In a world increasingly dominated by volume, bravado and speed both Baker &
Pablo knew that languid tenderness could find also affect the heart in a
big way...
AUGUSTUS PABLO, 46, Musician; Helped Shape Reggae's Sound
by JON PARELES
NYTimes: May 20, 1999: Augustus Pablo, a widely influential reggae
producer, died on Tuesday at University Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. He
was 46 and lived in the hills outside Kingston. The cause was myasthenia
gravis, a nerve disorder, said his brother, Garth Swaby.
Pablo, whose original name was Horace Swaby, was known for what he called
the "Far East sound": haunting, minor-key tunes with sparse lines for
melodica (a harmonica with a keyboard) floating above deep bass lines and
echoing keyboards. He was an architect of dub reggae, music in which deep
bass lines and dizzying echo effects envelop a few shards of melody.
Born in Kingston in 1953, he became a Rastafarian while still a teen-ager;
he also taught himself to play piano. Bob Marley brought him into the
studio to play keyboards on early Wailers recordings, and he began working
regularly as a session musician in the late 1960s. He joined the house band
at Randy's Studio, a leading Kingston studio.
A friend introduced him to the melodica, and he took it into the studio
when he had his first recording sessions as a leader in 1969 with the
producer Herman Chin-Loy. His first single, "Iggy Iggy," was credited to
Augustus Pablo, a name Chin-Loy used for instrumentals. When Adams moved to
the United States in 1971, he left the Pablo name to Swaby.
With his next single, "East of the River Nile," Swaby as Augustus Pablo
inaugurated the Far East sound, and he followed it with his first major
Jamaican hit, "Java," in 1972. While making solo recordings, often
reworkings of past and present hits, he was also in demand as a studio
musician, and he worked for a dozen leading Jamaican producers in the early
'70s. In 1972 he started running his own labels, including Hot Stuff,
Rockers International, Yard and Message. Pablo produced recordings for
singers, notably Junior Delgado, Jacob Miller and Hugh Mundell, and he
released instrumentals under his own name.
Those instrumentals are cornerstones of modern dub reggae, particularly
those he recorded in the mid-70s, including the albums "King Tubby Meets
Rockers Uptown" (a 1976 album of Pablo instrumentals remixed by the
engineer and producer King Tubby) and "East of the River Nile" from 1978.
Pablo rarely toured; his milieu was the recording studio. He had hits in
Jamaica as Junior Delgado's producer in the mid-80s, and he continued
releasing his own instrumental recordings well into 90s, adding digital
technology to his older style.
CHET BAKER: Born in Oklahoma 12.23.29 and died in Amsterdam 5.13.88. Began
playing trumpet at young age. Played trumpet in the Army in Berlin. Meets
Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon in 1952. Plays for a while with
Parker then joins Gerry Mulligan. Drug problems led to a falling out. Baker
had by then developed his distinctive style of graceful tension-inside-cool
(the calm before the storm) type of playing. After several drug arrests he
is committed to a psychiatric hospital. In 1959 he moved to Europe where
laws governing personal behavior were less severe. He continues his drug
use. He does time in an Italian jail. In a gig brawl in San Francisco he
loses all his teeth. Dizzy Gillespie persuades him to get dentures. He was
unable to play and supported himself by pumping gas. He recovers his
playing, his vision, continues his vagabonding/touring in Europe. On May
13, 1988 he falls to his death from an Amsterdam hotel window. It remains a
mystery - suicide, murder or accident. He was one of only a few jazzmen who
could both sing and play. May 13, 1999 plaques were dedicated at hotel site
of Bakers death and memorial concerts were held in his honor in
Amsterdam...