? About Count Ossie & Leslie Butler's 'Soul Drums'

[bmd]

Count Ossie & Leslie Butler's 'Soul Drums', it sounds like the organ is being played by Jackie Mittoo, does anyone know if this is, or isn't the case? You can find it on cd1 of the Nyahbinghi Box Set, as track 15 (I think it was 15).


This tune has been bugging me for ages, mostly becuase it uses a really odd melody line that I recognised for the Organ playing.. I finally worked out what it was with the help of any old boy at my place of work today,.. It's a version (on the melody) of It Was A Very Good Year, the Frank Sinatra Song.. the one that goes..

When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We’d hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We’d ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days grow short
I’m in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
>from fine old kegs
>from the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

[lankou2]

could well be Leslie Butler who is (was ?) a very apt keyboard player in his own right, like his brother (?) Harold.From what i heard it seems that it is an addiction problem which prevented his career to really take off. LB played with Jimmy Cliff and Ernie Ranglin, among others.the only thing i have with him is Ranglin Roots.he was also involved with Soni Pottinger's studio groups (i have two singles where he is credited, along with the Gaytones)
as for HB, well, he is a well-known musician in the jazz scene of JA. He is on the Tribute to Jackie Mittoo labum released on VP a few years back.he also has an extensive career in 70's roots and pop reggae.

[bmd]

Thanks Iankou2, that's interesting, if he was playing with luminaries like Ranglin then it could well be him, it was the quality of his playing on that tune that made me think of Mittoo. I didn't know anything at all about Leslie Butler, so didn't know he was a possible candidate for the keyboard player on the piece..

I have that tribute to Jackie Mittoo Vp release and will have to check out Harold's contribution to it, my favourite tune on there is the version of Drum Song, by a female pianist who's name escapes me right now.

[lankou2]

that must be Marjorie Whylie (spelling?), right ?
an outstanding music teacher well known on the JA jazz scene, she also teaches singing : Nadine Sutherland was one of her pupils, which says a lot , imho.
Yep, that's also my fave tune on that compilation which i should listen to more often.I got it on pre and tend to scatter those pres a little everywhere at home.That album was advertised much before it was releases but the hype died down very fast: too bad because it really deserves to go beyond the hype stage.
as for the Butlers, well, i reckon they come from uptown, which means they have been tutored.It is not always, far from it, a prerequisite to play reggae, but it possibly explains why they just didn't stick to that genre.

[bmd]

yes that's it, I love that cut because it's just 'classical' sounding enough without losing the vibe of the original.. I didn't know any of those ever came on a 7", thought it was pure cd release. it's worth having, I do return to it every now and then as it suits a particular musical mood quite well..

[lankou2]

in my 2004 top 5, easily!
i think it was an album concept, not a collection of 7"s.Never seen any on that format and doubt they exist.
i guess the label should have tried harder at reaching beyond the usual reggae audience.I don't think your average mainstream reggae fan would take notice of such album.
Souljazz know how to attract the outsiders,it is pretty obvious VP don't have a clue about it.

[ahorn]

Check out the track called Nature Boy on Lennie Hibbert's Creation album. Despite the misleading title you'll be surprised to find it's the same song based on It Was A Very Good Year (was it Kingston Trio who cut the original actually?).
What's Lennie Hibbert playing on this track?


Here's a nice recent photo of Myrna Hague & Marjorie Whylie:

[bmd]

ahorn said:

Check out the track called Nature Boy on Lennie Hibbert's Creation album. Despite the misleading title you'll be surprised to find it's the same song based on It Was A Very Good Year (was it Kingston Trio who cut the original actually?).
What's Lennie Hibbert playing on this track?


Here's a nice recent photo of Myrna Hague & Marjorie Whylie:

Yep... I KNEW I'd heard this somewhere else too! Thank Goodness someone else is on the ball!

Goodness knows what Lennie Is Playing on this, nothing as far as I can tell, perhaps it was just a filler for the Lp.. or the other credit is wrong and it's Mittoo, or even Lennie Hibbert on the organ.. who knows... phew..

Iankyou2, I think you're right, the problem with an issue like this one is that it falls between two camps,.. and being instrumental, and not Mittoo, finds all sorts of problems concerned with how you might choose to market it..

[bmd]

~Further to this revelation I have just looked at Rob Chapman's book where he has 'Nature Boy' credited firstly to Jackie Mittoo and then to Lennie Hibbert.

I listened to the tune and they are exactly the same tune. So... what gives?