The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (347 page)

Byron Lee was ‘The Dragon’, an innovative artist, bandleader and producer who mentored the development of Jamaican music in the early 1960s. His highly cultured parents assisted Lee in his understanding of traditional West Indian music such as mento (a genre similar to calypso) and junkanoo (a celebratory style), and Lee applied this knowledge to the island’s newer sounds as he graduated from a homemade box-bass to an electric instrument while at convent school. In 1956, he founded the enormous, fourteen-piece modern calypso/soca unit The Dragonaires, the band named after his college soccer team (Lee had been a sufficiently gifted player to represent his country at international level). The group eventually made a name for itself through tireless touring. Recording with Edward Seaga’s WIRL label - which Lee was later to purchase - they landed a hit in 1959 with ‘Dumplings’. Lee and his group can also be seen performing in the bar scenes of 1962’s
Dr No.

His reputation soaring, Lee began producing emerging stars like Toots & The Maytals and Boris Gardiner and soon worked his way up the industry ladder, becoming Head of Distribution at Atlantic Jamaica. The musician was, for some years, the key organiser in Jamaican music: his Lee Enterprises Limited booking agency attracted many big names (The Drifters, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino) to Jamaican music halls, while his regular music events - culminating in the Jamaica Carnival - drew thousands of revellers. Similarly, Lee’s transformation of the Dynamic Sounds studio was enough to attract international acts like Eric Clapton and Paul Simon. The Rolling Stones recorded their US number one hit, ‘Angie’, there in 1973.

IDEAD INTERESTING!

ANTHRAX’S LATEST HIT?

A strange tale emerged from Hackney, London, at the start of November 2008-that of the UK’s first death from anthrax since 1986.

Admired Madrid-born folk musician Fernando Gomez was stricken with the disease-a lethal bacillus that multiplies upon ingestion-from African animal hides imported as skins for stretching over his bongo drums. It was quickly ascertained that the percussionist had been contaminated as he was treating the skins prior to their use. Although he had been medically treated at a Homerton hospital for almost two weeks, Gomez died on 2 November from internal bleeding, a direct result of the infection. The 35-year-old father of four-a member of the popular touring group Alasvals-had lived in Britain for some decades.

Somehow, Byron Lee simultaneously managed to maintain a full touring and recording schedule for The Dragonaires. Although criticised for a lack of innovation by some, the group recorded countless albums of standards well into the new millennium. It would be grossly unfair, however, to underestimate the importance of this man whose vision and toil unlocked doors for a wealth of Jamaican musical talent for some five decades. Lee - who was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Merit in 1982 - died in the country of his birth on 4 November 2008, after undergoing treatment for bladder cancer in Florida.

Golden Oldies #83

Jody Reynolds

(Ralph Joseph Reynolds - Denver, Colorado, 3 December 1932)

(The Storms)

Like Ray Peterson before him
(
Golden Oldies #23),
Jody Reynolds passed away with just one timeless death-disc to his credit. Born in Colorado but raised in Oklahoma, Reynolds was inspired by Western Swing artists like Eddy Arnold and sought to emulate that guitar style with his band, The Storms.

At first, rockabilly singer/songwriter Reynolds couldn’t get a break - until at just twenty-three years of age he hit upon a winning idea. ‘Endless Sleep’ -written under the pseudonym ‘Dolores Nance’ in one afternoon - prompted entrepreneur Herb Montei to back the boy, recording and releasing the tune two years later via Demon Records. The result was a million-selling smash that entered the Billboard Top Five. The song -a tale of an attempted suicide - prompted a sudden vogue for what became known as ‘splatter platters’. Many radio stations were hesitant to play a song dealing with this potentially taboo subject, but ‘Endless Sleep’ was to be covered by many in the years to come, including Hank Williams Jr and Billy Idol.

The song’s heroine was to survive her ordeal, but Reynolds found the going tough and was unable to find a follow-up hit. His next single, ‘Fire of Love’ (1958) was the only other recording to trouble the listings, peaking at sixty-six. Although The Storms continued to play regularly into the 1970s, Jody Reynolds quit the music business a few years later to sell real estate. The singer was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999 but could not prevent a downturn in his own health. On 7 November 2008, Jody Reynolds died in Palm Desert, California, from liver cancer.

Wednesday 12

Mitch Mitchell

(John Ronald Mitchell - Ealing, London, 9 July 1947)

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

(Various acts)

Just five years after the death of bass man Noel Redding
(
May 2003
) but almost forty since that of mercurial guitarist Jimi Hendrix
(
September 1970
), Mitch Mitchell passed on – and The Experience was just a memory.

Regarded as one of the finest drummers of his generation, John ‘Mitch’ Mitchell harnessed the rock trio’s energy with a fusion style that encompassed his background in jazz and R & B. It was a far cry from his early performances as a schoolboy in a TV adaptation of Anthony Buckeridge’s
Jennings
novels. Eschewing a possible career in acting for the drums, he joined up with Frankie Reid & The Casuals when he was still just fifteen years old. This gave way to spells with big name acts, among them Johnny Harris & The Shades, The Riot Squad (later to feature a young David Bowie), The Pretty Things and Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames. However, it was probably his brief stint with The Who – as prospective replacement for Doug Sandom – that in 1966 led to Mitchell’s position on the backline with The Jimi Hendrix Experience. He won the role over Aynsley Dunbar on the toss of a coin.

It proved to be the right choice. Mitch’s inspired playing underpinned and often directed the group’s recordings and live work over the next three years. The Experience pioneered the concept of the power trio, their basic rock ‘n’ roll made three-dimensional by the front man’s extraordinary and innovative use of feedback and sonic effect. The albums recorded by this triumvirate –
Are You Experienced?
(1967 – it sat just behind The Beatles’
Sgt Pepper
in the UK during a remarkable summer for rock music),
Axis: Bold As Love
(1968 – Top Five on both sides of the Atlantic) and
Electric Ladyland
(1969 – featuring Mitchell’s lead vocal on ‘Little Miss Strange’) – will be forever considered classics.

The group, however, seemed to disappear as fast as it had arrived. Hendrix fell out with both Redding and manager/producer Chas Chandler but remained close friends with Mitchell, inviting the drummer to join a new line-up for that infamous ‘crack-of-dawn’ Woodstock performance. Hendrix then called upon his friend to revive The Experience just before his death. Mitchell had also played sessions with Miles Davis and turned up in The Dirty Mac, the group specially created for The Rolling Stones’ 1968 TV special
Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus.

Hendrix’s passing hit Mitchell hard, and the drummer did his best to see that much of the star’s unreleased work was suitably prepared for posthumous release. This gesture wasn’t enough to cast Mitchell as anything more than an employee of Hendrix in the eyes of his estate lawyers; thus he and Redding saw little of any future royalties. Despite forming the group Ramatam with guitarist Mike Pinera (of Blues Image), further commercial success eluded Mitchell, though he maintained a profile via session work.

In October 2008, Mitchell joined the sprawling
Experience Hendrix Tour
for a series of tribute concerts traversing the USA. As the tour wound down, Mitchell was found dead in his room at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. His death was deemed due to natural causes, although the drummer had experienced problems with alcoholism for some decades. Mitchell – named among the best drummers of all time by
Rolling Stone
magazine – had planned to return to Britain that day. He was interred in Seattle, Washington.

See also
Chas Chandler (
July 1996)