Saxophonist goes with the melodies - Former Inner Circle member makes solo debut

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Alto saxophonist Douglas Gurthrie took the approach of one of his musical idols, King Curtis, in making his debut solo album, Dougie Guthrie: Melody Maker. "His interpretation was so great. I live by it," Guthrie said.

So Guthrie went for the feel of the songs, saying that he did not focus on doing "a lot of technical stuff".

Bob Marley features heavily among the 14 tracks, including I Shot the Sheriff, Is This Love and No Woman No Cry. He also takes on Lorna Bennett's Breakfast in Bed and Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly.

However, there are also the originals Hope and Mercy, Love and Peace and Isle of Love, and Guthrie said in composing those, he went back to his musical roots.

"Some of the original songs I played I think of Roland (Alphanso) and Tommy (McCook), how they think," Guthrie said.

"Lennie Hibbert (teacher at Alpha) would tell us 'the part is coming, think'."

Though he has lived in the United States for several years and at one point was the sole black person in the band The Nails, Guthrie is still grounded in Jamaica.

It was thinking about a solo part that gave him access to further musical training at the then Jamaica School of Music (now part of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts) and, eventually, membership in a number of bands - including Inner Circle.

"I went to Alpha and I was playing clarinet. The people from Alpha invited persons from the School of Music to see an audition. Lennie Hibbert had me playing clarinet and I stood up to take a solo in a kind of classical piece. It somehow drew their attention and I sort of got a scholarship to learn the clarinet and do some classical music," Guthrie said.

He was 12 years old.

After leaving Alpha, Guthrie says, adjusting to life outside the structure and support of the school was difficult, and, he said, "I was shell-shocked". However, he ended up on fertile musical ground, living across the street from Delroy Wilson in Trench Town.

The switch to the saxophone came by chance, as, one day, while walking in Cross Roads, Guthrie heard a band playing and followed the music. He recognised a few of the musicians, and drummer Trevor 'Sparrow' Thompson invited him to join as a saxophonist. "It is a very easy transition," Guthrie said.

"The fingering on the clarinet and the saxophone is the same from middle C up. It is easier, too, because the upper register fingering is the same as the lower on the saxophone."

So he found himself in the Mighty Mystic Band, which was asked to play on an Independence float, with Desmond Dekker and the Aces and Toots and the Maytals. He and Martin were also in The Virtues, but the horn section was cut one day.

And so Guthrie wound up as an original member of Inner Circle Band, after being told about the emerging unit by drummer Willie Stewart.

"We went to Belize, we were doing good. It was good to be playing regularly," he said. One of the high points was being featured as a solo artiste on a concert with Stevie Wonder, who later told Guthrie that after hearing him play Bridge Over Troubled Water he decided to cut the song from his set.

Migrated to US

Guthrie's stint in Inner Circle ended in 1972 and he relocated to the United States, again teaming up with Martin, this time in the Merging Traffic band. Then he saw an advertisement in a newspaper, that a punk-rock group was looking for a saxophonist who has the ska influence.

"I said 'yes!'," Guthrie said. "I went to the audition. They claimed I blew them away."

And he became a member of The Nails, which was eventually signed to RCA and did the albums Mood Swing and Dangerous Dreams, as well as a 'best of' compilation.

While The Nails were touring the United States, Guthrie said he would occasionally encounter Inner Circle.

He said The Nails were slated to tour with The Eurhythmics but BMG acquired RCA's punkrock section. However, BMG started moving away from punk-rock as it became more aggressive in the mode of groups like the Sex Pistols and, Guthrie said, The Nails' lead singer started to pick up the attitudes.

Guthrie eventually moved on to The Motives band a bit past 2000 and says "we toured California for two, three years. After The Motives I retired. I decided that was it. I put myself in the job as a printer".

But then, through a chance meeting on a train, Guthrie was prompted to start playing again, starting to work on his solo album Dougie Guthrie: Melody Maker, about two years ago, working at American producer Mark Brown's studio.

And he decided on his approach to the tracks early.

"Everybody wanted to follow somebody. I said why somebody don't do something from the heart, something memorable?" Guthrie asked.