Floyd 'Lloyd' Seivright

THOUGH his work as a musician has taken him to all parts of the world, no place has impacted on Floyd Seivright's life as much as the Alpha Boys School, the Roman Catholic orphanage he first attended in 1962.

Seivright, known in music circles as Floyd Lloyd, left Jamaica in 1969 to live in the United Kingdom and gained relative success throughout Europe as a keyboardist and Ska singer. Last year, he switched gears and tried his hand at film-making; the subject: the Alpha Boys School and its best-known matriarch, Sister Mary Ignatius.

Seivright, 53, started work on his documentary in August, 2002 when he visited the Alpha Boys School to interview Sister Ignatius who died February 9 at the University Hospital of the West Indies, one day after suffering a heart attack.

Seivright told Throb earlier this week that he still has some way to go before completing the project.

"I think it will take another eight months before we are finished," said Seivright, "I still have to talk to people like (trombonist) Rico (Rodriquez) and Keith and Lester Sterling...other persons at Alpha."

To date, Seivright says he has interviewed key figures who benefited from the Alpha music programme, including saxophonist Cedric Brooks and trumpeter Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, a founding member of The Skatalites.

Guitarist Ernie Ranglin, legendary producer Clement Dodd and Dave Rosencrans of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington are also featured.

Seivright, who lives in New York, says Sister Ignatius' tribute to the development of music at Alpha will be a significant part of the documentary. He added that it contains some little-known facts about the nun who mentored revered horn players like trombonist Don Drummond and saxophonist Tommy McCook.

"She loved sports, a lot of people don't know that she started the Harrison cricket competition in the 1950s," said Seivright. "And she also wrote a play, March To Nationhood, in 1962 just before we (Jamaica) got independence (from Great Britain)." Seivright has maintained his love for the Ska sound he first heard during his early days at Alpha which produced musicians who perfected that jazzy beat. He returned to record in Jamaica frequently in the 1990s, working with Ranglin and the respected vibraphonist Lennie Hibbert on the album Village Soul.

His albums include Mango Blue and the double set, Our World.

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