Augustus Pablo
b. Horace Swaby
June 21, 1952 - St. Andrews, Jamaica
d. May 18, 1999 - Kingston, Jamaica
Raised in Kingston's middle-class Havendale district, the teenage Swaby was forced to leave Kingston College due to serious illness. Concentrating on music, he taught himself several instruments, including piano, organ, xylophone and clarinet. He was responsible for putting the humble melodica on the musical map, however, when one day in 1969, he walked into Herman Chin-Loy 's Aquarius Records shop clutching the instrument, and was taken to Randy's studio the following day to cut his first record, 'Iggy Iggy'. His next release for the same producer (who gave him the Augustus Pablo stage name) was the prototype 'Far East' sound of 'East Of The River Nile'. Moving from Chin-Loy to Clive Chin as his new producer at Randy's, the next single, 1972's 'Java', proved to be Pablo's biggest, and one of his most influential. Chin also worked on the classic instrumental set This Is Augustus Pablo, on which Pablo played a number of lead keyboard instruments. He worked with other producers at this time, cutting 'Lovers Mood' for Leonard Chin, 'Hot And Cold' with Lee Perry, and others for Gussie Clarke, Keith Hudson and Bunny Lee.
Dissatisfied with the financial and artistic arrangements with the producers, Pablo set up his own label named Rockers, after the sound system he and his brother had been operating since the late 60s. His first releases were a mixture of new versions of old Studio One rhythms - 'Skanking Easy' (from 'Swing Easy') and 'Frozen Dub' (from 'Frozen Soul'), plus original compositions 'Cassava Piece', '555 Crown Street' and 'Pablo's Theme Song'. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, released in 1976, is regarded by many as one of the finest dub albums of all time. It contained dubwise versions of most of Pablo's productions, mixed by the legendary independent studio engineer King Tubby. Other artists later benefited from Pablo's skills as a producer, notably Jacob Miller, Hugh Mundell and Tetrack. Pablo was also in demand as a session musician and played on countless recordings throughout the 70s. East Of The River Nile in 1978 remains his most compelling instrumental set after This Is Augustus Pablo. On this release, Pablo and his Rockers All Stars band, featuring guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith, created vast landscapes of rhythmic sound awash with Pablo's string synthesizer and melodica. The sound bore the unmistakable production stamp of Lee Perry's Black Ark studios.
The early 80s saw Pablo floundering somewhat in the early throes of the dancehall revolution, though he later rallied with his production of Junior Delgado 's 'Raggamuffin Year' single and album in 1986. He subsequently released a number of recordings with varying degrees of artistic success, both of his own music and that of artists such as Yammie Bolo, Icho Candy, Delroy Williams, Norris Reid and Blacka T. Ironically, he managed to adapt to the new computerized technology, which many of his fans blamed for what they saw as the decline in musicianship in reggae music in the 80s and 90s. A withdrawn slip of a man, often in ill health, Pablo's music, at its best, reflected a humility and inner peace. Although most critics agreed his influential and commercially successful period was over by the end of the 70s, his 1990 instrumental set Blowing With The Wind was his best since East Of The River Nile, and belied criticisms of artistic demise. Beset by health problems for most of his life, Pablo was only 46 when he died of a nerve disorder in May 1999. |
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