4 April 2020. Alpha Boys School.
There's much lore about this, the Mutt and Jeff Sound System. Constructed at Alpha Boys School, in the workshop, and run by two of the students. One on the short side, the other quite tall--hence the name, which should probably be the title here, but I didn't want to emphasize the humor. A colonial inheritance--American comics, just like American popular music--the broadcasts of Fats Domino records from New Orleans, or Little Richard--which were taken up immediately--how not--but in the same moment, given that unexpected ska upbeat, lively, insistent, running through the whole song--so that every new version became Jamaica's own.
No one had record players, of course--the island was much too poor--but these over-sized speakers could be constructed, discard materials, from scratch, booming out each new recording at their hotspots all around West Kingston. I remember listening to an interview, years later, with one of the reggae musicians--a British production, of course--and he talked about being boy then, the excitement, not being able to sleep for the sound all around, in the distance, the music coming out of the night...
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Sister Ignatius supervised, of course. She's a legend in this regard. Recognized that the music itself was an education, a path to freedom...
