THE Alpha Boys Home was on Monday honoured by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association, (JARIA), as part of this year’s Reggae month celebrations being held under the theme, To Di Root.

Present to witness the occasion were representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the opposition spokesperson on culture, Lisa Hannah and other players in the Reggae music industry.

Chairman of the Reggae Month Committee, Charles Campbell said Alpha Boys Home, through its music programme had made an immeasurable contribution to Jamaica’s popular music and it was only fitting for the institution to be honoured.

“We have chosen to honour Alpha because here is where produced the musicians that gave us our first musical genre ska,” Campbell said.

The Alpha Boys Home is arguably the institution that has made the greatest contribution to Jamaica’s popular music and has helped shape this invaluable and timeless treasure into what many take for granted today.

An institution that houses male orphans and those in need of care and protection, the Alpha Boys Home, through its music programme has churned some of this country’s most accomplished musicians and vocalists.

The Alpha Boys Band started as a drum and fire corps in 1892 but evolved into a brass band when Roman Catholic Bishop of Jamaica donated second hand brass instruments he acquired in the United States. But the most impacting period in the Alpha band’s history on Jamaican culture came during the tutelage of Sister Mary Ignatius Davies.

During that period played a major role in the genesis of ska and reggae, the genres which have put Jamaica on the musical map.

As head of the boys home, she took in wayward boys and turned them into excellent musicians who forever etched their name in annals of musical greatness.

Sister Ignatius nurtured the talent of the tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook, trombonist Don Drummond and trumpeter Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore, who went on to form the Skatalites, and also guided the trombonist Rico Rodriguez who moved to Britain, played with the Specials on their chart-topping Special AKA EP of January 1980 and is currently a member of Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.

Present bandmaster, Sparrow Martin, drummer Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace and saxophonist Dean Fraser, also acquired their musical skills while they were at Alpha Boys Home.

Other wards of Alpha to make a name for themselves in popular music include reggae singer Leroy Smart and DJ King Yellowman.

Perhaps the most accomplished name to have come out of Alpha is Dr Leslie Thompson, the first black man to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra.

Thompson was also the first Alpha musician to have played in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Today the Alpha Boys Band is still vibrant and the institution has been using music to provide a vocational outlet for many of the boys who pass through the home.