| Brent Dowe remembered as a peaceful man |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
Dowe died suddenly of an apparent heart attack. |
|
|
Tony Brevett and Trevor McNaughton of the Melodians remember their late lead singer, Brent Dowe, whose thanksgiving service will take place today (Sunday 12) at the Oakton Park Complex in Half Way Tree, as a man who likes happiness.
"He was just a man, he enjoyed music, women and having a good time... not only for himself, but for everyone around him", recalled Brevett.
"I remember Brent as a peaceful, loving person. Its four decades now since the Melodians have been together, so you know that hurt, that pain that I feel inside for Brent Dowe, that sweet natural going person who loved everyone and like to have a good time," McNaughton said.
The 59-year-old Brent Dowe died suddenly in hospital of a heart attack in the wee hours of Sunday, January 29. Dowe along with Brevett, McNaughton, Brimwell Brown and Robert Cogle comprised one of reggae's finest vocal quintets in the mid-1960s known as the Melodians.
Starting out at Studio One with a song titled Lay It On, the slick-sounding harmonisers later changed stable to the Duke Reid's Treasure Isle label where, in the late 1960s, they recorded a series of local hits.
With the departure of Cogle and Brown, the smooth, precise harmonies of Dowe, Brevett and McNaughton showcased to near-perfection time-honoured songs for different producers, including Sonia Pottinger.
Their hits included Little Nut Tree, Swing and Dine, You've Caught Me Baby, (on which Brevett does the lead) as well as their signature tune Rivers of Babylon (the title of their first album) and Sweet Sensation led by Dowe.
The group Boney M, scored a million seller with Rivers of Babylon from which the members of the Melodians are still earning royalties.
"I man know Brent from I was 14-years-old and Brent was about 17," Brevett told the Sunday Observer. "From I introduced Trevor to Brent Dowe around 1964 down Salt Lane where nuff artistes and Rastaman used to come around ... and most of our songs dem mek underneath the big Gungo tree," he reminisced.
"In those days I met Tony Brevett, I used to hear that him can sing by his ex-father-in-law... then Tony told me about Brent Dowe... and that was the starting of Melodians," recalled Trevor McNaughton who hails from the former 'Back-O-Wall', now Tivoli Gardens.
"The work has to go on, it not going to end although one gone because we live closer than even wi own brother and sister." Brevett said about the Melodians who recently finished a tour in California. The group is getting ready to go on tour of the East and West Coasts of the US starting March 9.
He has now gone to sing with his fellow colleagues Clancy Eccles, Justin Hinds and Jennifer Lara who departed in 2005. |
|
|
Posted by: Hacki
|
| LINK:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/html/20060211... |
|
|
|
You take beat-box, a guitar, a accordion, rap and voices put all this in a mixer and you get Air'Box. A trio from different horizons but the vibes! 
Jacka Youth and the 
The Swiss group 
New album 
From church choir as 6 year old Stefano Raschi to the today 
