Gary Neita keeps audio-visual musical record

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

As manager of Creative Television at the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC), Gary Neita says "I oversee the daily operations of CPTC's cable channel. Our focus is arts, culture and entertainment."

He has a lot of material to work with, as Neita says "Jamaica is blessed with an abundance of all of these, as well as talented exponents. At CTV we try to capture, to record this talent. It's our mandate, and after all, no one else is consistently doing this for Jamaican television. It's important that people have an opportunity to see and hear themselves. It's also very important that we leave a visual legacy so that what happened to Ring Ding, for example, where just a handful of those shows remains, never happens again."

Although he has a distinct preference for music, Neita also produces, directs and presents "anything from live productions, discussion shows, children's programmes, entertainment, cuisine, sport programming and interviews".

He adds that "Television has been in my blood ever since Carey Robinson interviewed me at JBC (The Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation) back when I was still a kid in short pants. I walked into that studio, looked up at the lights and the cameras and that was it. Hooked for life."

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The music connection came even before the 'short pants', though. Neita, told The Gleaner "I grew up with music. My late father, Hartley Neita was a big jazz fan and two of my uncles, Lloyd and Clive Adams, were jazz musicians. Hartley always had jazz playing 'til late into the night. He also wrote a regular entertainment column as a young Gleaner reporter and so he knew all the nightclubs and bands and musicians. Live band music was the norm those days. He also published a jazz magazine with Sonny Bradshaw and Fred Wilmot."

Growing up with a father steeped in music meant hitting the road with him on occasion. Neita says "I remember sleeping in the car outside Silver Slipper Nightclub when some band was playing inside because he had to write a story for his column."

Then there were the personal experiences, Neita recalling "a jazz jam session at my uncle Lloyd's home when I was about six or so. Sonny Bradshaw, Foggy Mullings, some of the Skatalites were there, Aubrey Adams, Babe O'Brian, some Jamaican jazz greats whose names I don't remember - they just kept passing through that day."

And it also meant making all-important connections. Neita said "I got to meet some of those musicians through him and that's where I first developed my love for Jamaican music. Later on, I joined JIS (Jamaica Information Service) Radio and that was a big turning point for me. I hosted a 15-minute show that came on right in the middle of Barry G's programme. Barry was never happy that he had to break every afternoon for 'Government programming', but we had a who's who of the entertainers in that period, people like Triston Palma, Eek-a-Mouse, Yellowman, Dennis Brown, Black Uhuru, Inner Circle, Ruddy Thomas, Junior Reid and Ini Kamoze, bringing their music to us straight from the record press and I'd interview them."

He had a front-row seat on unforgettable Marley moments.

"I remember seeing Bob perform a cappella at Genesis Nightclub in Northside Plaza one night and vividly recall the gunfire the night they shot him at his home, because I lived across the road at Carriage House Apartments. We ran out and saw the car speed out and then them taking him up to the hospital later."

On the journalism side, Neita says "Covering Bob's funeral and the trip to Nine Miles in the press bus was an unforgettable experience."

Among the other memorable moments were interviewing Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso of the Skatalites, and directing Miss Lou and Charles Hyatt in a remake of Ring Ding Again in the studio on her last trip home.

Neita is currently working on the band performance series CTV Rocks and the Breakfast with Jamaica's Stars series.

Guests on the latter have included Tarrus Riley, Dr Jimmy Cliff and gospel DJ Papa San, while Blu Grass in the Sky, Dubtonic Kru and Chalice have performed on CTV Rocks.

He adds: "I've also done live and recorded productions like 'CTV Live', 'Jazz on the Green', 'Blues on the Green' and productions with people like Mickey Hanson, Seretse Small, Dr Kathy Brown, Carol Gonzales and Winston McAnufff."

Working in the CPTC's state-of-the-art Wycliffe Bennett studio makes a difference. Neita says "It's one of the largest studios here and it's available for just about any type of musical production you could want to do. A facility like this should be going non-stop with musicians transmitting their shows over our cable channel or streaming them live over the Internet."

While being in the studio is great, when The Gleaner asks Neita for a six-item wish list for Jamaican music, he has only one - and it is live. "Just one wish would do for me - that we can revive the days when you could stop at any one of 10 clubs on Red Hills Road and hear a different band playing in each one," Neita said.