Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams (23 April 1926Ancestry.com. Jamaica, Civil Registration Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1878-1995 atabase on-line Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. – 18 October 1976Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, and Dancehall'', Greenwood Press, , pp. 317-8), was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and

band leader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues ...

Biography

In the early 1950s, he set up a Rasta community in Rockfort near

Wareika Hill Long Mountain is a mountain on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. Parts of it are also known as Wareika or Wareika Hills. It has been the site of a residence and later a Rastafarian commune of Count Ossie. Nyabinghi drummers from his Camp Dav ...

on the east side of Kingston, where many of Kingston's musicians learned about the

Rastafari movement Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...

. In the late 1950s, he (with other percussionists) formed the Count Ossie Group. According to reggae historian

Bruno Blum Bruno Blum (born October 4, 1960, Vichy, France) is a French singer songwriter, guitar player, music producer and musicologist sometimes nicknamed "Doc Reggae". He is mostly known for his work in the reggae, Caribbean music, rock music and Afric ...

, the Rasta "

nyabinghi Nyabinghi or Nyabingi is a prominent figure in the history of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, where religions or 'possession cults' formed around her. Probably via a 1930s article, the term "Nyabinghi" was introduced to Jamaica. There, it was adopted ...

" style of hand drumming, which derives from Jamaican

Kumina Kumina is an Afro-Jamaican religion. Kumina has practices that include secular ceremonies, dance and music that developed from the beliefs and traditions brought to the island by Kongo enslaved people and indentured labourers, from the Congo r ...

traditions, has its roots in

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

traditions from Eastern Congo. According to the book ''The First Rasta'' by Hélène Lee, because of their Rastafarian beliefs Count Ossie and his team were violently rejected from the then anti-Rasta music establishment and outlawed, as most Rastafarians were. It was not until around 1959, when successful dancer

Margarita Mahfood Anita "Margarita" Mahfood (died 31 December 1965) was a dancer, actress, and singer in Jamaica. She was called "the famous Rhumba queen" and headlined performances. She also performed reggae music, writing and singing her own music, one of the firs ...

, a Jamaican rumba dancer of Lebanese descent who enjoyed their new style and liked to dance to it, demanded that Count Ossie and his group be part of her major Ward Theater show. Vere John Jr. also resisted at first but at Mahfood's insistence had no other choice but to have them on his ''Opportunity Hour'' show at the Carib theater. Both shows were successful and opened new doors to Count Ossie and the Wareikas right away. Their first sound recordings were made after meeting Prince Buster, who produced a Wareikas-backed song by the

Folkes Brothers The Folkes Brothers were a Jamaican ska group, composed of John, Mico, and Junior Folkes, best known for the single "Oh Carolina". History The group's 1961 single "Oh Carolina" was the first hit record produced by Prince Buster, and is regard ...

, "

Oh Carolina "Oh Carolina" is a 1958 song by the Folkes Brothers, produced by Prince Buster and released in 1960, after which it became an early ska hit. It was covered by many various artists, including Shaggy in 1993. Folkes Brothers version The origina ...

", done at the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) Studios in 1959. The B-side was "I Met a Man"). Although both songs were recorded in the then-current style of rhythm and blues widely recorded in the US as well as Jamaica, it does include some early Rasta hand drumming not found on any previous R&B records and is regarded by some music historians as one of the first-ever

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

record. During this period Count Ossie also recorded for producers

Harry Mudie Harry A. Mudie (born 1940 in Spanish Town, Jamaica) is a Jamaican record producer.Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 315 Biography Harry Mudie attended the St Jago High School.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Vi ...

and Coxsone Dodd. Several singles as Count Ossie and the Wareikas, including "African Shuffle" as well as "Chubby" and "Rock a Man Soul" with vocal group The Mellow Cats, were produced by

circa 1961 featuring saxophonist Wilton Gaynair and trombonist Rico Rodriguez, and were released on the Jamaican label Moodies at the time (some were licensed to Emil Shalit's UK label Blue Beat and released in England in the early 1960s). Count Ossie later formed a group called The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari and recorded a few singles, including a cover of

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she w ...

's "Pata Pata" in 1967. Several Jamaican artists also used Ossie's group as percussionists for their own ska and reggae recordings, such as a couple of

King Stitt Winston Sparkes (17 September 1940 – 31 January 2012), better known as King Stitt, was a Jamaican pioneer DJ. Biography He earned the nickname as a boy because of his stuttering and decided to use it as his stage name. Stitt began deejaying ...

singles, including "Be a Man" (Studio One) circa 1969. Count Ossie issued two outstanding albums at the end of his lifetime and inspired several later Rastafarian drumming groups, including

Ras Michael Michael George Henry OD (born 1943), better known as Ras Michael, is a Jamaican reggae singer and Nyabinghi specialist. He also performs under the name of Dadawah. Biography Henry was born in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica, where he was raised in ...

and the Sons of Negus, who recorded with

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

. Count Ossie's masterpiece is the ''Grounation'' three-LP set (1973), which includes songs such as "So Long", and "Grounation" (the latter title with over 30 minutes running time) and an updated version of "Oh Carolina". Two years later ''Tales Of Mozambique'' (Dynamic 1975) was issued, continuing the legacy of the first album. Count Ossie died in a road accident on 18 October 1976, aged 50. His group, The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, lived on, toured and recorded a few albums into the 1990s.

Discography

*''Grounation'' (Ashanti 1973) *''Tales Of Mozambique'' (1975) *''Man From Higher Heights'' (1983) *''Remembering Count Ossie: A Rasta Reggae Legend'' (Moodies 1996)

References

External links

Biography
at niceup.com
Count Ossie
at Roots Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Count Ossie 1926 births 1976 deaths Djembe players Performers of Rastafarian music Jamaican reggae musicians Jamaican Rastafarians People from Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica Trojan Records artists Master drummers Road incident deaths in Jamaica 20th-century drummers