Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Craig Graham (left) joins his father Colby as they take the vintage message to radio. - Contributed

At the recent launch of the downtown Kingston Reggae Music Heritage tour, Colby Graham projected a sizeable chunk of Jamaica's music history in black and white on a wall of the Kaieteure Restaurant, Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.

The black and white panorama of real entertainment life, dating from the early to the middle decades of the last century of the last millennium, did not move, even on reel to jerky reel, but was a silent succession of still though vibrant life in photographs that spoke volumes about the early days of what became the Jamaican music industry.

Early days, of course, before Graham was born, the photographs being a part of his research for the Vintage Boss magazine he has been working on since 2003.

Many of those pictures came from the extensive archives at 7 North Street, Kingston. "The Gleaner Company photo archives is the greatest and most significant in this part of the hemisphere, based on what it represents. Seeing that we did not have video, this institution represents that in terms of still photographs,"Graham said.

In his research, the former Holmwood High student has dug up not only pictures of sometimes forgotten entertainers, but also public figures whose dabbling in entertainment has been forgotten. "I found a picture of (broadcaster) Allan Magnus running second in the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour. Winston Chung-Fah (football coach) was a winner," Graham said.

"It is very important that these pictures are now available. Even after we got television, a lot of stuff got lost," he pointed out.

Special issues

As engaging as the pictures are on display, they were not intended to stand alone, but the monthly copies of Vintage Boss that Graham has made from May 2002 remain in their pasted, mock-up format. Added to the 50 monthly issues are 12 special issues and now eight documentaries on DVD, all about Jamaica's early music history.

"The magazine was born out of a love for what I call vintage stuff. I grew up hearing some of the greatest music and I still hear them today. They have stood the test of time," Graham said.

An avid record collector since his days at Holmwood, where he bought records before he had something to play them on, after he left school Graham started "meeting foreigners coming here for records."

"It dawned on me that they were asking me for graphics, as to how this thing started. I got into research in 2001. The Gleaner was my first stop, then the Jamaica Information Service , National Library, private collections," Graham said.

It has been unpaid but not unrewarding labour, Graham saying "what I am doing I view as a national project, in the national interest. I have seen foreigners come here, skimming off the top, packaging it and selling it back to us".

"What I am doing I see as a bold step in documenting our cultural history from our perspective. We have not done it and we have great minds that can come together and document our music. But not from the '50s. People tend to start with Coxsone and end with Bob Marley," Graham said.

Perusing the '60s

So far hehas been through the 1920s and all the following decades up to the '60s, which he is now perusing. "People are telling me what happened, and here I am finding the graphics to go with it," Graham said.

So he has heard about the first set of farmworkers going abroad and bringing back records in 1942, as well as ship crew members finding a way to bring records to Jamaica in exchange for "sex, money and rum".

But while the magazine issues remain unpublished for want of funds, time is passing by and, with it, many of the persons whose graphic stories he has told. "The people are dying. Some died without seeing their stories," Graham said, naming Neville Willoughby, Clancy Eccles, Jennifer Lara, Brent Dowe, Ruddy Thomas and sound system pioneer Lord Koo among the departed.

"There needs to be a funding agency that can fund what I am doing, whether it is a donation or a low interest loan," Colby Graham said.