CHAPTER 2:
THE WAILERS AT STUDIO ONE

Bob Marley and Neville O´Riley Livingstone better known as Bunny Wailer (born 10th April 1947) grew up together, later they met Winston Hubert MacKintosh, better known as Peter Tosh (born 19th October 1944, passed September 11th, 1987), who was a guitarist at that time, Franklin Delano Alexander Junior Braithwaite (born April 4th 1949, passed June 2nd 1999) and Beverly Kelso (born 2nd June 1947). These five are the founding members of The Wailers.

Junior Braithwaite left the group in September 1965.
Beverley Kelso left the band in late 1965.
While Bob Marley was in Delaware USA from February to August 1966, Constantine „Dream“ „Vison“ Walker (born 19th October 1951) replaced him.
Also Rita Anderson Marley became more and more a regular member of The Wailers.
Cherrie Green appears only at very few recordings as a member of The Wailers.
Another rare vocal support at some recordings comes from Clement Dodd and Joe Higgs. Clement Dodd (January 26th, 1934, passed in May, 4th, 2004) owned Jamaica´s first recording studio, Studio One. He produced, arranged, recorded, mixed and released all the earliest jamaican music. It is said that he changed the groups first name „The Teenagers“ to „The Wailing Wailers“ and then to „The Wailers“. After the return of Bob Marley the Wailers recorded two final songs at Studio One that were produced by The Wailers and released on their own new founded label Wail´M Soul´M.

From June 1964 until August 1965 „The Skatalites“ were the backing band of The Wailers. They are the créme de la créme of jamaican musicians. It can be said, they invented the ska. The veterans of those musicians started in the 40ies in Big Bands who played all the jazz classics of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and such. Tommy Mc Cook and Roland Alphonso were still stars since twenty years when they played with The Wailers. All of them later played as session musicians at all the famous reggae classic albums. In 1983 the surviving members re-united, and with some changes in the line-up are still on the road to play live around the world. The Skatalites:
Roland Alphonso on tenor sax (born 12th January 1931, passed 17th November 1998),
Tommy Mc Cook on tenor sax (born 1927, he had his first public appearance as member of the Eric Dean Orchestra in 1943, passed 5th May 1998),
Lester Sterling on alto sax,
Johnny Moore on trumpet (born 10/05 1938),
Don Drummond on trombone, (born 1943, passed 6th May 1969),
Jackie Mittoo on piano (born 3rd March 1948, passed 16th December 1990),
Lloyd Brevette on bass,
Lloyd Knibbs on drums,
Jerome Hines aka Jah Jerry on guitar,
supported from time to time by
Ernest Ranglin on guitar (born 19th June 1932),
Rico Rodriguez on trombone,
Arkland „Drumbago“ Parks on drums,
Leonard Dillon on trumpet (born 9th December 1942),
Cluett Johnson on bass.

After The Skatalites broke up, the same artists backed The Wailers as „The Soul Brothers“ from September 1965 until 1966. After Rolando Alphonso left the band, the remaining same artists played as „The Soul Vendors“.

Clement Dodd, Roland Alphonso and Jackie Mittoo arranged all the songs for „The Skatalites“ and „The Soul Brothers“. As producer Clement Dodd was able to add his name as co-writer or writer of many songs. Some of those writer-credits are for sure correct, some others would better give co-writer credit to Roland Alphonso or to Jackie Mittoo or sometimes to all of them. I decided to give credit to the arrangement of theses three artists at this place and reject to repeat this story continually, as I am not able to decide who did exactly what part of the arrangement process at which song. Considering how simple some Wailers songs are, compared to the high musical level of the horns men´s solos, the role of Roland Alphonso and Jackie Mittoo in line with the role of Clement Dodd can hardly be overstressed. These professional musicians since decades definitely are responsible for a good part of each song from the Wailers´s ska catalogue.

The contract between The Wailers and Clement Dodd provided a weekly salary for The Wailers. But these salaries were independant of the success of the records and also didn´t include extra payment for the selling of license to release their music in UK.

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