The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 10th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

The Alpha Institute, formerly Alpha Boy’s Home, is a vocational residential school on South Camp Road in Kingston run by Roman Catholic nuns. Established in 1880 as a “school for wayward boys”, it is renowned for producing some of Jamaica’s outstanding musicians.

One such student was drummer Winston “Sparrow” Martin who has dedicated his adulthood to teaching at the institution.

Martin entered Alpha in the early 1950s, and was tutored by Reuben Delgado and Lennie Hibbert. Initially, he learned to play the trumpet but eventually switched to drums.

He played on The Wailers’ hit song Stir it Up and Negril, American guitarist Eric Gale’s acclaimed jazz/reggae album.

Yet, he is best known for his work as a mentor at Alpha. Ska Rebirth, a nine-piece band he founded and leads, comprises his former students.

Alpha helped develop the talent of numerous musicians who passed through its hallowed halls, including trombonist Don Drummond, saxophonists Tommy McCook and Lester Sterling, trumpeters Johnny “Dizzy” Moore and David Madden, drummer Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, singers Johnny Osbourne and Leroy Smart, and deejay Yellowman.

Drummond, McCook, Sterling and Moore were members of the legendary Skatalites band which defined ska in the early 1960s McCook, Madden and Wallace helped shape the sound of roots-reggae a decade later while Osbourne and Yellowman are kingpins of 1980s dancehall.

Most of the students from Alpha’s golden age, including Martin, were mentored by Sister Mary Ignatius, the Catholic nun who is synonymous with the school.