The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: Music royalties warning at UWI

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

( L - R ) Sajoya Alcott, Ibo Cooper- file

Musician and lecturer Michael 'Ibo' Cooper noted on Tuesday at the University of the West Indies (UWI) that in Latin 'reggae' means 'of the King'.

However, the royal matters that concerned some of the panellists at the International Reggae Day Symposium were those of the directly financial kind.

The event at the UWI's Undercroft was hosted by Dr. Michael Barnett from the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, with Professor Carolyn Cooper of the Reggae Studies Unit, which hosted the discussion entitled 'Celebrating 40 Years of Reggae Music: Mapping the Evolution of the Genre', greeting all.

The panellists were Herbie Miller, Dennis Howard, Julian (Jingles) Reynolds, Rocky Gibbs, Ibo Cooper and Sajoya Alcott.

Howard pointed out that Jamaica has had a copyright act since about 1930, but some producers who were familiar with the legislation kept it to themselves and used the knowledge against the performers, while some performers told the producers that they wanted money now.

A lot of exploitation

"There is a lot of exploitation, but there is also a lot of disinterest. I call it a non-economic motivation for making music. People were more interested in being stars and making money right here, right now," he said.

And Rocky Gibbs, son of producer Joe Gibbs, said that although Uptown Top Ranking was a huge hit, "no one has collected royalties as yet," putting that down to a lack of interest on the part of the people involved. "That money is just there being accrued," he said.

He pointed out that the performer of It's A Friday Evening was one of those not interested in royalties.

Musician and lecturer Ibo Cooper had a message for the "black-hair artiste". "Eventually, you get white hair. If you get to this point, you should be earning off what you did when you had black hair. I know a lot of white hair artistes who bruck, or dead, or mash up. Defen' it so it can defen' you," he advised.

Protect your property

And Sajoya said, "My advice to the creators: protect your intellectual property. Copyright is a property right - It translates into wealth." She said of the earlier performers "perhaps the most prudent was Bob Marley. Even though he did not leave a will, he set his business right in his lifetime and founded Tuff Gong".

There was expansion on the acknowledgement of Toots Hibbert's Do the Reggay in 1968 as the first song to mention the genre by name. "We would be remiss if we excluded other songs in the same year that had a major impact on the genre shifting," Howard, who is a publicist and producer, among his many music interests, said. "I want to make note of a song named Nanny Goat, done by Larry Marshall and Baby Why by The Cables."

Julian 'Jingles' Reynolds, former reporter at The Gleaner, added Israelites (Desmond Dekker and the Aces), Reggae (Tommy McCook and the Supersonics), Feel the Rhythm (Clancy Eccles) and Love Me Forever (Carlton and the Shoes).

Hard learning

It was not only in terms of royalties that the business of music came up as Miller, who managed Peter Tosh in the early days of his solo career, said he learnt the business on the road, as there were no Jamaican managers in Jamaica he could turn to for advice.

Don Taylor, the only other Jamaican artiste manager, was based in the USA. Fortunately, Tosh was signed to Columbia Records and they had a training programme for artiste managers.

"One of the things I always did with my comings and goings was to talk to other managers, not only about successes but failures - failures to make the right deal, working with promoters who rip you off.

"Those are the things we have to tell those who come after us, so that they don't make the same mistakes," Miller said.