Monty Alexander :

Artiste – Musician - Piano

Monty Alexander’s roots run deep in Jamaican music. His contributions on the piano date back to the mid 1950s when the piano was the critical instrument for music in Jamaica. In his teens Monty was playing the piano with musical colleagues Tommy McCook and Rolando Alphonso and recording with vocalists like The Blues Busters and Jackie Edwards. Decades later Monty has built a musical history that possesses that Jamaican grit complimented with a gigantic dose of Jazz work.

Presently Monty Alexander is recording with Telarc Records based out of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He also performs live with a trio, including Hassan Shakur on Bass, Robert Thomas on hand drums, and Mark Taylor form England on drums.

The following is a 2003 Monty Alexander Interview by Rich Lowe:

Q: People say that reggae music is simple, but drummer once said: “People wish they could do in the studio what I do live.” So, reggae music is not so simple.

A: It’s like anything. If you know what it is and you feel it, and you love it, and you understand it, it’s not hard. Sly says it, and he’s absolutely right. If you live it and you love it and you are it. It’s just something you do like rollin’ out of bed in the morning. It is really not a chore or a challenge. For the people who never really grew up with it or didn’t like it or didn’t experience it, it’s a cultural thing. It’s harder for them. It’s a feeling. When you listen to it it come off like a rose y’know. – it just perfect. It is a perfect thing when it’s right.

Q: When you were over at Federal Studios recording with many of the greats in Jamaican music, you were so young playing one of the critical instruments to the music at the time. You have the ganja, the rum, and the girls – how did you bridge that gap?

A: It’s the good things you learn in home and at school. You remember if you went too far off the path, Somebody gonna tek the can an’ woop your bottom. You had the righteous hand of righteousness to keep you on the path. Thank God. I attribute it to the creator because some of us drift. Some of us are able to walk the line. Among the guys at that studio, there were enough paternal positive influences in Aubrey Adams and Roland Alphonso, whereas one of the other guys over there busy, busy messin’ his life up because he don’t know when to stop. I was able at an early age to discern: I admire that guy, but I don’t wanna do that. When you have good upbringin’ whether it’s church or parents, that gonna help you stay away from dat. We’re all like leaves in the wind, when you’re lickle children.

In that gathering. When musicians get together and we doin’ this thing that we love so much we become like little children and we just laughin’ together. I was confident in what I was doin’. When it come to droppin’ a riddim, I was confident then as I am now. I loved it, so I like to think I didn’t hold them back.

Q: What do you remember of Studio One on Brentford Road?

A: I just remember bein’ around those guys. To me that was the greatest honor - that they would accept me because I was able to identify with them from an early age. These people are the greatest people! I saw the movie across on the screen, I said: “Look at that! That’s James Cagney!” But he was just a movie actor. When the cameras stopped, he went back to whatever he was bein’, y’know? These musicians, the guy playin’ the horn, that was him. He was obliged to always live because when you are a musician you can’t just play the horn and forget it. You have to love a philosophy. As Tommy McCook did and Don Drummond. The truth is it’s a family all over the world. Whether their in New York City, when they’re aspiring to a higher art form. That’s the thing with jazz, it’s a higher art form of expression.

Q: Having recorded for Clement Dodd early in both of your careers, what is your take on his role in Jamaican music?

A: Coxsone found a key to a combination that when he played the music, those people dance and feel good. He found those keys and you had to keep the rhythm in it. One of the things with the jazz people, they forget about the rhythm. The rhythm is a big part of what made it happen because people moved to it. A lot of jazz is so intellectual and cerebral that people forgot about it. Coxsone knew, I gotta take Roland Alphonso, Ernie Ranglin, and Don Drummond and put the harness on them and keep the groove goin’. Gimme the beat! He make sure that the feelin’ of the song was always there first and foremost.

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