By Lincoln Depradine
It was a rare moment. We are used to public recognition and awards for service in such honourable fields of endeavour as education, medicine, farming and sports.
But, very seldom, do we hear of an award for excellence in music. However, that’s what happened recently to James Clarkson; or, as King Ajamu calls him, “Clarkie’’. His young protégés in Republic Bank Angel Harps Steel Orchestra refer to him as “Coach’’.
And, many of Clarkson’s peers who grew up in a time when vintage combos were hired to play in fetes at places like The Den and Islander, call him “Wakax’’. His father, a boss musician himself, was also “Wakax’’ and led a popular combo by the same name.
A Legend Award was presented to James Clarkson at the recently held Naniki Caribbean Jazz Safari at Mt Cinnamon Garden. He joins two other music Legend Award recipients – Antiguan Winston Anthony Bailey and Trinidad-born, Barbados-based pianist, Ebe Gilkes.
The 69-year-old Clarkson was born 1944. Like me, he’s a Taurus.
Clarkson is a music phenom and a man of many talents.
He excelled as soccer player for Atoms in the Grenada Football Association championships, and also represented the country in the sport.
That was in the sports-crazy era of people like Alston “Heads’’ George, Oswald Clovey, Richard McIntyre, Major Jackson, Alister Telesford, Paul Roberts, Sampat, Big Dog, Pang-alang, Motel and Marquez, and the recently departed Johnny Steele, a former Grenada cricket captain. (Condolences to the Steele family. Sympathies, too, to the Hayling, St Bernard and Pysadee families).
At the end of Clarkson’s football-playing days, he turned to coaching and achieved success at many levels. He was one of my coaches as a Carenage United midfielder.
His early exposure to music opened doors for him, locally and overseas. This young test from Grenada enrolled in the shortlived West Indian Regiment that was based in Trinidad.
From 1961 to 1967, he lived in Trinidad and also joined that country’s Defence Force Band. Clarkson was not yet 18 and already was the band’s lead arranger and first trumpeter.
His career of studying and playing music has allowed him to travel to Africa, Europe, South America, the United States and Canada.
He was studying at McGill University in Montreal in 1969 when disturbances erupted at another tertiary institution – what was then Sir George Williams University.
A group of Caribbean students, including Rosie Douglas who later became Dominica’s Prime Minister, occupied the computer lab at Sir George Williams in protest.
The students were protesting what they claimed was the discriminatory behavior of a science professor, saying he was deliberately giving them lower grades when their assignments deserved higher marks.
The occupation ended when riot police raided the computer room. Fire broke out, computers were destroyed, and Douglas and 96 others – including Grenadian student Kennedy Frederick – were arrested and charged.
Clarkson was a witness to some of the events associated with the “Sir George Williams Computer Riot’’ in Montreal.
Sir George Williams has since been renamed Concordia University.
Clarkson’s background in music culture and law enforcement was brought to the Grenada public service, where he worked at the ministry level and as a member of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF).
He held various positions in the force, including music director the RGPF band. Clarkson retired a few years ago as Commissioner of Police.
Over all these year, and up to this day, one of his abiding passions is arranging music for Angel Harps, which in 2015 will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its establishment. A series of celebratory events is being planned for Harps’ golden jubilee in two years.
Clarkson has had many proud Angel Harps moments. The panorama victories, of course, are special: the songs, the arrangements, the outfits – including the red corduroy overall and black and white polka dot shirt that was worn when Harps performed “Dance of the Young Men’’ at panorama at Queen’s Park and won.
James Clarkson was there, too, when Angel Harps made history and released “Brighter Out Of Darkness,’’ Grenada’s first steelpan recording, in 1973.
And, Clarkson pioneered a move that brought Angel Harps and RGPF musicians together in a mixed music concert titled, “Steel and Brass’’. Pity no one recorded the concert. It’s not like today where videotapes are all over and everyone has a cellular phone that can capture audio and/or video.
My hope is that Clarkson’s award, and his illustrious music career, would inspire many young Grenadian boys and girls to also pursue music as a career. The nation is in dire need of more creative arts professionals such as musicians, dancers, actors and authors.
Arley Gill, the former Minister of Culture, has lamented that Calypso and Soca lag behind Reggae in making an international breakthrough, and in sustaining that position on the world music market.
He has argued that among factors hampering the development of Calypso and Soca are the approach of artistes in producing seasonal and not year-round music; the narrow, parochial lyrical content; and the inability to make music not just for listening but also for dancing for any race or culture.
Gill posits that the closest thing we have to international dance music is Groovy Soca that we hear from performers like Shortpree, Kerwin Dubois, Machel Montano and Edwin Yearwood.
However, while Calypso and Soca have some general problems, there is at least one that is specific to Grenada. Trinidad, still the mecca of Calypso and Soca, as well as Jamaica, both have a vast pool of good and excellent musicians and arrangers.
These musicians and arrangers could probably take “Mary Had a Little Lamb’’ and turn it into a monster hit.
With a first rate arranger like Frankie McIntosh or Pelham Goddard, a relatively mediocre song can certainly be transformed into a piece of work worth listening to and dancing to.
Our local artistes just don’t have the luxury of many Grenada-based, professionally trained musicians who would not only arrange and improve their music, but also offer advice on developing their craft.
Steelbands face similar challenges. When you review the champion bands in Grenada, Trinidad, Antigua, Toronto, New York, London or in any other place, their music is always arranged by individuals with a deep, and more than average, understanding of music – some with formal music training.
There is no shortcut to producing brilliant music, whether it’s pan, Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Zouk or RnB. You have to work at it; it’s a lifelong pursuit. Just ask James Clarkson, the 2013 Legend Award recipient.
Congratulations on your award Coach James “Clarkie’’ Clarkson, Mr Wakax.
This article first appeared in the Grenada publication, Caribupdate Weekly
