A band on a mission

Rosemarie Chung Voordouw, Contributor

Kempton Lewis remembers the day he entered Alpha Boy's School. It was Sunday, June 25, 1995. He has a very good reason for remembering that date.

"We got macaroni and mince for dinner," he recalled. "It was my first proper meal in years. I used to scrounge on the streets to find some meat."

Lewis, now a young adult, was almost six years old at the time, and after a tortuous journey which began with the police picking him off the streets, a stint in a Place of Safety and visits to Family Court, he ended up at Alpha.

"My first thought was how to get from behind the fence," he said, laughing. "But then I settled down and saw that there was another way to live."

Lewis still doesn't know any of his family members despite a relentless search to meet them. "Right now my family is Alpha and my horn."

No bitterness

But there is no bitterness behind these words. Lewis is a man on a mission, burning with passion to give back to Alpha and the wider Jamaican community. He spent his formative years at Alpha and, during that time, became a certified printer, as well as an accomplished saxophonist and trumpeter. As a soloist, he has shared a stage with some of Jamaica's biggest names - Peter Ashbourne, Sonny Bradshaw, Dean Fraser and Dwight Richards. Today he is a civil servant, founder and leader of the Omega Element Band, comprising two other Alpha alumni, Ian Glaves and Andre Palmer, and friends Steve Lamey, Jovan Newman, Oliver Gordon, Rojay Wright and Odane Stephens.

"Our mission is to bring back live music to Jamaica. Clean, live music at parties," he explained.

"I owe my dreams and aspirations to Alpha."

The idea for the concert, 'Let's do it for the Alpha Boys', to be held on May 21 at the National Indoor Sports Centre, was born when Lewis made a request to popular dancehall artist Beenie Man for help with fund-raising. This coincided with the Rotary Club of Kingston's plan to raise funds to improve conditions at the school.

"Originally, we wanted to buy band equipment, but when he said 'yes' we decided to give the money to Alpha instead."

He isn't worried about finding the money for the equipment. He has already started to identify corporate sponsorship. In fact, obstacles are no big deal to this 'Alpharian'. When he realised how difficult it was to join a band after leaving Alpha, he simply formed his own. Needing money for instruments, he contacted a Digicel Foundation executive he saw on TV and initiated a funding relationship which continues today.

Started in 2009, Omega Element's many credits include morning television, the Jazz and Blues Festival and the Dennis Brown Memorial. The band focuses on conscious music and was the first to stage a fund-raising concert for Haiti, only three days after the 2010 earthquake. Now they are working on another goal.

"We plan to set up a centre where kids who don't have the privilege of going to Alpha can come in the evenings and weekends and learn an instrument for free, and get a snack and bus fare to go home. Some of the guys on the street wiping windscreens, can you imagine if they get an opportunity like this?"

Band members already teach music free of cost to persons at two churches, but the vision goes beyond Jamaica's shores.

"I see us touring other countries, helping schools and teaching Jamaican music. Life is a gift from God. What you do with it is your gift back to God."

'Let's do it for the Alpha Boys' takes place on Saturday, May 21 at 8 p.m. at the National Indoor Sports Centre. The event aims to raise $15 million for the Alpha Boys' School and is a collaborative effort of MD Entertainment LLC, Kempton Lewis and the Rotary Club of Kingston. The concert will feature Beenie Man, Kymani Marley, Alpha Boys alumni and some of Jamaica's most outstanding artistes.