HUTTON. has been interviewing pioneers of Jamaican music

Caribbean scholar Dr Clinton Hutton is now doing research for a new book on the history and development of Jamaican music which, he expects, will be completed in two years.

"I've got a fellowship from the university (of the West Indies) for two years to do research and write a book called The Social and Aesthetic Foundation of Popular Jamaican Music 1952 to 1972," Dr Hutton told the Sunday Observer.

"It is essentially to really look at what was the basis - the social and aesthetic basis - for the music, how it came about, how it developed," added Hutton. "And so I've been interviewing a lot of the pioneers in the music right across the board."

Hutton said he had already interviewed 20 of the 100 persons he has identified for information to put the book together - persons who had a ringside seat, so to speak, at the birth of the music.

Among them are the late Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One fame, with whom Hutton spoke for six hours; Headley Jones; Headley Bennett; Ernest Ranglin and Johnny "Dizzy Johnny" Moore.

"People who used to go to dances, there are a lot of stories from them, and I need to understand the social settings, because it is out of the sound system movement that popular Jamaican music developed," added Hutton.
The book, he said, will also explore the cultural mores in which the music developed and the extent to which the movement of people from rural Jamaica to Kingston contributed to the music's evolution.

"It developed out of a culture that was at a crossroads," the Jamaican university lecturer said. "The people who migrated from all different parts of Jamaica into Kingston to find a better way of life, they took with them the different music traditions from different corners of Jamaica.

"So in West Kingston for the first time, we had a lot of the different regional music traditions meet in one place. And along with that the Cuban and the African-American influences, and, to some extent, the calypso influence and the influence of country and western."

Hutton also hinted at writing a sequel to the book, saying that he intended to look at the period between 1972 and 2002. However, he could not, he said, put a timetable on its completion, as his focus is now on the immediate work.

"I have about 10 more months before my time is up," he told the Sunday Observer. "It's a two-year fellowship, but I've been working on it even before the fellowship," he added.

He said the annual series of symposia he has been staging on late reggae icon Peter Tosh and on Don Drummond, the late ska instrumentalist, form the basis for the work he is now undertaking.

Hutton also revealed that he wants to examine Jimmy Cliff's contribution to music and film at a future Don Drummond symposium,.

"We're going to be having two panels, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. One panel looking at the film, and the other one looking at the music," he said.

"And for Peter Tosh, we're looking at his role in African liberation," said Hutton. "Last year was the 10th anniversary since Apartheid was politically defeated. The work to undermine the culture of Apartheid is just beginning. What we're looking at is the role of the music with a special focus on Peter Tosh, but, of course, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley, because they had a tremendous influence on the African liberation struggle as well.

"One could argue that probably Peter Tosh was the most outspoken and most consistent voice, especially with regards to the anti-Apartheid struggle."

Last year, Hutton completed a book on the Haitian revolution titled The Cosmological roots of Haitian freedom: the logic and historical significance of the Haitian revolution.

"It's really a book looking at the Haitian revolution from a philosophical standpoint, trying to track the revolution and its justification and the making of freedom from the point of view of the people who themselves made the revolution," he explained.

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