'Artist' against violence

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Leroy 'Artist' Brown earned his performance name in an unusual way, through attending Art School. That was in the pre-Edna Manley College days, when the school was on North Street in downtown Kingston. The former Hippy Boys lead singer migrated to Canada in 1971, where he says he was integral to the reggae scene centred around Toronto - and he has a slew of awards to show for it.

In Canada, Brown was involved in an anti-violence campaign, which started in 2009. Although the campaign is in Canada - and Brown has been back home for four years - the song What A Fire that was contributed to the CD for the campaign was about an event in Jamaica. Brown was heading to Cross Roads when he encountered the Orange Street Fire of the late 1970s, the immediate experience of hardly being able to see through the smoke recorded in the song.

"What made me sing something about the experience is how a fire could emerge beside the station and no one could put it out," he said.

Although the violence in Canada was not intensely politically charged as the era in which What a Fire is set, the song was fitting for the anti-violence programme. "There is violence everywhere and Canada is no exception ... . My role is whatever sales are generated for the music it will be contributed to the programme," he said.

There is another kind of fire that Brown would like to ignite - a creative spark in music. "I have done my years in North America and it is time for me to come home and share with the young people. I am singing so long, if I had been a lawyer I would be a judge," Brown said. Some of the younger performers Brown is working with are Empress Minott, Bang, Kenny B and Nardo.

He notes the difference between the Jamaican and Canadian music scenes.

"People eat, breathe and sleep music in Jamaica, especially reggae. You only hear reggae on radio in Canada late night and weekends," he said.

Difficulties

However, Jamaican radio has its difficulties.

"The hardest part of the game in Jamaica is radio," Brown said.

He said that he recently sent a recording to Portugal at 2 a.m. and later in the morning it was on the air. He got the same rapid response from Miami.

But "in Jamaica it is like pulling teeth. For us to bring the music back we need the radio people on our side. That is one of the biggest drawback, I see. It is very important to be played in Jamaica".

Plus, he said, "Jamaica is the Mecca", emphasising that the best engineers are here to create the optimum sound.

As a former Hippy Boys frontman, Brown is enthused with the number of new bands that have gained traction in Jamaica over the past five years.

"The only nice things about these bands is that we have equipment, we never had none," Brown said.

"They are more fortunate to have instruments than us. We could not afford any instruments."

He tells a story of borrowing a guitar from Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, for whom he did graphic work in the earlier stages of his entrepreneurship. The one guitar served several standout musicians well and Brown said he hopes to make a symbolic gesture of gratitude one day.

"One day me and Robbie and Family Man, we want to buy him a guitar and sign it," Brown said.