Sly Dunbar - File

DRUMMER SLY Dunbar was a busy man in 1976. He was holding down the drummer's chair at the Channel One studio and also had a regular place in the Professionals, house band at the rival Joe Gibbs studio.

That summer, Dunbar played on two songs in the Festival Song Contest: Freddie McKay's Dance Dis Ya Festival and All Night Til Daylight by Jacob Miller. It went down to the wire with McKay's paean to the annual Independence show getting the nod.

Dunbar recalls both songs being recorded the same day. All Night Til Daylight, produced by the Inner Circle band, was cut first at Gibbs' studio, with bassist Robbie Shakespeare, guitarist Roger Lewis of Inner Circle and saxophonist Dean Fraser part of the session.

Something was missing

Miller's stuttering tale of 'Jenny and her sister from Manchester' was catchy, but, while the session was solid, Dunbar said something was missing.

"When wi finish a tell dem, 'if it nuh record a Channel One, it nah go win'," he recalled.

Later, Dunbar teamed with guitarist Rad Bryan and trumpeter Bobby Ellis on Dance Dis Ya Festival at Channel One, owned by the Hoo Kim brothers. The Maxfield Avenue studio had the best drum sound at the time, and Dunbar's military-type tapping was the backbone of its numerous hit songs.

Dunbar said he knew that patented beat would help McKay's song.

Juice up the drums

"I remember telling Jo Jo (Joseph Hoo Kim), 'juice up the drums'," Dunbar told The Gleaner. "When mi start play, the whole place ketch a fire."

Dance Dis Ya Festival did 'ketch fire' when the contest was decided. It turned out to be the Linstead-born McKay's biggest song since Picture on the Wall, which was done five years earlier at Studio One.

In the end, Dunbar said it was the drums that made the difference between the songs.

"I was confident Dance Dis Ya Festival would win, just from the opening," he said. "A good drum sound gives the record a certain feel, it's usually what makes people like a song."