Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

A bronze bust of record producer Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd is unveiled at Studio One on Saturday. The bust was done by Jamaican Kay Sullivan. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Before sculptress Kay Sullivan's bronze bust of record producer Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd was unveiled at Studio One on Saturday afternoon, The CHASE Fund's CEO Billy Heaven put its position in perspective.

He told those gathered on the grounds of the recording facility after which Studio One Boulevard was named that the tree the bust was under is the very one that Dodd would sit under to plan his next move.

The legend of flesh passed away now recreated in metal that was eventually unveiled when the white cloth over it was removed to a few persons in the audience chanting "pull, pull, pull" did show Dodd in a somewhat contemplative mood. And Bunny Goodison of the Studio One Foundation spoke of the many trips he and Sir Coxsone's widow Norma had made to Sullivan to ensure that the bust was a correct representation.

Unveiled

Norma Dodd unveiled the bust, along with the afternoon's guest speaker, Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, and Member of Parliament for South St Andrew Dr Omar Davies.

Heaven said the bust had been commissioned at a cost of $1m in 2007, crediting Davies as being at the forefront of the move to further immortalise a man who had a hand in creating immortal music.

Davies further pointed out that he had been the minister responsible for establishing the CHASE Fund. In bringing greetings as MP for the area, he said that the Jamaica athletes' performance in Beijing had been a good example of the richness of Jamaica's human resources. However, "a far more consistent example has been the performance of our artistes, especially our musicians, and the music produced at this studio has a permanent place in our history".

It is a sign

And Grange pointed out that "this music industry has never had the pleasure or the luck of being funded by anyone". She pointed out that Roy Shirley passed away in July, Dizzy Moore in August and Alton Ellis in October. "It is a sign that we are at the end of an era and the beginning of a new one," Grange said.

And she addressed the corrosive effects of twin threats to the music industry, saying "we will all have to work towards eliminating payola and curtailing piracy".

Sir Coxsone's daughter, Carol, gave thanks all around and Bunny Goodison had probably the definitive word on what Dodd would probably think about a metal bust of him being made.

"He was not a vain person. Proud, but not vain. He was aware of what he had achieved, and he knew that he had produced something imperishable that generations to come would cherish," Goodison said.