduring the Duvalier government’s vicious crack-down on voodoo practices.
The Glass Bucket and the Myrtle Bank
The Caribs arrived at the Glass Bucket in December 1958 and duly became the residentband. Lowell had some wonderful photos of them performing at the club. I looked atthem and immediately recognised their stand-up bass player, Lloyd Brevett! He went onto play bass in the greatest ska band of all time, the Skatalites. It turns out, Brevett’s firstfirst professional engagement was with the Caribs!Around August 1959, the Caribs left the Glass Bucket to take up residency at the MyrtleBank Hotel on Hope Road, Kingston. A Caribs performance centred around a floor-
show featuring established and emerging local singing and dancing talent. There wereanywhere up to half-a-dozen guests every night, many of whom would go on to gainfame in the music industry. The Carib’s still played Latin-Jazz, but, had now added,Calypso, Mento and Rhythm and Blues.The expatriate Australians fell head-long into a thriving local music scene and becamefast-friends with many of its movers and shakers including Chris Blackwell (IslandRecords), Ken Khouri (Federal), Stanley Motta (Motta Recording Service) and CoxsoneDodd (Studio One).
Studio Days
In 1959, The Caribs (without Wildman) were engaged as studio band for Khouri’sFederal recording studios under a 6 month contract. The deal was brokered by CoxsoneDodd, then a young sound system operator looking to start his own record productionbusiness. Dodd had a vested interest in the Federal operation because he was rentingthe studio and its band for his own recording sessions. As a consequence, The Caribsare featured on the some of the earliest Studio One material. Incredibly, the engineer onthese recordings was another Melburnian, Graeme Goodall (Caulfied, Victoria) who hadcome to the island to build the island’s radio infrastructure and decided to hang aroundworking for a local radio station. Goodall became central to Dodd’s operation and wenton to engineer virtually all Studio One (and every other company’s) recordings until hisdeparture for England in 1965.Despite having signed an exclusivity clause with Khoury, both during the currency of thatagreement and after its expiry, The Caribs worked for other producers including ChrisBlackwell, Prince Buster and Duke Reid (though he doesn’t remember Reid or Busterwell, he recognises the songs and players). These sessions took place at the island’stwo radio stations, JBC and RJR.Amongst the records Lowell says he and the Caribs played on between 1959-1962 are:1. ‘Little Sheila’ by Laurel Aitken (R&B)2. ‘Please Let Me Go’ by Owen Gray (Starlite)3. ‘Worried Over You’ by Keith and Enid (Hi-Lite)4. ‘Lollipop Girl’ by The Jiving Juniors (Coxsone)5. ‘Hully Gully Rock’ by Roland Alphonso (Sensational)6. ‘Tell Me Darling’ by Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (R&B)7. ‘Along The Waterfront’ LP by Don Drummond and Roland Alphonso (Port’o’Jam).Lowell had copies of many of the records in which they were involved. He noted thatmany were not originally released to the public but were for use as sound system‘’exclusives” at outdoor dances. He has since misplaced the singles but has copies oncassette. I have only heard a few of the tunes before. Each one is remarkable, brilliant.They are quintessential pre-Ska Jamaican Shuffle. My favourite is a Shuffle version of‘Waltzing Mathilda’ which Lowell insists was Chris Blackwell’s first commercial release,on one of his pre-Island ventures.
Without prompting, Lowell recalled working with Roland Alphonso (“lovely guy, Rollie”),Lester Stirling, Lloyd Brevett, “that mad trombonist” (Don Drummond), Owen Gray,Laurel Aitken, Little Millie, Ernest Ranglin, Wilfred Edwards, Aubrey Adams and MontyAlexander. Lowell claims to have discovered Alexander. He says a very youngAlexander would wander into Federal between sessions and noodle on the piano.Stoddart would chase him away, but, Lowell recognised his talent and drew it to theattention of the others. This is backed up in private correspondence from Monty toLowell.Owen Gray, one of the forefathers of Jamaican music, was the Caribs’ featured vocalistfor much of this time. They also had a very close association with guitarist ErnestRanglin collaborating with him on a full-length album for Island Records. The Caribsalso played behind some of the touring American acts including The Impressions, JerryButler and Ben E. King.
Jamaica Farewell
The Caribs broke up around 1962. Dennis Sindrey and Peter Stoddart joined Byron Lee& the Dragonaires whilst Lowell formed a Soul-Jazz group. This quartet, of which thename has fogged-out over time, featured Morris on drums, Ernest Ranglin on guitar,Cluett “Clue J” Johnson on bass and Monty Alexander on piano. “We played a lot ofRamsey Lewis stuff. I introduced Monty to it” says Lowell. They played about ten gigstogether before Lowell left to join one of the island’s leading showbands, Kes Chin andthe Souvenirs.In 1962, Lowell and his Jamaican wife decided to head for New York. He has awonderful employment reference written on Kes Chin and the Souvenirs’ letterhead. Hehas kept newspaper cuttings about the aggregation from the Jamaica Gleaner and theMelbourne Herald.In the mid-1960s guitarist Dennis Sindrey recorded a number of 45s and LPs as a soloartist, including the Mento ‘Take You Meat Out Me Rice’ (Federal). He was billed as “theCalypsonaire with the blonde hair”. Both he and Peter Stoddart played in a variety oflocal bands before re-forming The Caribs to become the house band at the KingstonSheraton. Sindrey and Stoddart continued playing live and on record throughout the Skaand Rocksteady eras.Lowell Morris ended up back in Melbourne in the 1964 where he backed Little Millie (of“My Boy Lollipop” fame) at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. He also recalls accompanyingWilfred “Jackie” Edwards on his Australia tour, including a gig at a jam-packedPowerhouse on Albert Park Lake.Peter Stoddart still resides in Jamaica. Dennis Sindrey lives in Florida. Lowell Morris isback in Melbourne for good. Even at 70 years old he still plays Jazz. He plays morecongas then drums these days but still hits hard. “They called me thunder-foot” he saidwith a smile.THE END
I was playing some pre-Ska Jamaican music on my radio show when I received aphone-call from man with a crackly-voice.He said he’d heard me playing ‘Lollipop Girl’ (by the Jiving Juniors),
[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]“I played drums on [/FONT][FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]that for Mr. Dodd”, he sta[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]ted simply. [FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif][/FONT]We were on a lot of those old Jamaic[FONT=ff0, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]an tunes.” [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
It was Lowell Morris. I had been looking for Lowell and anyone else linked to The Caribssince I was first tipped to the story two years earlier by a ska collector in New York.The irony was that, the whole time I had been hunting Lowell, he had been living only 5minutes from away in a neighbouring suburb. I rushed around to his house after theshow to do the interview.The Caribs Story rolled out before me that afternoon was even more incredible than Ihad hoped …
The Caribs in Australia
The year is 1958. Lowell Morris (Albert Park, Victoria - drums), Peter Stoddart(Adelaide, South Australia - piano), Dennis Sindrey (Camberwell, Victoria - guitar), MaxWildman (Hamilton, Victoria - saxophone) and an Haitian voodoo drum priest Albert LaGuerre (percussion) were the house band at the Paradise Hotel in Surfers Paradise,Queensland. They were called ‘The Caribs’ despite none other than La Gueree everhaving been to the Caribbean. A cabaret band, their stock-in-trade was Latin-Jazzmusic.That same year, the band’s leader, Max Wildman, travelled to Haiti to help with theadministration of a new restaurant there. He had previously owned a curry house inBurke Road, Camberwell. In Haiti, Wildman met a female representative of the JamaicaTourist Board, who nominated him for a position as manager of the new Glass Bucketnightclub in Kingston. He agreed to take on the role, on condition that he could bringThe Caribs with him to be the venue’s house-band.The Caribs accepted the invitation and travelled to the Jamaica, one-way tickets in hand- all except their La Guerre, who feared returning to the Caribbean having fled Haitiduring the Duvalier government’s vicious crack-down on voodoo practices.
The Glass Bucket and the Myrtle Bank
The Caribs arrived at the Glass Bucket in December 1958 and duly became the residentband. Lowell had some wonderful photos of them performing at the club. I looked atthem and immediately recognised their stand-up bass player, Lloyd Brevett! He went onto play bass in the greatest ska band of all time, the Skatalites. It turns out, Brevett’s firstfirst professional engagement was with the Caribs!Around August 1959, the Caribs left the Glass Bucket to take up residency at the MyrtleBank Hotel on Hope Road, Kingston. A Caribs performance centred around a floor-
show featuring established and emerging local singing and dancing talent. There wereanywhere up to half-a-dozen guests every night, many of whom would go on to gainfame in the music industry. The Carib’s still played Latin-Jazz, but, had now added,Calypso, Mento and Rhythm and Blues.The expatriate Australians fell head-long into a thriving local music scene and becamefast-friends with many of its movers and shakers including Chris Blackwell (IslandRecords), Ken Khouri (Federal), Stanley Motta (Motta Recording Service) and CoxsoneDodd (Studio One).
Studio Days
In 1959, The Caribs (without Wildman) were engaged as studio band for Khouri’sFederal recording studios under a 6 month contract. The deal was brokered by CoxsoneDodd, then a young sound system operator looking to start his own record productionbusiness. Dodd had a vested interest in the Federal operation because he was rentingthe studio and its band for his own recording sessions. As a consequence, The Caribsare featured on the some of the earliest Studio One material. Incredibly, the engineer onthese recordings was another Melburnian, Graeme Goodall (Caulfied, Victoria) who hadcome to the island to build the island’s radio infrastructure and decided to hang aroundworking for a local radio station. Goodall became central to Dodd’s operation and wenton to engineer virtually all Studio One (and every other company’s) recordings until hisdeparture for England in 1965.Despite having signed an exclusivity clause with Khoury, both during the currency of thatagreement and after its expiry, The Caribs worked for other producers including ChrisBlackwell, Prince Buster and Duke Reid (though he doesn’t remember Reid or Busterwell, he recognises the songs and players). These sessions took place at the island’stwo radio stations, JBC and RJR.Amongst the records Lowell says he and the Caribs played on between 1959-1962 are:1. ‘Little Sheila’ by Laurel Aitken (R&B)2. ‘Please Let Me Go’ by Owen Gray (Starlite)3. ‘Worried Over You’ by Keith and Enid (Hi-Lite)4. ‘Lollipop Girl’ by The Jiving Juniors (Coxsone)5. ‘Hully Gully Rock’ by Roland Alphonso (Sensational)6. ‘Tell Me Darling’ by Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards (R&B)7. ‘Along The Waterfront’ LP by Don Drummond and Roland Alphonso (Port’o’Jam).Lowell had copies of many of the records in which they were involved. He noted thatmany were not originally released to the public but were for use as sound system‘’exclusives” at outdoor dances. He has since misplaced the singles but has copies oncassette. I have only heard a few of the tunes before. Each one is remarkable, brilliant.They are quintessential pre-Ska Jamaican Shuffle. My favourite is a Shuffle version of‘Waltzing Mathilda’ which Lowell insists was Chris Blackwell’s first commercial release,on one of his pre-Island ventures.
Without prompting, Lowell recalled working with Roland Alphonso (“lovely guy, Rollie”),Lester Stirling, Lloyd Brevett, “that mad trombonist” (Don Drummond), Owen Gray,Laurel Aitken, Little Millie, Ernest Ranglin, Wilfred Edwards, Aubrey Adams and MontyAlexander. Lowell claims to have discovered Alexander. He says a very youngAlexander would wander into Federal between sessions and noodle on the piano.Stoddart would chase him away, but, Lowell recognised his talent and drew it to theattention of the others. This is backed up in private correspondence from Monty toLowell.Owen Gray, one of the forefathers of Jamaican music, was the Caribs’ featured vocalistfor much of this time. They also had a very close association with guitarist ErnestRanglin collaborating with him on a full-length album for Island Records. The Caribsalso played behind some of the touring American acts including The Impressions, JerryButler and Ben E. King.
Jamaica Farewell
The Caribs broke up around 1962. Dennis Sindrey and Peter Stoddart joined Byron Lee& the Dragonaires whilst Lowell formed a Soul-Jazz group. This quartet, of which thename has fogged-out over time, featured Morris on drums, Ernest Ranglin on guitar,Cluett “Clue J” Johnson on bass and Monty Alexander on piano. “We played a lot ofRamsey Lewis stuff. I introduced Monty to it” says Lowell. They played about ten gigstogether before Lowell left to join one of the island’s leading showbands, Kes Chin andthe Souvenirs.In 1962, Lowell and his Jamaican wife decided to head for New York. He has awonderful employment reference written on Kes Chin and the Souvenirs’ letterhead. Hehas kept newspaper cuttings about the aggregation from the Jamaica Gleaner and theMelbourne Herald.In the mid-1960s guitarist Dennis Sindrey recorded a number of 45s and LPs as a soloartist, including the Mento ‘Take You Meat Out Me Rice’ (Federal). He was billed as “theCalypsonaire with the blonde hair”. Both he and Peter Stoddart played in a variety oflocal bands before re-forming The Caribs to become the house band at the KingstonSheraton. Sindrey and Stoddart continued playing live and on record throughout the Skaand Rocksteady eras.Lowell Morris ended up back in Melbourne in the 1964 where he backed Little Millie (of“My Boy Lollipop” fame) at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. He also recalls accompanyingWilfred “Jackie” Edwards on his Australia tour, including a gig at a jam-packedPowerhouse on Albert Park Lake.Peter Stoddart still resides in Jamaica. Dennis Sindrey lives in Florida. Lowell Morris isback in Melbourne for good. Even at 70 years old he still plays Jazz. He plays morecongas then drums these days but still hits hard. “They called me thunder-foot” he saidwith a smile.THE END
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